The Thomas G Barnes Institute of Physics

Through the kindness of Gordon Hewitt, I was told about the existence of the Thomas G. Barnes Institute of Physics. I hastened to write to them for information and have received a full reply from its President, Max Cullen. The egregious Dr Barnes is well known to students of creationism as the first Dean of Graduate Studies at the Institute of Creation Research. He is the author of a loony argument for a young earth supposedly based on measurements of the earth's magnetic field. He claims that the magnitude of the magnetic field is decreasing and that it must have had an impossibly large value not long ago. The theory totally ignores the massive evidence for periodic reversals in magnetic field. To illustrate the activities of the Institute, I cannot do better than quote from Max Cullen's paper. These quotations are all entire sentences, with the spelling corrected.

"But why is Physics of such interest to creationists? Most people who have little interest in Physics have difficulty in seeing the connection with creationism v evolution. However, it is not uncommon to hear someone talking about morals or ethics say that everything is relative. This concept comes directly from the distortion of science which is embodied in Einstein's theory of relativity."

"The goal of the scientific creationist movement has been to show that sound science is supportive of the Bible. It is obvious that if modern science is not true, it can not testify to the truth of the Bible. Since Physics is the foundation of most of the scientific disciplines, it is essential that our view of Physics be correct. Dr Barnes has pointed the way to a sound understanding of the field of Physics."

"The Institute is currently working on an experiment to show that the earth is moving through the medium. Similar experiments have been done but have not been accepted for publication because they disprove the basic tenet of relativity. This work is being done to show that the validity of Dr Barnes' basic theory of the medium is correct."

"A prime example of the irrational conclusions which have been drawn is the famous 'Twins paradox.' Einstein pointed out that according to his theory, if one twin baby were placed in a rocket ship which travelled at near the speed of light, he would age very slowly. Therefore when he returned after many years his brother would have grey hair while he was still a child. This does not make sense to most of us. but many scientists believe it."

"Another problem with the current dogma is the model of the atom which pictures the atom as being composed of a nucleus of protons and neutrons surrounded by orbiting point particles, called electrons. If this was an accurate model, the electrons would be continually radiating energy because we know that any moving charge produces a radiating field. In addition, if these were truly point particles, they would have infinite energy."

"Quantum mechanics is based upon the observation that an excited atom gives off radiation in discrete amounts of energy. This has been attributed to the particle nature of light. However this has been disproved by various simple experiments. A number of scientists have pointed out that this is due to the nature of the radiating atom and not to the nature of light."

"Dr Barnes bases his theories on the classical laws of Physics which have been tested and proven time and time again. Ons of these laws, Newton's third law, is directly the opposite of the assumption made by evolutionists that all living things developed by chance. This means that there is no such thing as chance—everything is caused. There is a condition of randomness, but randomness can only cause randomness. In order to cause orderliness or information, it requires orderliness or information. This is, of course, also expressed by the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Thus classical Physics provides one of the most compelling arguments against evolution. Dr Barnes shows that light is purely an electromagnetic wave phenomenon and that the medium for its transmission is the total, at any point in space, of the intrinsic electric and magnetic fields of all the charged particles in the universe. The electric and magnetic waves that constitute light are the modulation of these waves. These fields also provide the reaction force on a charged particle being accelerated. When a charged particle is accelerated, it induces a changing magnetic field. This, in turn produces an electric field- force which is in opposition to the motion of the accelerated particle. It is the medium that provides the base for this retarding force. This retarding force acts upon each particle in an accelerating body. Mass is then really a function of each charged particle. Thus he has given us the physical mechanism we call inertia. It also explains why inertia acts instantaneously when a mass, made up of charged particles, is accelerated. He also shows that, with this definition of mass, the size of the electron is 1836 times the radius of the proton. This demonstrates that the idea of a point particle is incorrect. Knowing the radius of the electron and proton, one can calculate the electric ta iawW, field gradient at the surface of the particle. This gradient is much larger than the breakdown voltage potential in a vacuum. Thus the interaction of the fields of two charges is nonlinear near the surface of each charge. The effect of this non linearity is to reduce the repulsive force between two like charges. However for unlike charges, the field gradient is reduced and the attractive force is greater than the repulsive force for like particles. This very small difference is the mechanism for gravity."

"In the opinion of the founders of the Institute, Dr Barnes' work is the greatest advance in Science in this century.

I have given enough quotations to show what this Institute is on about, there is no need to subject them to detailed analysis, except to say that they display a very funny idea of 'the way that Science works. The paper would make a good exercise for Sixth formers on 'spotting the error'. Meanwhile, does anyone have a copy of Barnes' two books, The Physics of the Future (1983, I.C.R) and Space Medium (1986, Geo/Space Research Foundation)? I would love to see them but have better ways of spending my money. If anyone would like to see the complete letter from Cullen, please write to me and if anyone wishes to write to the institute asking for more details of their work, and in particular, the results of their experiments on motion through an ether (and I wish someone would) the address is 3521 Chelmsford Road, Minneapolis, MN 55418.