Perspectives on the Historical Adam and Eve: Four Views

In my opinion, one of the best ways to think deeply about an issue is to read about it from different points of view. Generally, I have to do that by reading many books by different authors on the same topic. In that situation, however, I don’t get to experience any interaction between the authors. That’s what makes a book like Perspectives on the Historical Adam and Eve: Four Views so valuable.

In this book, you have four “heavy hitters” in Modern Christianity, each weighing in with his view on the historical Adam. Dr. Kenton Sparks attempts to persuade the reader that the Genesis narrative is not intended to be taken as history, so Adam and Eve did not exist as progenitors of the human race. Instead, the process of evolution produced the human race the way God intended it to. In his mind, this doesn’t take away from the spiritual importance of the story, nor does it affect any of the important issues in Christian Theology. This is often called the “non-historical view of Adam.”

On the other end of the spectrum, Dr. Marcus Ross argues that the Genesis account is a historical narrative, that Adam and Eve really did exist (only thousands of years ago), and they gave rise to the human race. This is often called the “young-earth creationist” (YEC) view.

In between these two ends of the spectrum are Dr. Andrew Loke and Dr. William Lane Craig. Like Dr. Sparks, they both believe that evolution produced the physical form of human beings, but those physical forms were not human, because they did not have God’s image. God chose two of those non-humans-with-human-form, gave them his image, and named them Adam and Eve. Thus, Adam and Eve were real people who God miraculously turned from “animals” into human beings.

The difference between these two scholars is how Adam and Eve produced the human race. Dr. Loke champions the view put forth by Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass, that Adam and Eve existed along with the non-humans-with-human-form. Adam and Eve interbred with them, and all members of the modern human race can be traced genealogically back to Adam and Eve, because all non-humans-with-human-form that had no trace of Adam and Eve’s genes ended up going extinct. This is often called the “genealogical Adam” view.

Dr. Craig, on the other hand, thinks that if you go far enough back into the geological record (perhaps 750,000 years ago), you can find the physical form of human beings. When God gave two of them His image, they became fundamentally different from the entities that evolution produced. Thus, they did not interbreed with any non-humans. I wrote about his view after reading his book. This is often called the “mytho-historical Adam” view, because he believes that the Genesis account is a myth that is built around truly historical individuals.

Why do these views exist? Because mainstream genetics claims (I think incorrectly) that it is impossible for the human race’s genetic diversity to be explained in terms of one man and one woman who gave rise to the human race a few thousand years ago. Sparks, Loke, and Craig attempt to interpret Scripture in that light. Ross does not, because he doesn’t think the mainstream view of human genetics is correct on that point.

The book starts with an introduction, and then it is followed with each scholar giving his view. The other scholars’ objections to that view are then given, and then the original scholar offers his rejoinder to the critics. This is incredibly helpful, because it is easier to see the strengths and weaknesses in each of the main essays.

For example, Sparks’s essay states that the best Mesopotamian and Egyptian scholars in the ancient world thought the earth was covered by a solid dome. However, as Craig points out, this is “not merely unjustified but demonstrably false,” and he gives a reference that allows the reader to see why. This is important, because that demonstrably false idea leads some to incorrectly claim that Jewish theologians in the ancient world believed the same thing. In Craig’s essay, he claims that YECs must assume plate tectonics separated the continents after the Flood to explain the distribution of organisms on the planet. In Ross’s objection, he writes, “I have never once encountered a creation geologist who holds this view…” and gives a reference to show that YECs believe plate tectonics separated the continents during the Flood.

To my sincere delight, there was no rancor in the book. Each scholar shows respect to the others and finds some way to praise the others despite their different views. This was both edifying and encouraging. In the end, I thought Dr. Ross’s case was the strongest, but then again, it’s most similar to my view. Nevertheless, reading this book allows a person to see why intelligent, sincere Christians can hold different views on this vitally-important subject.

I will end with a passage from the Afterword, which appears after all the essays and arguments. It is written by Dr. Swamidass, who originated the view championed by Loke. He noted that at a dinner which followed the colloquium in which all these views were debated, Ross was accompanied by several who supported his view. He and his supporters invited Sparks (the one they had the most disagreement with) to join them at their table. The result was a lively conversation that was nevertheless full of love and affection. As Swamidass says:

I left young-earth creationism many years ago. Still, I cannot help but wish that Marcus’s tribe will grow. This type of creationism is far greater than fundamentalism. And if this is what YEC becomes, we would all be better for it.

