Metanexus: VIEWS 2001.09.05 1344 words Consider the following perennial question of childhood: "But if God created Adam and Eve, did they have bellybuttons?" And it would seem that, yes, Virginia, they did indeed have bellybuttons. At least according to Phillip Henry Gosse, a Victorian naturalist, whose book aptly titled "Omphalos" (Greek for navel), is being reviewed for us today by John Burgeson. And Burgeson, sums up one of Gosse's main points as follows: "Gosse's argument is simple. If you had been present in Eden twenty minutes after Adam's creation, you would have observed his navel, a scar left from a birth that never happened. In his digestive tract would have been the remains of a meal he had not eaten two hours before. His feet would have had calluses from walks he had never taken. A nearby tree, cut down, would have shown real rings of unreal years of growth. Gosse goes on and on with this argument, separating all time into historic time, what Gosse calls "diachronic" time, and un-historic time, unreal time, virtual time, what Gosse calls "prochronic" time. He argues two propositions, ones which my friends at ICR might well take into account: "1. All organic nature moves in a circle. "2. Creation is a violent irruption into the circle of nature." Does this mean that the world was created as is? Or does what we see result from the playing out in time of this violent irruption? Furthermore, does this mean that there really are two types of time, say "kairos" (eternal time) and "chronos" (temporal time)? And is time, then, some kind of creature or is it a mere artifact of perception? Read on to find out more. John W. Burgeson is a retired physicist and a retired IBMer. He is presently a Stephen Minister at First Presbyterian Church, Durango, Colorado. And the following review of OMPHALOS; An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot by Phillip Henry Gosse (Woodbridge, Connecticut, Ox Bow Press; 1998. 376 pages, index. Paperback. $34.95. ISBN 1-881987-10.) recently appeared in PERSPECTIVES (the American Scientific Affiliation's quarterly journal). --Stacey E. Ake =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Subject: Review of P. H. Gosse's OMPHALOS: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot From: John W. Burgeson Email: This edition of OMPHALOS is a reprint of a book originally published in London in 1857, two years before Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES. Long out of print, unavailable to students of origins issues, it has reappeared as a study text for historians who would like to see how one scientist struggled to reconcile what he understood of both science and the scriptures. References to Gosse's book appear often. Martin Gardner gives it a sympathetic treatment in FADS & FALLACIES (1957), writing, in chapter 11, "Not the least of its remarkable virtues is that while it won not a single convert, it presented a theory so logically perfect, and so in accordance with geological facts that no amount of scientific evidence will ever be able to refute it." More recently, Chris Morgan and David Langford's FACTS AND FALLACIES (1981) mentions it as an "ultimate invincible theory," overcoming "all conflict between evolution and the Bible." Gosse's son, Edmund Gosse, in his 1905 book, FATHER AND SON, reported at length his father's bewilderment, following publication, of the expressions of derision that were expressed, by believers and non-believers alike. Phillip Henry Gosse was no pseudo-scientist, but a respected and admired naturalist of his times. Thomas Huxley called him "an honest hod carrier of science," by which term he paid respect to Gosse's powers of observation and writing. Gosse is associated with the development of salt water aquariums, and published many books on water creatures of the English countryside. He was an admirer of the new scientists; his son writes; "Where was his place, then, as a sincere and accurate observer? Manifestly, it was with the pioneers of the new truth, it was with Darwin, Wallace and Hooker." (FATHER AND SON, page 128). But Gosse was also a biblical literalist. The Bible does not lie, and the facts of nature must take second place to the revealed word, a word which he was convinced he knew and knew well. When his wife died painfully of cancer in February of 1857, he turned his attention to a reconciliation of the issue. OMPHALOS appeared in print that fall; within two years it had disappeared into the history's rubbish heap. Twenty years ago, I found a second generation photocopy at Gordon-Conwell. For the past two decades a photocopy of that photocopy has resided on my bookshelf. Gosse's argument is simple. If you had been present in Eden twenty minutes after Adam's creation, you would have observed his navel, a scar left from a birth that never happened. In his digestive tract would have been the remains of a meal he had not eaten two hours before. His feet would have had calluses from walks he had never taken. A nearby tree, cut down, would have shown real rings of unreal years of growth. Gosse goes on and on with this argument, separating all time into historic time, what Gosse calls "diachronic" time, and un-historic time, unreal time, virtual time, what Gosse calls "prochronic" time. He argues two propositions, ones which my friends at ICR might well take into account: 1. All organic nature moves in a circle. 2. Creation is a violent irruption into the circle of nature. Quoting the philosopher Chalmers, who wrote "We have no experience in the creation of worlds, ... " Gosse concludes, at least for the organic world (he disclaims any arguments for the inorganic), that any act of creation must involve the creation of a being with a history that never took place. On page 336 he writes, "...we cannot avoid the conclusion that each organism was from the first marked with the records of a previous being. But since creation and previous history are inconsistent with each other; as the very idea of the creation of an organism excludes the idea of pre-existence of that organism, or any part of it; it follows, that such records are false, so far as they testify to time; that the developments and processes thus recorded have been produced without time, or are what I call 'prochronic.'" The objections to Gosse's thesis are well known; the two most often cited are (1) that it is simply a variation of Russell's hypothesis, "last Thursdayism," the hypothesis that we were all created, complete with memories of unreal events, on Thursday morning of last week, and (2) a rejection because "God can't lie" and a false history must be taken as evidence that He did lie. But Gosse's arguments go well beyond Russell's hypothesis, and he argues well that any fiat creation, even by God, must necessarily include unreal history. His arguments need to be taken seriously. Gosse's thesis is not, of course, "scientific." While it may be true, it is not testable, nor does it suggest future research projects. It is a dead end. Gosse recognized this, for he urged his fellow scientists to continue as if unreal history were real; to construct their theories independent of his thesis. For many years I have asked my friends at ICR for comments. To date, they have declined that opportunity. Holding, as they do, that fiat creation did happen, it seems that part of OMPHALOS ought to play a part in their theorizing. One thing seems certain. If one posits fiat creation of any kind, an appearance of age must be a part of that hypothesis. That fact makes scientific tests of the claim difficult, if not wholly impossible, leading to the observation that "Scientific Creationism" is simply an oxymoron. Sorry about that, Henry. I highly recommend this book to my ASA colleagues interested in origins issues. It is a good read. For the biblical literalist, one who has honestly and thoroughly confronted the scientific data, I see it as the only intellectually coherent position possible. Thanks to Jack Haas, George Murphy, Emrys Tyler and Loren Haarsma for help in improving this review. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This list is hosted by Metanexus: The Online Forum on Religion and Science . 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