A Fortnight From God (A Dialogue with Dom), Page 2

miracles and spirits and all that rubbish?”

  “You say that because it’s the popular thing to say today in our wee culture. Our society turns its nose up at everything that’s supernatural. That’s the real crazy position though.”

  “How is that crazy?”

  “Well, if I compiled a list of people who have claimed to have something supernatural happen to them the list would number in the millions.”

  “That doesn’t prove anything,” Peter said. “People are always getting things wrong. They’re always thinking a plane is a UFO or a burst pipe is a ghost.”

  “Of course there are rational explanations for a lot of it; but certainly not all of it. No way. Have you ever seen that movie The Entity?”

  “You think a movie is true?”

  “No, but it was based on a true story. The real woman’s name was Doris Bither. A son of hers has recently discussed the case [3]. She was attacked by demons repeatedly in her own home. There are tons of weird cases that defy materialistic explanations. You can’t just write them all off because they give you the spooks. If you want to call all these tormented people liars than go ahead; I don’t. A solely physical worldview leaves you with far more questions than answers. That’s my point.”

  “Look, it’s not what I want to be true,” Peter said. “It’s what science has proven. Science has proven that material elements are all there is.”

  “But see, that’s your problem. You’ve bought into this idea that there’s one official view of science and if you don’t believe that than you’re an idiot. That’s just bully-boy tactics. How much independent scientific research have you done?”

  “You know I haven’t done any. That doesn’t matter. The most educated and most respected scientists all say the same thing.”

  “No they don’t,” Dom said matter-of-factly. “That’s just a really childish illusion that many people hold to. Scientific policy works like political policy. Truth is largely defined by force and expediency.”

  Peter laughed. Was this Dom? Where was all this highfalutin nonsense coming from? “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with a grown man. You believe in ghosts but you don’t believe in modern science!”

  At this Dom pulled out his smartphone and began typing. “I want you to see something Peter. This is what I’m talking about,” he said, passing the phone.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a pdf. The screen’s a bit small. Zoom in there a bit.”

  Peter squinted to read the tiny writing. “A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism. We are sceptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life --”

  “It’s an online petition,” Dom said. “Scroll down there. It’s a 22-page document filled with names. All of these people are top-level scientists from universities around the world, and they all are calling into question Darwinian evolution. Hundreds upon hundreds of PhDs and the like [4].”

  “But they wouldn’t all believe what you believe,” Peter said, passing back the phone.

  “No, of course not. What I’m trying to show you is that this whole façade of the big bang and Darwinian evolution being settled facts is just that, a façade.”

  Peter sighed impatiently while Dom did some more flipping through the notebook. The waiter walked up and asked if all was okay.

  “Yeah,” Dom said. “Everything’s great. Can you bring us a couple of cokes though? I think my friend’s flight is being delayed.”

  As the waiter walked away Dom pointed down to a name in his notebook. “Theodore Dalrymple.”

  “Who?” Peter asked.

  “Well that’s not his real name. It’s a pen name. His real name is Anthony Daniels. He’s a psychiatrist. He’s written this great book called Admirable Evasions.”

  “It’s about creation?”

  “No, no. He’s a psychiatrist. It’s about psychology. He gives a brief summary of all the flawed systems of treatment starting from Sigmund Freud.”

  “Right, okay. Dom, why do you know all this stuff? What’s the use?”

  “It’s my service to Christ,” Dom said. He stopped talking and donned a pensive gaze.

  This guy knows my wife; what am I doing offending him? Peter thought. “So what about this Dalrymple?”

  “Look, here’s why I mentioned Dalrymple; here’s a quote. I’ll read it to you: ‘The illusion of understanding is like the grin of the Cheshire Cat: it is what remains when all else has disappeared’ [5]. Psychologists keep bumbling from one failed thesis to another to explain human behaviour, but they always give the appearance of having arrived at the place of perfect knowledge. That’s modern science.”

  “I’m not trying to be mean Dom, but doesn’t this place you in the fringe category? Are you not like the people who believe the moon landing was fake or that underground goblins rule the world or something?”