I could not agree more. As a YEC, I can say that I am saddened by many of my fellow YECs who use insults and invectives to ward off the “heretics.” I have always seen Dr. Ross as someone set apart from that, and I think the YEC movement is better for it. I am encouraged that others are learning to follow his example.

My Review of Exploring Creation With Physical Science, 4th Edition

I wrote the first two editions of Exploring Creation With Physical Science, but the publisher used a different author (Vicki Dincher) to make changes for a third edition. As I noted on this blog, there were many serious scientific errors in that third edition, and the discussion of some topics was very confusing. I assume a lot of people agreed with that assessment, because after only four years, the author significantly revamped the course to produce the fourth edition.

When I heard that the fourth edition was coming out, I hoped that the author had corrected the serious scientific errors that I pointed out in my full review of the third edition. Fortunately, some of them were. For example, the author no longer states that we measure heat with degrees Celsius. That’s good, since heat is a form of energy. Thus, it needs to be measured with an energy unit, not a temperature unit.

However, the author still doesn’t define temperature properly. In the third edition, she said it was a measure of the heat energy in a substance, which is wrong. In this edition, she leaves out “heat” and says it is a measure of the energy in a substance. That’s better, but still not correct. The proper definition of temperature states it is a measure of the energy of random motion in the molecules of a substance. This is important, because a ball sitting on the floor has less energy than a ball sitting on a desk, but if they have been in the same room for a long time, both balls have the same temperature. Thus, temperature is not a measure of the energy in an object.

While some of the major errors have been fixed, many of them have not. For example, the author still incorrectly informs the students that the works of the Greek philosophers were lost when the West Latinized, and they weren’t “rediscovered” until the Renaissance. That is blatantly false. Greek classics became influential once again beginning in about the 10th century, and they were debated vigorously throughout the rest of the Middle Ages. Similarly, both editions still misinform the students about acceleration. The author says negative acceleration means an object is slowing down. That is simply not true. Since acceleration and velocity are both vectors, they can be either positive or negative depending on direction. If the velocity’s direction makes it negative, then a negative acceleration indicates that the object is speeding up!

Other issues are partly fixed. For example, in the third edition, the author refers to all metric units as SI units. They are not. There is only one SI unit for each measured quantity. For example, while you can use many metric units to measure mass (grams, milligrams, micrograms, etc.), there is only one SI unit: kilograms. She has mostly fixed this, but not completely. On page 19, she says, “If you wanted to measure the length of something small, the only unit you could use in the English system would be the inch. However, if you used SI units, you would have all sorts of options for which unit to use.” That’s false. There is only one SI unit for length: the meter. Thus, that would be your only choice in SI units.

So if the author didn’t fix all the errors in the third edition, what is the point of having a fourth edition? I am not sure. The biggest difference between the editions is that the fourth edition has many sections called “advanced concepts.” They are set apart from the rest of the chapter, and the introduction to the book says that students are encouraged to read through the advanced concepts, but unless the students are on the “advanced track” they don’t need to worry about answering questions about those concepts on the study guides and tests.

While I don’t have a problem with that in principle, most of these “advanced concepts” are not advanced at all. They belong in a standard physical science course. For example, in this edition, the definition of a scientific model is an advanced concept. Additional “advanced concepts” are the distinction between heterogeneous and homogeneous solutions, the definitions of sublimation and deposition, the description of isotopes, how to deal with squares in mathematical equations, the difference between charging by condition and induction, and how series circuits are different from parallel circuits. As near as I can tell, the author went through topics that weren’t explained very well and simply made them “advanced concepts” that the students could skip. In my view, this is simply dumbing down the course.

Before I received this new edition, I was hoping that the author had fixed the many problems of the previous edition so that I could recommend it. Unfortunately, I cannot. If you are forced to use this course because of a co-op that you are in, please encourage your student to thoroughly cover everything, even the “advanced concepts.” It will be difficult, since they aren’t explained well, but if the student doesn’t do this, I would say that the level of the course is, at best, seventh grade.

The High Priests of Science Are Counting on the Public’s Short Memory

A protest in 2013, which highlighted how climate change was supposedly destroying the polar bear population (click image for credit)

Will Rogers once said, “The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” The High Priests of Science are well aware of the public’s short memory. In fact, they count on it. Consider, for example, the picture above. It was a common sight 10-15 years ago. The credulous costumed characters in the picture were terribly worried about the plight of polar bears, which they believed were being driven to extinction because climate change (aka global warming) was melting all the ice in the Arctic. Without that ice, the polar bears would have no habitat, and they would all die.

