by John Holbrook Jr.
A Biblical View, Blog #102 posted August 19, 2019, edited March 10, 2021.
I have presented the following in the form of a personal narrative in order to make clear the development of my thinking.
Preamble
As an undergraduate at Yale college (1955-59), I studied physics under Horace Dwight Taft, who would later become a professor of physics and Dean of Yale College. He used a textbook by three senior professors of physics on the Yale faculty.[1]
In Chapter 6 – Force and Acceleration; Dynamics, we were introduced to Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion,[2] which he developed in the 1680s. His formula, which describes the gravitational attraction between two bodies, is: F = (-1) x G x m1m2/r2, where F is the force of attraction, G is the gravitational constant, m1 and m2 are the masses of the two bodies, and r is the distance between them.
In Chapter 24 – Electric Charges and Coulomb’s Law, we were introduced to Charles-Augustin de Coulomb’s work on electrical attraction and repulsion. His formula, which describes the electrical repulsion between two like charges, is F = (1) x k x q1q2/r2, where F is the force of repulsion, k = the electrostatic constant, q1 and q2 are the amounts of the two charges, and r is the distance between them.
I remember becoming intrigued by the surprising similarity between the two formulas above, to which the authors drew our attention.[3] The only differences between Newton’s formula for gravitational attraction and Coulomb’s formula for electric repulsion appears to be the multiplier (-1 or 1) and their respective constants (G or k).
In later chapters, we were introduced to James Clark Maxwell’s four equations on electromagnetic fields, which he developed in the 1870s. They demonstrated that electric and magnetic fields travel through space as waves moving at the speed of light. To transmit these waves, he postulated the existence of an all-pervading medium, which he called the aether (now ether). The authors of my college textbook commented on the difficulties associated with this theory and then said, “We now know that light is an electromagnetic disturbance, the transmission of which is a property of empty space. There is no ether.”
I left college physics with the distinct feeling that interstellar space presented science with an important puzzle that was far from being solved.
ALFRED KORZYBSKI
In the summer of 1958, a friend recommended a book to me, Science and Sanity[4] by Alfred Korzybski. I read it, another book by Korzybski entitled Manhood of Humanity,[5] and a few more books by some of his followers.[6] Sufficiently intrigued by General Semantics, I took a week-long seminar at the end of the year at the Institute of General Semantics, which Korzybski had founded in Lakeville, CT.
General Semantics devotes a great deal of attention to the way we use words, stressing the need for non-verbal referents for the names and nouns which we use and for distinguishing between the verbal maps which we draw and the non-verbal geography which we purport to describe with those maps. Of course, one of the things I began to think about was interstellar space and Maxwell’s aether, which he had regarded as a necessity, but which the authors of my physics textbook had dismissed as non-existent.
First, if the word “nothing” has no objective referent by definition, then it indicates the absence of “anything,” not the presence of “something.” Like “zero,” “nothing” is a useful concept when we are using numbers. For instance, when we count the number of children in a school classroom, we might find there that are twelve, to each of whom we could assign one of the following numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, & 12 (0 appears once in this series, in the number 10, but it only serves as a place holder to indicate a shift to the next order of magnitude, the series of numbers beginning with 1). We might also notice that there are twelve boys, but zero girls in the class (here 0 indicates the absence of a girl, not the presence of “something”). There are no girls here to act or be acted on.
Similarly, if space is empty – i.e. it contains “nothing” – there is nothing there to which we can ascribe the property of being able to transmit electromagnetic waves.[7]
Second, if there is “nothing” between the sun and the earth, they should be touching, in which case the heat of the sun would melt the earth within minutes. Something lies between them. Moreover, there are almost 93 million miles of that something, and light traveling at 186,220 miles/sec. requires roughly 8.33 minutes to pass through it. It cannot be an insignificant factor in Universe.
Third, if space must be “something,” the word “something” needs an objective referent. It always refers to the presence of matter of some kind. The above says something important about Universe. Universe never contains nothingness or emptiness. It is always and everywhere full of something – i.e. space must contain some form of matter.[8] For the time being, I was left with the question,” Just what kind of matter?”, because it obviously wasn’t a gas, a liquid, or a solid.
