The Old Man in the Park

 

Don Mason

In London there is a public park in which Londoners can escape the noise and bustle of the surrounding streets. One corner of this park is called 'Speakers Corner' in which it is a popular Sunday morning activity for members of the public to address their fellow citizens on any subject that they wish. On the particular Sunday of which I write a very earnest young man, dressed neatly in black and wearing a clerical collar, prepared to address those strollers who were looking for free entertainment. A member of the clergy looked promising game and the gathering crowd was not disappointed. The earnest young man held up a copy of the Bible.” In this book is your salvation.” he said. “ Between the covers of this most holy book you will find God's truth set out for you. Believe only this and repent of your sins and you will be saved.”

“Wait a minute.” said a young man in the crowd. “How can you claim that the Bible contains God's truth. In Genesis for example there are two different accounts of how Man was created. Which one is right and which one is wrong. Or are they both wrong?

Darwin's theory of evolution is intellectually much more appealing to me.” The crowd demanded that the cleric answer the question. “ There are questions that we should not ask. They are divine mysteries to be answered only when the faithful enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” This answer did not impress the crowd and it certainly did not satisfy the young man who had posed the original question.

“ Science.” said the young man “Makes progress by asking questions and it goes on asking questions until it finds the answers. So, science is a matter of knowledge and faith doesn't come in to it. With increasing knowledge more and more of the natural world will be explained.”

“There are other problems that I have with the Bible. Why, for example, if it is supposed to be God's wisdom, are there no accounts of dinosaurs in it. Surely they deserve a mention at least.”

“Yes, what about the dinosaurs?” demanded the crowd.

By this time the crowd had grown considerably, enjoying the discomfort of the earnest young man who had set out that morning to save as many souls as he could. Recognising

 that he had little chance of success he prepared to depart, but before doing so he turned to his challenger and said “God bless you.” It was said with  obvious sincerity and the recipient of the blessing felt some strange sensation that he did not expect and could not account for. He shrugged it off.

With the departure of the speaker the crowd dispersed and the critical young man went to sit down on a nearby bench. Its other occupant was an old gentleman dressed simply in well worn but well -cared for clothes. “That was a very effective dismissal” said the old man. “But let me make a few comments.”

“ Ever since humankind developed the capacity for abstract thought it has pondered on its own origins. The answers that it has put forward are its creation myths. There are many such myths but with increasing knowledge of the physical world they can all be seen to be flawed. Our clerical friend was unwise to attempt to defend what time has shown must be discarded. However, science too has its myths, or perhaps I should say, its misconceptions.” The young man was surprised to hear this. “Surely the scientific method, with its insistence on repeatability of experimental results and their independent verification means that scientific conclusions are founded on solid scientific facts. Only a fool would argue that the moon did not go round the earth and the earth did not go round the sun. ” The old man smiled. “I shall come back to that question later, but for the moment I should like you to take part in a little experiment, if you will.” The young man was enthusiastic about experiments and readily accepted the invitation. “Very well. Pick up a stone from the ground, whichever one you want.”    “Now, when you feel inclined and in your own time, put the stone back on the ground wherever you choose.“ The young man did as he was asked but was very puzzled as to what all this was about. “Now think what you have done.” said the old man. “ The Universe is full of billions and billions of stars, each containing countless numbers of atoms. Each atom obeys precisely the laws of Nature which govern it. Even the uncertainty principle, of which you may have heard, is a law of Nature. Without such obedience all would be chaos and birds, trees, the sun, the moon and you, yourself could not exist...and yet you, a tiny part of the whole has the power to change a small part according to your own will. By some profound mystery you have been given dominion over a small part of creation and you can bend a part of the cosmos to your own purpose. That is an awesome responsibility and you need to give careful thought to how you use that power. While you are engaged in that process ask yourself of the origin of that power that you hold. Bear in mind that you are not of your own making .“ The young man said nothing and the old one continued.

“You must realise that knowledge is not wisdom. Certainly you had the better of the young preacher when he talked about the creation, but he was ready to act as a humble mediator of God's love when he blessed you. You demonstrated your greater knowledge but he showed his greater compassion. Now the young man was beginning to feel uncomfortable but he wasn't ready to give in just yet. “You said that science has its misconceptions but you have yet to tell me what they are.” “That is not difficult” replied the old man. “Let's consider the example that you choose. The elliptical orbits of the planets around the sun are explained well by Newton's laws of motion and even more precisely by Einstein's Theory of Relativity. However, these theories only account for how the planets are attracted by the sun they do not explain why  they are so attracted. The why  is called a 'law of nature' and that is where the explanation ends. One may say that the heavenly bodies attract one another because that is what massive bodies do. I'm sure that you will agree that is not an intellectually satisfactory explanation for planetary motion. It might be fair to ask “If nature obeys certain laws, who, or what is the law-maker? Science gives no answer to that question.”

The gentle way that the old man had spoken and the power of his words made a strong impression on his young listener. He had not sought to humiliate but only to instruct and it was clear to the young man that he had much to learn. He diverted his gaze briefly, to see whether the cleric was still in sight. Ascertaining that he was not he turned back to the old man with the hope of continuing his own instruction. To his complete bewilderment he found that there was no sign of his new teacher despite the fact that only a brief moment before the two of them were side-by-side on the park bench.

The memory of that Sunday morning remained with the young man for the rest of his life.         

(Don gained a 1st Class Honours degree in Physics from University College, London in 1957 and worked for the following 10 years for the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority at Harwell and Culham. He then left the UKAEA to study medicine at Oxford University. Mr Mascon retired in 2002 as Emeritus Professor of Immunology at Oxford. Since retiring he has written a short history of his family and has written a book, Science Mystical Experience and Religious Belief which was inspired in part by his scientific studies and part by the fact that his mother was a psychic.)