Why don’t we see lots of protests featuring polar bears anymore? Because even the High Priests of Science can no longer deny the fact that polar bears are thriving. Studies show that polar bear populations have more than doubled since 1960. It turns out that polar bears were on the decline because of hunting, not climate change. Now that the hunting of polar bears has been heavily regulated, the animals are once again healthy and plentiful. The High Priests of Science are counting on you to forget their false statements regarding polar bears and climate change/global warming so that they can continue to promote their propaganda.

Now remember, the polar bears were supposedly threatened by the loss of sea ice in the Arctic. The High Priests of Science have continually predicted that the Arctic would eventually be ice free in the summer. In 2008, for example, Dr. James Hansen told the U.S. Congress that in 5-10 years, the Arctic would be ice-free in the summer. Well, it has been 16 years since his testimony, and there is still a lot of ice in the Arctic, even in the summer. Other scientists have predicted ice-free Arctic summers by 2015, 2013, and 2012. The High Priests hope you have forgotten those predictions now that they claim it will happen by 2030, or perhaps 2067.

Of course, those aren’t the only things the High Priests are hoping you’ve forgotten. The Great Barrier Reef is another. In 2012, a study predicted that if we did not reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the central and southern regions of the Great Barrier Reef would see such a decline that only 5-10% would be covered with coral. Two years later, The Guardian published an obituary for the reef. Ten years later, however, the amount of coral in the northern and central regions of the Great Barrier Reef is at an all-time high, and the southern region is very close to an all-time high. Once again, the High Priests of Science hope you will forget about those predictions.

And then, of course, there is sea level. Sea levels have been rising steadily since the mid 1800s, because that is when the earth started recovering from The Little Ice Age, a time when the earth was unusually cold. Despite the fact that at least a large portion of the rise in sea levels seems to be a result of natural fluctuations in the earth’s temperature, the High Priests of Science have predicted that climate change will accelerate it, leading to all sorts of catastrophes. The East Coast’s beaches were supposed to be gone by 2020, the Maldives were supposed to be underwater by 2018, and New York and Washington were supposed to be covered by the ocean in the year 2000. Of course, none of that happened, but the High Priests are counting on you to forget those predictions so they can make new ones.

The next time you hear a dire prediction about what will happen because of climate change/global warming, remember that those High Priests of Science have been making such predictions for a very long time, and they are constantly being proven wrong.

A Schedule for Using Discovering Design With Chemistry in Classical Conversations

The cover of my chemistry book
As some of you may be aware, I am not a fan of the third edition of Exploring Creation With Chemistry (ECC). Others have also taken a dim view of ECC (see here, here, and here). Because I couldn’t recommend ECC to homeschoolers, I wrote a new chemistry course, whose front cover is pictured on the left.

Not everyone seems to agree with my view of ECC, since there are some homeschooling organizations that still use it. One of those organizations is Classical Conversations (CC). Over the years, I have had many CC mothers tell me that while the CC classes use ECC, they are using Discovering Design With Chemistry at home so that their students can learn chemistry more completely. However, it can be difficult, because the two books cover topics in a different order. Therefore, I have come up with a guide that allows you to synchronize my chemistry course to the CC schedule.

If you would like to use my chemistry course and be synchronized to the CC schedule, click here.

Dark Oxygen

Polymetallic nodules at the bottom of the ocean

From a young age, students are taught that photosynthesis uses sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water to produce oxygen. On land, photosynthesis is carried out by plants, while in water, it is carried out by various single-celled organisms as well as by multicellular algae. Although there are some other natural processes that produce oxygen (such as the breakdown of ozone by ultraviolet rays), the amount produced is so small that it has no relevance to biological organisms. Thus, photosynthesis produces the vast majority of all oxygen on the planet. At least, that’s what we thought! Now thanks to a study by a multinational group of scientists, we know that there is at least one other natural process that produces a significant amount of oxygen, and it happens on the sea floor.

The story starts in 2013, when the researchers were studying an area of the Pacific Ocean called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. It spans depths of 12,000 to 18,000 feet, so there is no natural light that reaches it. However, there are many polymetallic nodules that contain important metals like copper, nickel, cobalt, etc. As a result, there are those who would like to mine the nodules to collect those metals.