IMMANUEL VELIKOVSKY
In 1959, I graduated from Yale College and then entered the U.S. Marine Corps, where I served for three years as an infantry officer. In 1962, I returned to New Haven to attend graduate school in the Art and Architecture School. Late that year, while browsing in the Yale Co-op, I stumbled on a copy of Immanuel Velikovsky’s Oedipus and Akhnaton (1960), which turned out to be a fascinating, detective story involving Greek myths and Egyptian archaeology. I bought and read it. I then bought and read his Worlds in Collision (1950), Ages in Chaos (1952), and Earth in Upheaval (1956). After that, I spent months in Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library, where I scoured its shelves in the stacks for anything by or about Velikovsky, of which there was a great deal. One of the items that I found was a self-described Synopsis by Velikovsky entitled Cosmos Without Gravitation,[9] which starts, “The fundamental theory of this paper is: Gravitation is an electromagnetic phenomenon. There is no primary motion inherent in planets and satellites. Electric attraction, repulsion, and electromagnetic circumduction[10] govern their movements. The moon does not “fall,” attracted to the earth from an assumed inertial motion along a straight line, nor is the phenomenon of objects falling in the terrestrial atmosphere comparable with the “falling effect” in the movement of the moon, a conjecture which is the basic element of the Newtonian theory of gravitation.” Needless to say, this pamphlet rekindled my interest in the similarity between Newton’s formula and Coulomb’s formula to which I referred above.
Later in my time at graduate school (1962-68), after I had met and spent much time with Velikovsky,[11] he gave me a paper to read, “Velocity of Light in Relation to Moving Bodies.”[12] It convinced me that the Michelson-Morley experiment had not settled the issue of whether or not the ether existed, and I even made a serious, but unsuccessful attempt to get the Yale’s Sheffield School of Engineering to conduct the experiment which Velikovsky proposes therein.
During the following eleven years (1968-79), I practiced architecture and, on the side, spent much time trying to help Velikovsky as best I could.[13] The latter effort ended – for me at least – with Velikovsky’s death in November 1979.
During these same years, two periodicals appeared that greatly increased the interest in Velikovsky at the time: David N. Talbot, publisher, and Stephen L. Talbot, editor-in-chief, created Pensee – Immanuel Velikovsky Reconsidered, which would publish 10 issues between 1972 and 1974, and Lewis W. Greenberg, publisher and editor-in-chief, created Kronos – A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, which would published 44 issues between 1975 and 1988. These magazines were filled with articles that argued for recognizing the importance of electrodynamic forces in the cosmos.[14]
One of the things I learned at the time was: there is a fourth state of matter in addition to gases, liquids, and solids. That fourth state is plasma. While gases, liquids, and solids consist of one or more chemical elements. Plasma is a cloud of protons, neutrons, and electrons that have come loose from their respective atoms and molecules and act as a whole. Simple observation tells us that, while heavenly bodies like, asteroids, comets, novae, planets, stars, etc. consist of gases, liquids, and solids, interstellar space does not and therefore must be full of plasma. There was my answer to the question, “What constituted Maxwell’s aether?” [15] The ether is the plasma! Now I believe that plasma physics will solve many of the problems that are troubling cosmologists, astrophysicists, astronomers, and geophysicists.
THE BIBLE’S SPATIAL ORDERS [16]
In 1980, which I call my annus mirabilis, I went from being an atheist to putting my trust (a) in Jesus of Nazareth as my Divine Savior and Lord and (b) in the Bible as God’s Holy Word and therefore the most trustworthy source of information in Universe.
Years later, I set about trying to understand the spatial realms to which the Bible refers and to reflect on the implications of them. I then constructed a table of them, which can be seen in my blog of February 27, 2017, entitled Natural History 2 – Table 6B – The Bible’s spatial orders. I believe that it illustrates the way in which God has organized reality.
The 3rd Heaven, which is the supernatural domain – It lies outside universe. Its content and extent are unknown. It has not been detected; its existence is established by the biblical account in 2 Colossians 12:2.
The 2nd Heaven, which is the space above the upper waters – It consists of a spherical shell above and surrounding the upper waters. Most probably its outer edge is the boundary of Universe and its inner edge borders the upper waters. Its content and extent are unknown. It has not been detected; its existence is implied by the Bible’s references to a 1st heaven in Revelation 21:1 and a 3rd heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2, in between which there must be a 2nd heaven.
The Upper Waters, which are the waters above the firmament – It consists of a spherical shell above and surrounding the 1st heaven. Its outer edge borders the 2nd heaven’s inner edge and its inner edge borders the 1st heaven’s outer edge. Its content is water, but its extent is unknown. It has not been detected; its existence is inferred from the Bible’s reference to the firmament being between the upper waters and the lower waters in Genesis 1:7.
