The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

mantle as high as they are today. OPENING THE HEAVENS MIGHT ALSO ACCELERATE NUCLEAR DECAY RATE found evidence that both nuclear decay and volume cooling were greatly accelerated during the year of the Genesis flood. It is possible that the same opening of the windows of heaven (Gen. 7:11) I suggest caused the accelerated cooling also caused the acceleration of nuclear decay. Here I will briefly outline a possible way that could have happened. Nuclear theorists today think the main part of the attractive strong force between nucleons (protons and neutrons) when they are at the distances apart they are in the atomic nucleus, on the order of several femtometers (1 fm = 10 −15 meter), comes from the exchange of lighter particles called pi mesons , or pions (Roy and Nigam, 1967). If the opening of the heavens makes the reflective boundaries of the fabric more transparent to pions, then some of the pions leaving a nucleon can move out into hyperspace before coming back to the other nucleon, as Fig. 10 illustrates. I have deliberately made the pion paths similar to lines of force in classical electromagnetics, but I do not know if that is justified. Notice that the curved pion paths are sloped at the points where they touch the nucleons, with a component in the w -direction. That suggests that the component of the force in the x , y , or z directions at those points is reduced compared to the force along the straight pion paths. That would reduce the total force between the nucleons. Weaker attractive forces between the nucleons would increase the radius of the nucleus they are in. That would greatly accelerate the decay of alpha particles (Chaffin, 2005, pp. 527-533). Also, energy levels of nucleons in the nucleus would change, and that would strongly affect the rates of beta decays with half-lives that are normally long (Chaffin, 2005, pp. 563-567). Beta-decaying isotopes with relatively short half-lives, such as carbon 14, would not be affected as much. In summary, the weaker forces between nucleons (caused by the opening of the heavens) would greatly accelerate both alpha- and beta-decay in most cases. It may be that God controlled the transparency of the windows of the heavens to pi mesons independently of the windows’ transparency to heat radiation, so as to better control the temperatures He wanted in various parts of the Earth. CONCLUSION I have cited Biblical and scientific evidence that space itself is a physical material, the fabric of space, existing in a hyperspace of four spatial dimensions. This, plus many Scriptures describing an opening of the heavens at certain times in the past, leads straightforwardly to the idea that under those conditions hot objects in the fabric of space could radiate their heat efficiently into hyperspace. This model works out well numerically, effectively limiting the temperatures of rocks heated by accelerated nuclear decay, while at the same time not significantly cooling creatures at ordinary temperatures. Last, the same opening of the heavens may well have also accelerated nuclear decay. In that case, the two major objections to the results of the RATE research initiative can now be set aside. REFERENCES Abbott, E.A. 1884. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions [1991 with a new introduction to the second and revised edition of 1884]. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Baumgardner, J.R. 2000. Distribution of radioactive isotopes in the earth. In Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: A Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative , vol. I, eds. L. Vardiman, A.A. Snelling, and E.F. Chaffin, pp. 49-94. El Cajon, California: Institute for Creation Research; St. Joseph, Missouri: Creation Research Society. Bullinger, E.W. 1898. Figures of Speech Used in the Bible: Explained and Illustrated , London, England: Eyre & Spotteswoode. Chaffin, E.F. 2005.Accelerated nuclear decay: Theoretical Considerations. In Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative , vol. II, eds. L. Vardiman, A.A. Snelling, and E.F. Chaffin, pp. 525-585. El Cajon, California: Institute for Creation Research; Chino Valley, Arizona: Creation Research Society. Dirac, P.A.M. 1951. Is there an Æther? Nature 168:906-907. Einstein, A. 1905. Zur elektrodynamik bewegter körper. Annalen der Physik 17:891–921. Translated as ‘On the electrodynamics of moving bodies.’ In The Principle of Relativity: A Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and General Theory of Relativity (1952). H.A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, H. Weyl, and H. Minkowski, pp. 37-65. Dover Publications: New York. Einstein, A. 1917. Kosmologische Betractungen zur allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie, Sitzungsberichte der Prüssischen Akademie der Wissenschaften . Translated as ‘Cosmological considerations on the general theory of relativity. Minutes of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .’ In The Principle of Relativity: A Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and General Theory of Relativity (1952). H.A. Lorentz, A. Einstein, H. Weyl, and H. Minkowski, pp. 177-198. Dover Publications: New York. Einstein, A. 1922. Ether and the theory of relativity: An address delivered on May 5 th , 1920, at the University of Leyden. In Sidelights on Relativity , by A. Einstein, translated by G.B. Jeffery and W. Perret. New York: E.P. Dutton and Company. Reprinted 1983, New York: Dover Publications. Feynman, R.P., R.B. Leighton, and M. Sands. 1965. The Feynman Lectures on Physics , vol. III. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. Henley, E.M., and Thirring, W. 1962. Elementary Quantum Field Theory . New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. Humphreys ◀ Accelerated cooling ▶ 2018 ICC 737 Figure 10. Nuclear forces may have been affected by the opening of the heavens. With the reflective covers removed (or made more transparent), π mesons could leak into hyperspace, reducing the (attractive) force in the x , y , and z directions. That would increase nuclear decay rates greatly. Sizes of the neutrons and protons are on the order of 10 −15 meter.