The scientists were studying the area by dropping a contraption onto the sea floor that pushes a cylinder down into the sediments so as to isolate a section of the water. The cylinder has instruments to measure different aspects of what’s going on in this isolated area, including the oxygen level. Since there is no natural light down there, no photosynthesis can take place. However, there are organisms at those depths that use oxygen. It has always been thought that this oxygen is brought down from shallow waters by ocean currents. Thus, the scientists expected the oxygen levels within the isolated area to decrease, which is what happens in most experiments like this one. However, in this experiment, they saw the oxygen levels rise. Since that didn’t make sense, they wrote it off as a malfunctioning oxygen sensor.

In 2021 and 2022, more studies were done, and once again, oxygen levels were seen to rise. Thus, they decided it probably wasn’t a problem with the oxygen sensors. They confirmed the rise in oxygen with another method, and concluded that there must be some process that is actually generating oxygen. Since the polymetallic nodules had a small electrical potential (0.95 volts), they thought that perhaps electricity from the nodules is breaking down water into hydrogen and oxygen. However, it actually takes 1.5 volts for that to happen, so they thought that perhaps the potentials could add together in roughly the same way voltages add when you string batteries together in series.

They decided to recreate the situation in a small lab on the ship, using sediments and nodules from the seafloor. They found that oxygen would be produced in the lab for a while, but then production would stop. This implies that there is a power source on the seafloor that keeps the process going.

But is this a significant source of oxygen? Yes! In the isolated cylinders, for example, oxygen concentration rose to a level that is higher than what is typically found in surface waters, where all sorts of photosynthesis is going on. In the end, then, it’s possible that deep-sea organisms are not just using oxygen that is transported down from the surface. Instead, there might be a plentiful supply of oxygen being generated for them on parts of the sea floor!

This is not only an exciting discovery that might end up overturning scientific “facts” that have been taught for generations, but it also a reminder of what happens when you allow your preconceptions to color the science you are doing. Remember, these researchers first saw this source of oxygen 11 years ago, but they wrote it off as an error, since the production of oxygen on the dark seafloor was considered “impossible.” It’s very hard for scientists to rid themselves of preconceptions, but for science to advance, we must continue to try.

Coming to Faith Through Dawkins

Years ago, I read Why God Won’t Go Away by double-Doctor Alister McGrath (retired professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University). He ends the book with a story about a young man who credits atheist Richard Dawkins for turning him to Christianity. I still count it as the best ending to any nonfiction book that I have read. The next year, I read another account in which an agnostic became a Christian and once again, Richard Dawkins was instrumental in her faith journey. Well, it turns out these aren’t isolated incidents. I recently completed Coming to Faith Through Dawkins, a collection of 12 essays from a variety of people who all see Richard Dawkins as an important part of their faith journey.

The authors of these essays are from all walks of life and hail from various countries. Two of them have science PhDs, one has a PhD in history, another a PhD in philosophy. Others include an engineer, a theologian, and an artist/writer. Three are from the U.S., three are from South Africa, two are from Australia, two are from England, one is from Egypt, and one is from Hungary. Two of them have been featured on this blog (here and here).

While I highly recommend each essay, I want to concentrate on the one I found the most interesting (and entertaining): the essay by Johan Erasmus. Growing up in South Africa, he said that he was a Christian by default, but by age 10, he started asking questions. In his community, such questions were discouraged, so he started struggling with his faith. However, a perceptive teacher gave him a book with essays by C.S. Lewis. Unfortunately, it was hard for him to read, since it was in English, and his first language was Afrikaans. He writes:

I remember thinking to myself that if I believed one day, it would probably be because of him. Imagine my surprise, then, when I was told at church camp at the end of high school that his Chronicles of Narnia was basically satanic. It turns out, the one guy who was making me hold on to my faith (if only by a thread) was supposedly in cahoots with the devil! An odd strategy for the Prince of Darkness. It seemed unfair to me (and still does, as a matter of fact), that Satan wrote the best books and songs and made the best movies.

Because of his questions and his uncertain faith, he decided to go to university to study theology. However, that didn’t work out as planned. As he writes:

…in order to be accepted by the school of theology, a student is questioned by a panel of professors. One question stood out: Why do you want to study theology? My answer was, “I want to know if it is true.” This, by the way, is the wrong answer. After a minute of awkward silence, one of the professors managed to correct the error and said with authority, “Brother, you don’t study theology to gain faith; you have faith and then you study theology.” Everyone in the room agreed that I was in the wrong place. Luckily for me, the humanities department was far less selective.