The 1st Heaven, which is the firmament or the expanse or interstellar space – Its inner edge borders on the earth’s atmosphere; its outer edge, the upper waters. Its content by mass is primarily electromagnetic plasma (est. 96%) and secondarily astronomical bodies (est. 4%), such as stars, planets, moons, asteroids, and comets which occur within astronomical objects such as galaxies, nebulae, star clusters, and planetary systems – starting with the earth’s sun and moon. Its extent is unknown.
The Earth, which is comprised of the following layers in descending order:
The Atmosphere – It consists of a spherical shell above and surrounding the terrestrial globe. Its outer edge borders the inner edge of the 1st heaven, and its inner edge borders on the earth’s surface. Its content is air (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.09% argon, 0.03% carbon dioxide, and traces of other gases). It extends approximately 6,200 miles above the earth’s surface. It is divided into five main layers by temperature: (e) the exosphere (440-6,200 miles) is uppermost; (d) the thermosphere (50-440 miles) is next, (c) the mesosphere (31-50 miles) is in the middle; (b) the stratosphere (7-31 miles) is next; and (a) the troposphere (0-7 miles) is lowermost – the air we breathe.
The Hydrosphere – It consists of a spherical shell of water (the earth’s oceans), which covers 71% of the earth’s surface and surrounds the land, which comprises 29% of the earth’s surface. It is 0-6.8 miles deep.
The Lithosphere – It consists of a spherical shell of rocks. It is 63 miles thick, which includes the crust (4-25 miles thick) and the top portion of the upper mantle.
The Mantle – It consists of a spherical shell of silicates below the lithosphere and above the core. It is 1,789-1,810 miles thick.
The Core – It consists of a solid sphere of iron & nickel at the earth’s center. Its radius is 2,142 miles.
SOME REMAINING QUESTIONS
Constructing the above, verbal map of the Bible’s spatial orders got me thinking again about interstellar space and the nature of gravity.
We have five senses with which to detect the physical aspects of Universe: seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. At least three of them – seeing, hearing, and feeling – depend, I am reasonably sure, on the transmission of waves of one sort or another through a medium of some kind or another. Scientists have measured the speed at which two of these three kinds of waves move: (1) light, which we can see, moves at roughly 186,220 miles/second through interstellar space, and (2) sound, which we can hear, moves at roughly 0.21 miles/second through air when its temperature is 680 F. and its density is 32 psi, but apparently it does not move through a vacuum.[17] But (3) gravity, which we can feel (as weight), moves (according to Newtonian physics) through everything at infinite speed, because there is no time lapse at all when it acts at a distance. Is it reasonable to maintain that gravitational forces between the sun and the earth can travel through 93 million miles of plasma instantaneously while electromagnetic forces require 8.33 seconds to do so? Common sense tells me that it is not.
Interestingly, Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity treats gravity, not as a force, but as a disturbance in the four-dimensional space-time continuum. “The motion of a massive object creates a distortion in the curvature of spacetime that moves outward at the speed of light.”[18] On the one hand, that makes sense to me because it means that all three forms of energy travel at a finite speed through a medium. On the other hand, I am not sure what the “space” in space-time refers to. If it is matter consisting of gases, liquids, solids, and plasma, then I understand. If it does not include the plasma, which represents 96% of Universe’s matter, I don’t understand.
© 2019 John Holbrook Jr.
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[1] Margenau, Henry, Watson, William W., and Montgomery, C.G. Physics – Principles and Applications, McGraw Hill, New York, 1953. It sits on a shelf in my home to this day.
[2] NASA’s Glenn Research Center explains these laws as follows: “Newton’s first law states that every object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change its state by the action of an external force. This is normally taken as the definition of inertia. The key point here is that if there is no net force acting on an object (if all the external forces cancel each other out) then the object will maintain a constant velocity. If that velocity is zero, then the object remains at rest. If an external force is applied, the velocity will change because of the force. The second law explains how the velocity of an object changes when it is subjected to an external force. The law defines a force to be equal to change in momentum (mass times velocity) per change in time. Newton also developed the calculus of mathematics, and the “changes” expressed in the second law are most accurately defined in differential forms. (Calculus can also be used to determine the velocity and location variations experienced by an object subjected to an external force.) For an object with a constant mass m, the second law states that the force F is the product of an object’s mass and its acceleration a: F = m * a. For an external applied force, the change in velocity depends on the mass of the object. A force will cause a change in velocity; and likewise, a change in velocity will generate a force. The equation works both ways. The third law states that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, if object A exerts a force on object B, then object B also exerts an equal force on object A. Notice that the forces are exerted on different objects. The third law can be used to explain the generation of lift by a wing and the production of thrust by a jet engine.” (https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/newton.html, August 20, 2019)
[3] Ibid, pp. 342-343.
