THE AGE OF CREDULITY.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20169, 23 February 1931, Page 16

THE AGE OF CREDULITY.

Sir,—lt is .not, to the credit 3rf/mip»»" , tew of » religion, to., allow such as'that Made .by yoyic, ■ debt, Mr <R. V, Pearse, that : J '/thd ' fixed laws of Nature have no master," to go unchallenged. Br there ate. Un- . .fortunate doubters it is the duty of someone to;try and help: any means wish to pose nor do F profess to have staen. ; tifio, training J but .through a W«„ ; scientific reading arid ailittle bentitnat t way I know,most of the' fixed laws,, or •Nature are unexplairiabje ; without a master.,'i Take the very'first act-or God recorded in Genesis; i'Leti there be light, and-there .was light.". JMay I ask Mr Pearse if he has ever come : across' or even heard of. any Bcientisc man who is able to explain at 'all satisfactorily how light travels across the abyss, of space P Sciencfe has'.made a guess and answers', by % vibrations or waves of. "ether; but this. does , .not really explain it. The sun sends light, to ns over ninety millions of I miles of space. This gives the idea of motion'; but one cannot get motion without something being moved. No scientific reason dan account for. motion, force passing' through over ninety millions of miles of absolute vacuum, for there is ■ nothing .to move along." l So science invents ether. Some explain it as'extremelv thin an-; others as' an s elastic solid. All matter is assumed by scientists to consist of atoms} which either attract or repel each other: but a necessary condition of the ' ether hypothesis is that it is without any weight, or else it would be .bound to fall in the direction of'the strongest attracting force, and so- could not be a uniform medium- pervading all space, even to the furthest stars. The comet of 1882 Was clearly .observed' to pass close to the.sun in its approach and departure, and experienced no retnrda- ' tion of .Bpeedt proving, that even very near the solar surface there can be no retarding .medium to/affect even such a light, body as a- comet. Therefore, ; as one book, "Astronomy \ . and . "the,, Bible.." puts it. *'the atoms of ether in order to fit the theory are as small with reference, to the spaces between them as the sun and the earth are as , compared with the ," space , between, them;- and i between, these' atgmV there' , is - absolutely vacant - space.'!- O flJ - \ what, theni does light, move", from one atom of ether to. another?/ <B/' the} ; scientist repeats that" light -pasties: on < waves of etbef.'one not to\b'e ? put -off • replies, "But by your ■ owja,/ ",-theory ether is so extremely attenuated and f

the atoms so enormously far apart te to tender ether unweighable. How ' then can light jump from one atom I to another P" And the scientist can- ] not really answer. In fact the theory of ether pervading all space p) the farthest fixed stars seems a bogus invention of pseudo-science, and unlike its namesake in- the surgery is only a quack ansßsthetie concocted to lull minds into a stupor, so as to avoid the painful necessity of having to admit they cannot fathom the mystery as to how light travels. So with heat, gravity, the beginning of life, no satisfactory natural explanation is forth-, coming. Natural laws have a master. "God upholds all things by the word of His power."—Yours, etc., P. H. PRITCHETT. February 22nd, 1931.