{"id":1783,"date":"2012-04-19T23:09:38","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T06:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=1783"},"modified":"2012-04-19T23:09:38","modified_gmt":"2012-04-20T06:09:38","slug":"snarks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2012\/04\/19\/snarks\/","title":{"rendered":"Snarks"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 1997 novel, Einstein\u2019s Bridge<\/a><\/em>, by John Cramer, a working physicist, is an enjoyable science fiction story about the discovery of intelligence in an alternate universe. The scientists learn of the alternate universe and its inhabitants through strange results from an experiment with a nuclear accelerator. Though not the primary focus of his novel, in describing these unanticipated results, John Cramer explains that unreproducible data that don\u2019t fit known theory are called \u201cSnarks.\u201d The term comes from the fictional animal in Lewis Carol\u2019s nonsense poem, The Hunting of the Snark<\/em>. Carol\u2019s poem describes \u201cwith infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Occasionally, in collecting data, something appears that is just plain weird, falling outside the range of everything else that has been gathered. Snarks are puzzle pieces that don\u2019t fit. <\/p>\n

John Cramer says that these sorts of things are \u201cimpossible events.\u201d And \u201cwe can\u2019t explain it, we can\u2019t reproduce it, and we can\u2019t eliminate the possibility that it was the result of faulty equipment. Therefore, we can\u2019t publish it. It will have to remain as a big one that got away.\u201d (p. 105)<\/p>\n

Cramer goes on to write about the French philosopher Poincar\u00e9: \u201cHe was an excellent physicist, but he had the problem that he was also a devout Catholic. Poincar\u00e9 was deeply concerned about the implicit conflict between divine miracles and the laws of physics. So he considered a hypothetical phenomenon that occurs, like a miracle, just once in the history of the universe. He argued convincingly that science has no way of dealing with a one-shot physical phenomenon. They have to be reproducible. Poincar\u00e9 believed that scientists would tend to ignore one-shot events, might even pretend that they didn\u2019t exist.\u201d (p. 107)<\/p>\n

\tThe fact that it is a single, isolated thing, is what gets it that designation. <\/p>\n

For instance, there is an incident in SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) research that can be called a Snark. It is known as the Wow! signal. The Wow! signal was a strong narrowband radio signal detected by Dr. Jerry R. Ehman on August 15, 1977 while he worked on a SETI project at the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. The Wow! signal bore all the expected earmarks of what a radio signal from another world should look like. Unfortuantely it only lasted seventy-two seconds and has never been detected again. Was it evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence? Was it just a glitch in the recording equipment? There is no way to know. And unless the signal appears again\u2014and can be detected by several other listeners\u2014it must forever remain unverifiable.<\/p>\n

We find Snarks in the Bible. Most of us probably have a favorite or two. For instance, in 1 Samuel 28 Saul goes to a necromancer and gets her to \u201cbring up Samuel.\u201d Samuel then appears as a ghostly apparition who tells Saul that within twenty-four hours he will join Samuel in death. No similar stories appear in the Bible, nor does any other part of the Bible reference the odd incident to explain what is going on. On the face of it, it would appear that Samuel\u2019s ghost was brought forth in a manner not unlike the s\u00e9ances that we see in movies. But the whole idea of such a thing seems at odds with what we gain from the rest of the Bible. We simply don\u2019t believe in ghosts and the whole idea messes with our theology as we know it. Trying to explain the ghostly Samuel away, however, is not particularly effective either. Nor do I find the suggestion that we\u2019re looking at a demon convincing.<\/p>\n

Another Snark appears in 1 Corinthians 15:29. Paul mentions people being \u201cbaptized for the dead\u201d in his argument about the resurrection. What does Paul mean? All the commentators are certain that the Mormon interpretation of Paul is the least likely among the possibilities. Other than that, there\u2019s no agreement: I\u2019ve run across about nine explanations for Paul\u2019s words. <\/p>\n

\u201cBaptism for the dead\u201d is a Snark. It appears but once, without explanation, and in apparent contradiction to everything else we know.<\/p>\n

\tAs frustrating as the Snark events of the universe are, they are part of the wonderful thing about doing science or theology. Such little unexpected data bits that don\u2019t fit become the raw ingredients for future theories. And when we really figure them out, the answers look obvious and are profoundly satisfying.<\/p>\n

For now, however, the Snarks are like the odd puzzle piece you stumble upon while putting together a jigsaw puzzle. You\u2019ve been working away on mostly pink and white bits. All at once, you find a green piece with a trace of blue on one edge. Where did that come from? Where does it go? All you can see is pink and white on the table in front of you. Nothing else is green or blue. So for the time being, you just have to set it aside.<\/p>\n

\tBut you don\u2019t ignore it, you don\u2019t forget about it, or pretend it isn\u2019t there, because you know you\u2019ll eventually need it, and eventually it will make sense. If you were to toss it in the trash the final picture would be incomplete.<\/p>\n

\tBut you also don\u2019t dare speculate too much or try to force it to fit what you\u2019ve got just now. No taking hammer and saw to it, or repainting it the color you want. Until you get more pieces\u2014until more data arrives\u2014realistically, you simply have to admit that it belongs to the future\u2014that you don\u2019t know how to make it come together for now.<\/p>\n

\tThe Snarks in our biblical data gathering remind me of the famous Shakespeare quote from Hamlet: \u201cThere are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, \/ Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tOr our theology, I would add. We shouldn\u2019t be afraid of not understanding; nor should we hide from it or fear it. It\u2019s okay to be puzzled. Snarks give us something to do, after all\u2014they keep theologians like me off the street\u2014and they help keep us humble. God is like an infinite jigsaw puzzle. That we can see any of the picture at all is the wonder. <\/p>\n

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The 1997 novel, Einstein\u2019s Bridge, by John Cramer, a working physicist, is an enjoyable science fiction story about the discovery of intelligence in an alternate universe. The scientists learn of the alternate universe and its inhabitants through strange results from … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,4,19,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1784,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions\/1784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}