While at university, he became acquainted with the works of the New Atheists, including The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. This led him to consider himself an atheist. He tried to discuss atheist arguments with his friends, but most of them didn’t have the ability (or interest) to engage. However, he ended up finding a woman who was back in South Africa after studying theology in the U.S., and when he discussed the works of the New Atheists with her, she said:

You seriously need to get yourself some better atheists…If you are going to be an atheist, at least do it because you were convinced by the likes of Michael Ruse, Thomas Nagel, or Nietzche, but I am going to be insulted if those guys [Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris] put the nail in your Christian coffin.

I couldn’t agree more. The arguments of the New Atheists are simplistic and come mostly from a place of ignorance. As a former atheist myself whose role model was Antony Flew, I find their reasoning insults the reader’s intelligence (with the notable exception of some of Daniel Dennett’s work). This woman put him on a path to find some seriously intelligent discussions of the existence of God, and he ended up becoming a Christian.

Erasmus’s journey from the simplistic nonsense of Dawkins (and Kent Hovind as well) to a serious intellectual analysis of worldviews led him to offer this insightful advice:

Christians as a whole, and the apologetics community in particular, will do well to respect the fact that there are brilliant minds, past and present, who ended up on the side of atheism. You would be a fool to call a Graham Oppy or a John Gray deluded atheists.

Once again, Eramus’s story is only one of 12, all of which are worth reading. When I finished the book, I wondered whether or not Dawkins had seen it and what he thought of it. As I was considering this, I recalled a quote from C.S. Lewis that sums up what Dawkins should learn from the book:

For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John. (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, Touchstone 1996, p. 99)

More Evidence Against Iron as a Preservative for Biomolecules in Fossils

Chicken femur bones after 90 days of exposure to water, sand, and the three chemicals listed. (image from the study discussed in the article)

Those who want to believe that dinosaur fossils are millions of years old are faced with two very difficult challenges. First, carbon-14 has been detected in significant quantities in all dinosaur bones that were tested for it. This is a problem, as carbon-14 should decay to unmeasurable levels in about 60,000 years. Second, soft tissue and biomolecules have been found in many dinosaur fossils (see here, here, here, and here, for example), and at least according to some paleontologists, it is a common feature of the fossils. Of course, there is no known way that soft tissue and biomolecules can withstand decay over millions of years, so fervent old-earth scientists have been trying to find one.

Dr. Mary Schweitzer, who was the first to find soft tissue in a dinosaur fossil, proposed a possible explanation more than 10 years ago. Based on an experiment that lasted two years, she and her colleagues proposed that iron from the dinosaur’s blood could have acted as a preservative for the soft tissue and the biomolecules that comprise it. As you can read in the post I linked, I was initially very skeptical of such an explanation. Two years later, two chemists who are much more knowledgeable than I am gave what I consider to be definitive arguments as to why iron cannot do what Schweitzer and her colleagues want it to do.

One of my readers (Victor Ferreira da Silva) recently sent me a study that can be considered the death knell of Schweitzer and her colleagues’ proposal. In addition, it strengthens the case that the fossils are not millions of years old. In the study, the authors soaked four chicken femurs in sand to mimic the conditions under which most scientists think fossils form. They then passed a different solution through the sand for each bone: pure water, water + calcium carbonate, water + iron, and water + phosphate. After 90 days, they examined the bones with three different techniques to see how much decay had occurred. They measured the amount of the most abundant form of collagen (a biomolecule) that remained. They found that iron was the worst preservative, and calcium carbonate was the best. Specifically, they estimate that the chicken bones retained 90% of their collagen when exposed to water + calcium carbonate, but only 35% when exposed to water + iron. The ones exposed to water + phosphate retained 60%, while the ones exposed to pure water retained 80%. Under realistic conditions, then, iron is a horrible preservative for biomolecules.

But what about calcium carbonate? When mixed with water, it preserved more collagen. That’s true, and the authors suggest that it’s because the calcium carbonate mineralizes the outer parts of the bone, protecting the inner parts from microbial activity that tends to break down biomolecules. While that seems reasonable, notice that in a mere 90 days, even the “best” preservative had already allowed 10% of the collagen to decay. That doesn’t provide much confidence for its ability to act as a preservative for millions of years!