  “No. You gotta understand the way things work. Scientists take a set of variables that they see in the world or outer space or whatever. Then they put those things into a theory. There’s only so much latitude. It’s not really possible for them to be too wrong because they already have so much information.

  “Then they test and see if there’s more that seems to corroborate the safe assumptions that they made. Then, worst of all, they transfer these obvious physical predictions into supposed proof for theories of origins, etc. When they find something that backs them up slightly this is heralded in the press as proof and evidence. It’s all circular reasoning. There are never any risky predictions. There are never any predictions ex nihilo. ”

  “Ex nihilo?”

  “Out of nothing,” Dom said.

  “And there are these kind of predictions in the Bible?”

  “Of course there are!” His face lit up while he rose to his feet. “I need to go to the men’s room. I’ll be back. When I return I’ll tell you about some prophecies.”

  “Are you gonna pass by the big screen with the flight times?” Peter asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll check your flight.”

  With Dom away for a moment Peter placed both elbows on the olivewood table-top and put his head into his hands. What a mess. I should have just lied. Ah, I’m sick of sneaking around and I’m sick of nosy people. Just keep up the charade a bit longer. Just charm this guy; no one betrays a bit of affection.

  He lifted his head, reached across, and slid Dom’s notebook in front of him. He marvelled as he flipped through the book. He scanned page after page of handwritten notes.

  “Are you skipping ahead?” Dom asked as he made his way back to his seat.

  Peter donned his largest smile. “Hey, teacher! You’re back! So what’s the verdict?”

  “Your flight should be boarding soon. We’ll have to finish up quickly.”

  “You know Dom I always just thought you religious people were a bunch of brainwashed wackos. But I don’t know. Maybe it’s the rest of us who are brainwashed.”

  Dom smiled as he slid his notebook back over in front of him. “So where’d we leave off?”

  “Prophecy. You were going to tell me about prophecy.”

  “Oh yeah. Well here, I’ll run through an outline of a small presentation I’ve been working on. The theme is Noah’s flood.”

  “Right, okay. Well I guess you take it as a real event?”

  “Of course,” said Dom. “There’s so much evidence for a global catastrophe that it’s shocking. It seems impossible to deny it but then again, the Apostle Peter said that in the last days it would be denied.”

  “What evidence? Did you guys find the boat or something?”

  “No; I’m talking about topography and geology and fossils. First off, fossils are only formed because of catastrophe. Animals have to be buried very quickly in order to be preserved. Besides, there are all sorts of fossils that directly show catastrophe on a large, impressive scale.”

  “How could fossils show catastrophe?” Peter asked.

  “We
ll just look at all the dinosaur graveyards. They’re all over the place. I’ve been reading about this one in Alberta, Canada. There are so many dinosaur bones in such a compact area that even evolutionary experts are having to invoke catastrophe to explain it [6]. There’s no other way that all these large bones were preserved unless they were all buried together through some massive disaster.”

  “And you think that disaster was Noah’s flood?”

  “It’s the only explanation that fits all the facts. All the layers under the earth, the strata, the column of the supposed past that you see in textbooks, only exist because they were deposited at about the same time. There’s no evidence of erosion between the strata layers and some of it is so curved that gradual deposition is impossible. How can you have huge, curved layers of strata like you see in the walls of the Grand Canyon [7]? It couldn’t have been the process of long ages of slowly accumulating mud.”

  “Right, okay,” Peter said. “I don’t know.”

  “And then there’s the fact that practically the entire fossil record is aquatic. Plus there are all sorts of fossils that point to an aquatic disaster, like jellyfish graveyards, fish fossilized while eating other fish, and there’s even a whale in California whose carcase has been fossilized poking through different rock layers [8]. How in the world would that be possible if the layers were individually laid down over millions and millions of years? You know I forgot to say while mentioning dinosaurs that they’ve even found soft tissue with dinosaur bones [9]. How could that have been preserved over tens of millions of