I think it was about fifteen years ago I read a throwaway line from James Jordan, something to the effect of "Does anyone really think the speed of light is an absolute?" It stuck with me, and now has been vindicated, at least apparently, by the CERN lab in Switzerland.
It's not that I have any beef against Einstein: to the extent I understand his physics (and once math is involved, I understand very little of anything), they seem a useful model for the universe in which we live. The fact I see Einstenian physics as a model, though, reveals my real beef, which is against those in the hard sciences who tend to treat their models and theories as something more final and definite, who think they are able to speak on moral and metaphysical questions on the basis of scientific research. If verified, the lasting value of the CERN laboratory results will be to remind us that all scientific models and theories, because falsifiable, are at best provisional: they stand until a contrary data point is discovered, and they are useful only so far as they are useful. And when it comes to judging the ultimate questions of human existence, which are not material but metaphysical, they are of very limited utility indeed.
Perhaps that's the sort of attitude one might expect from a pastor, who deals in final answers to metaphysical questions, answers which are in a strict sense falsifiable but in fact cannot be falsified because no contrary data points exist. However, I think my attitude is not the result of a parochial superiority complex, but instead has to do with the natures of our respective fields. Scientists are human beings attempting to describe the world around them. Preachers are human beings who declare God's description of the world he has created on the basis of what God has already and authoritatively declared in the Bible. That declaration is complete, and unlike scientific models and theories, shall never change.
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