Interestingly enough, even though I think this study is the death knell for Dr. Schweitzer’s proposal that iron can preserve soft tissue and biomolecules over millions of years, she was indirectly involved in the study. As the authors note:

This project would not have been possible without the support of Mary Schweitzer, who graciously opened her “Modern lab” at North Carolina State University to two of us (PVU and KKV) to conduct the ELISA and immunofluorescence assays for this project.

I applaud Dr. Schweitzer and the authors of this study for trying to figure out an explanation for soft tissue and biomolecules in dinosaur fossils. Of course, I think there is a much simpler explanation: the fossils are thousands of years old, not millions of years old. But I look forward to any more studies done on this issue. If I am right, more studies will simply strengthen the young-earth case. If I am wrong, we will discover some new, exciting chemistry.

The Motivation for Modern Science was Theological

Werner Heisenberg (December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976), one of the most important pioneers of quantum physics.
Werner Heisenberg was a giant in the field of physics. He developed his own formulation of quantum mechanics, for which he won the 1932 Nobel Prize in physics. He later developed his famous Uncertainty Principle, which continues to guide physicists in their understanding of the behavior of atoms and subatomic particles. In short, had it not been for him, physics would be a very different field from what it is today.

On April 24, 1973, about three years before his death, he gave a lecture entitled “Tradition in Science.” It draws on the knowledge he gained through nearly an entire lifetime of scientific experiences. The talk has been reprinted many times in publications such as the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Early on, he draws a distinction between descriptive science (which was championed by great thinkers like Aristotle) and mathematically-based science, which he calls the “new method.” He then writes:

Therefore two features are essential for the new method: the attempt to design new and very accurate experiments which idealize and isolate experience, and thereby actually create new phenomena, and the comparison of these phenomena with mathematical constructs, called natural laws. Before we discuss the validity of this method even in our present science, we should perhaps briefly ask for the basis of confidence, which led Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler on this new way. Following a paper of von Weizsäcker, I think we have to state that this basis was mainly theological. Galileo argued that nature, God’s second book (the first one being the Bible) is written in mathematical letters, and that we have to learn this alphabet if we want to read it. Kepler is even more explicit in his work on world harmony; he says: God created the world in accordance with his ideas of creation. These ideas are the pure archetypal forms which Plato termed Ideas, and they can be understood by Man as mathematical constructs. They can be understood by Man, because Man was created as the spiritual image of God. Physics is a reflection on the divine Ideas of Creation, therefore physics is a divine service.

Now, of course, what he calls the “new method” is essentially the way we do modern science. In other words, science in its current form was motivated by theology, specifically the Judeo-Christian idea that man is made in God’s image.

I have written previously about the fact that science is a product of Christianity (here, here, here, and here, for example) but Dr. Heisenberg’s lecture emphasizes that fact. Anyone who tells you that “religion” (or Christianity in particular) is incompatible with science shows not only a shocking ignorance of the history of science, but also an ignorance of what science is to begin with.

Pictures and a Video from the Total Eclipse

The area where I live had a great view of Monday’s total solar eclipse. As a result, I was able to simply watch the event from my backyard. We had some friends and family over to join in the fun, and it was a great afternoon. Before showing you the images and video I shot, however, I want to show you a great picture taken by a student in my Memoria College course, Bryan Henslee. He was also in the path of totality, but he was in Texas. Here is his shot of the total eclipse:

The moon has blocked off most of the sun, but you do see its atmosphere (the corona). The pink colors are from solar prominences, which are loops of the sun’s plasma that rise from the surface but stay connected to the sun.

None of my images are nearly as remarkable as that one. I did set up a digital video camera, and here is a video of before and after the total eclipse, which is sped up by a factor of 10:

The camera doesn’t do well with the glare, so it’s hard to see the moon. If you look closely, however, once the ball of light gets small, you can see a dim disc inside it. That’s the moon. The small dot you see below and to the right of the sun is Venus. My daughter (Dawn Perdue) got a great shot of it:

While everyone was equipped with eclipse goggles, I also set up a binocular projector that allowed people to see the eclipse indirectly:

The binoculars projected an image of the sun onto the white sheet, and that image showed the first moments of the eclipse really well:

It then produced these images as the eclipse progressed:

The colors are caused by glare and the lens, so once the moon came close to completely covering the sun, looking at the eclipse through the glasses was better.