[4] Korzybski, Alfred, General Semantics: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems, Institute of General Semantics, Lakeville CT, 1947.
[5] Korzybski, Alfred, Manhood of Humanity (1921), International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Company, Lakeville CT, 1950a
[6] Chase, Stewart, Guides to Straight Thinking, Harper, New York NY, 1956; Hayakawa, S.I., Language in Thought and Action, Harcourt Brace, New York NY, 1939; and Whorf, Benjamin Lee, Language, Thought, and Reality, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA, 1956.
[7] Margenau et al., Op. Cit. p. 589. There is a similarity between postulating a physical property for emptiness (or nothingness), and “punctuated equilibrium,” which postulates a property for evolution that explains the absence of evidence for it. Charles Darwin proposed that different species of living creatures are the descendants of long-extinct, common ancestors, and that transitional forms must have linked each group to those ancestors. The problem: the transitional forms have not been found. To plug the gaps, so to speak, paleontologists Niles Eldredge and Stephen Jay Gould proposed a modification of classical Darwinism which they called “punctuated equilibrium,” in which a new species can appear fully developed, thereby eliminating the need for intermediate forms. That is equivalent to saying: The theory of evolution predicts transitional forms, but transitional forms are lacking. Since we know that evolution produced the species that we see, evolution must operate without transitional forms. Under such illogic, the theory of evolution cannot be proved wrong.) Resorting to (a) a physical property for emptiness that transmits light or (b) the absence of transitional forms to substantiate macro-evolution’s ability to create new species is not science.
[8] Today, scientists recognize that space does contain matter, just not much. “A vacuum is defined as a space devoid of all matter. In the Solar System, space contains on average five atoms per 1cm3. Interstellar space, between stars, contains around one atom per 1cm3, while intergalactic space, between galaxies, contains 100 times less. Ultimately, a perfect vacuum isn’t possible because quantum theory dictates that energy fluctuations known as ‘virtual particles’ are constantly popping in and out of existence, even in ‘empty’ space.” (See Dr. Alistair Gunn’s answer to the question, “Is space a perfect vacuum?” at https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/is-space-a-perfect-vacuum/, Wikipedia February 3, 2020.)
[9] Velikovsky, Immanuel, Cosmos Without Gravitation – attraction, repulsion, and electromagnetic circumduction in the solar system, Scripta Academica Hierosolymitana, New York-Jerusalem, 1946.
[10] The usual term “rotation” may mislead, as it is a phenomenon of planetary revolution, not rotation, which is here referred to (IV note).
[11] I visited Velikovsky for a week in early June 1963 and gave him what assistance I could for the next sixteen and a half years (1963-1979).
[12] It was later published in Pensee Magazine. See Velikovsky, Immanuel, “Velocity of Light in Relation to Moving Bodies, The,” Pensee, Vol. 3, No. 3, Fall 1973.
[13] See my book, Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky – A Towering Intellect, which will be published in the not too distant future.
[14] They were soon joined by others such as: Aeon – A Symposium on Myth and Science, edited by Dwardu Cardona, which would publish at least 37 issues between 1988 and 1994; and The Velikovskian – The Journal of Myth, History and Science, edited by Charles Ginenthal, which would publish 20 issues between 1993 and 2003.
[15] Here I recommend a book which appeared years later: Donald E. Scott’s The Electric Sky – A Challenge to the Myths of Modern Astronomy, Mikamar Publishing, Portland OR, 2006.
[16] For a cosmological theory which accounts for these spatial orders, see D. Russell Humphreys’ Starlight and Time (1994), Master Books, Colorado Springs CO.
[17] In high school, I was told by my science teacher that sound waves need a medium through which to travel. He demonstrated this to the class as follows. First, he showed us a capped jar with a bell hanging it. When he shook it, we could hear the bell’s tinkle. Then, he removed the cap, dropped a lighted match into it, and replaced the cap. After the match went out, he shook the jar again, and we could barely hear the tinkle. He then explained that the flame had consumed the oxygen in the air in the jar, and the remaining gas was now thinner, and thus less able to transmit the sound.
[18] See the third paragraph in “Does Gravity Travel at the Speed of Light?” by Steve Carlip at http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/GR/grav_speed.html.