God, Einstein, and Newton

Indiana appears to be a hotbed of regressive physics. There is even one physics professor at one of the public state colleges (Ball State University) who has been teaching a course entitled “The Boundaries of Science.” From its reading list, it appears to be mostly propaganda supporting creationism in the guise of science. You will remember that creation is the indeterministic opposite of the Fifth Assumption of Science, conservation (Matter and the motion of matter can be neither created nor destroyed). The professor was called out on this by Jerry Coyne, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Chicago. With a little legal push from the Freedom from Religion Foundation of Madison, Wisconsin, the course is being reviewed as a violation of church-state separation. The affair has stimulated much invective from a horde of creationists, who apparently have infiltrated much of the campus.

Check out this letter to the editor in the local paper from George Wolfe, a Peace and Conflict Studies professor at BSU:

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20130721/OPINION/307210022/Change-needed-culture-inquiring-mind?gcheck=1 [Note: This link no longer works. Apparently, this opinion piece has been withdrawn by the author. Sorry.]

If you ever leaned toward thinking that relativity and the Big Bang Theory involved only facts and had no connection to religion, you need to reassess. The substitution of immaterialism for materialism in physics has been hailed by numerous devout folks, but Wolfe takes the cake. I thought the LOL kicker was when he ended his letter with this soon-to-be classic:

“Thank God Albert Einstein had the guts to question Isaac Newton.” -George Wolfe, 2013