One of the people who was with us had traveled from Virginia to see the eclipse. He had experienced one total eclipse before, and he enjoyed it so much he wanted to see another. I am not sure I enjoyed it as much as he did, but if I make it to 2045, I will watch the next total eclipse that passes through a large portion of the U.S. from my rocking chair.

Talon Smith, Homeschool Graduate and Accomplished Pianist

Talon Smith at the piano. The quote is from a Gramophone review of a performance. It says:
“Talon’s two utterly independent hands and acuity in rhythmic pointing stresses line over mass evoking memories of Josef Hoffman’s 1937 legendary Golden Jubilee performance.”
(click for source)

During the 2018/2019 academic year, I had a physics student named Talon Smith. He was excellent (A’s on all the assignments), but he frequently missed class. His mother would warn me ahead of time, saying that Talon had a piano concert or recital at which he had to perform. Since he was clearly learning the material, I didn’t worry about him missing class so much. Well…several years later I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and saw a post from Talon Smith Music (I try to play the piano, so I get random piano-related posts). The post linked to an incredible video of a pianist playing four Chopin pieces at the 18th Chopin competition in Warsaw, Poland. The name rang a bell, but I thought, “That can’t be the student I had, can it?” Well, I looked up my old records, found his email address, and matched it to the Facebook page that made the post. I suddenly realized that he missed my physics classes so that he could perform at world-class music events!

I was able to catch up with Talon in the New Year, and our discussion was fascinating. He started taking piano lessons when he was 5 years old. He says his very first teacher was the perfect fit, because he did not confine Talon to a regimented way of teaching. Instead, he taught Talon as an individual, which nurtured Talon’s love for music. When Talon moved on to another teacher (at the age of 9), the new teacher noticed his obvious talent (and love for the music), so the teacher entered him into a competition. He started doing more competitions, and at the ripe old age of 13, his big break occurred. His teacher at that time encouraged him to enter The Gina Bachauer piano competition, which is international. He was hesitant, but he practiced for the audition for six weeks, and based on that audition, he was accepted into the competition (in the age 11-14 category). By the time the actual competition came around, he was 14, and he won his age category. He says that he was very surprised to have won, but decided that he was very grateful for the process, from which he learned a great deal.

He has continued to perform in concerts and competitions around the world, and has continued to receive accolades for his work. You can find several videos of his amazing performances by searching his name on YouTube. My favorite comes from the 17th Arthur Rubinstein Competition, where he plays 24 pieces of his own composition. I have purchased the sheet music for those pieces, because I think I might be able to play two or three of them (with a lot of practice).

Here is how he sums up his piano career so far:

There are a lot of pianists who probably work harder than me, but so many things have gone right for me. Not because I deserve it, or because of my efforts, but God has given me some great opportunities and great people in my life. My mom manages me and is the single most important person for me accomplishing what I have accomplished.

God willing, he is looking for a long and successful career in music. However, he primarily sees what he is doing as a way to enjoy music while glorifying God. He makes it clear that he doesn’t think he needs to be playing sacred music to glorify God. He says:

The Bible says to do whatever you do for God’s glory. So music doesn’t necessarily have to be sacred to glorify Him. What glorifies God most is excellence – trying to reflect the excellence of God’s character and His nature in what you do. That can speak louder than what is actually being done.

I wholeheartedly agree. Whether you are playing a Beethoven sonata or doing a physics experiment, you glorify God by doing it in an excellent way!

So why does he say that his mother is “the single most important person” for his accomplishments? First, she helped to developed a love for music in him by playing classical music in the house, even while he was still in the womb. Second, she provided him with a balanced homeschool education. Throughout his K-12 homeschooling experience, he took all the standard courses that students take, as well as more difficult courses (like physics) that some students avoid. Nevertheless, by homeschooling him, she gave him the flexibility he needed. He could concentrate on the academically rigorous courses at times when he wasn’t consumed with practicing for a competition or concert. In the end, he doesn’t think he would be as accomplished a pianist if he hadn’t been homeschooled.

I want to end this with one of the most important things Talon said, at least from a musical perspective. He said that when he started out doing competitions and concerts, he was focused on not making any mistakes. However, as he matured, he began to agree with a quote that is often attributed to Beethoven:

To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.

While Beethoven probably never said that particular phrase, one of his pupils indicates that he would agree with the sentiment. Talon said that when he doesn’t focus on mistakes and instead just focuses on enjoying the music, he likes his own playing much better. For someone like me (who often plays like he is wearing mittens) that’s a comforting thing to consider.