Natural Laws are Effective Descriptions of How the Universe Works, While the Bible Is Not
Kevin R. Henke
November 15, 2022
The title of Henke (2022fz) is: “Natural Laws as Effective Descriptions of Reality.” In Henke (2022fz), I clearly stated that physicists’ current understanding of our Universe is incomplete, but they have derived natural laws to describe how the Universe consistently functions.
Mr. Lundahl then misreads the title of Henke (2022fz) and states in Lundahl (2022w):
“To the title: is Mr. Henke thinking so magically as to pretend that laws written down on a paper and descriptions given in words have any effect on reality?”
No! Of course not! I Never Said That. Mr. Lundahl actually needs to read and understand what I write instead of making up strawman fallacies. Natural laws do not dictate reality, they describe reality as I stated in both the title and text of Henke (2022fz) and my links. After scientists discovered that Einstein’s Theories of Relativity were correct, they had to modify Newton’s laws to comply with reality. That is, the wording of the laws may change to better describe reality. In contrast, it’s Mr. Lundahl that has the magical thinking when he pretends that the laws and other statements written down by “Moses” have any role in describing reality.
In Henke (2022fz), I also stated:
“Yet, they [physicists] see Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation and other laws of physics not only being effective explanations on Earth, but also working in distant galaxies within our Universe.”
Mr. Lundahl in Lundahl (2022w) then responds to my observation with this groundless and incomplete statement ending in “by…”:
“That could be eisegesis. Movements that in reality are made by angels or by God are on my view misinterpreted as being done exclusively by”
Mr. Lundahl, where’s your evidence that angels or God even exist and that they move extraterrestrial objects? The laws of physics are so good in describing the behaviors of these objects that astrophysicists are capable of not only explaining how and why planets and other extraterrestrial objects move, but they also can readily predict where they will be in the upcoming months and years.
Lundahl (2022w) continues:
“But supposing that cosmology were true (taking it as starting point of the argument, not granting it per se outside the following) - then there would be a lack of explanation why galaxies could still keep together. That precise understanding of the universe is how non-Geocentric YEC are arguing against the universe being billions of years.”
Gravity keeps galaxies together for billions of years and many astronomers think that dark matter is involved in the process. Scientists are developing technologies and methodologies to possibly detect and confirm if dark matter exists. We’ll see if they’re right. Meanwhile, angels or other untestable imaginary creatures are not needed to explain why galaxies stay together.
Many young-Universe creationists (YUCs) dismiss the proposed existence of dark matter. However, YUC and Ph.D. astronomer Danny Faulkner disagrees with them and argues that there are good reasons to think that dark matter is real (Faulkner 2017, p. 247). Again, we’ll see if dark matter is eventually detected.
Reference:
Faulkner, D.R. 2017. The Expanse of Heaven: Where Creation & Astronomy Intersect: Master Books: Green Forest, Arkansas, USA, 350pp.