The conventionality thesis and the asynchronous convention for the one-way speed of light (ASC) has been presented as a biblical creationist explanation for how light from the most distant sources in the cosmos reached Earth within the 6,000 years since the Creation, as determined from a straightforward reading of the Genesis account. There is no conflict with the true age of the universe because it simply is counted off by the years since creation.[1],[2],[3]
The conventionality thesis in Special Relativity relates to the synchronisation of clocks separated by a distance. It involves to the notion that the one-way speed of light, provided the two-way speed is c, can only be chosen by a convention, since it is impossible in principle to measure it.
With respect to this subject, I address some issues raised from articles I have recently written on this subject.[4],[5],[6]
Innate bias
The first issue
relates not so much to the science but to the mindset of the hearer when the
topic is discussed. There seems to be in many of us an innate bias against accepting
that the events (in light from stars, galaxies etc) we see in the cosmos are
the same age as the earth and solar system. The idea is that all we see in the
cosmos is occurring now, and not in some
past epoch of time. However due to our
education among other factors we are biased into believing the starlight coming
from the cosmos travels at a fixed speed of about 300,000 km/s and because of
the distances involved it must have taken billions of years to reach Earth. We
believe this even though it has never been measured.[7]
Last year I had the
opportunity to share a PowerPoint talk titled “Can we see into the past?”[8] with a small group of friends who were
all solidly biblical creationist in worldview. After I gave the PowerPoint
presentation some questions were asked and one person, who does have some
science training, said that he just could not get his head around it. I respect
that but I believe it is a case where a little knowledge can be dangerous. In
some cases a prior knowledge has led to a closely held belief, or an innate
bias, which in turn can close off a person’s mind to new ideas without any
logical reason. Such situations are well documented in science, particularly in
fields that are undergoing revolutionary transitions. For example the case of
phlogiston.[9]
Another man in that
small group, who is physically blind and could not see my PowerPoint slides (so
he did not have the advantage that the sighted people did), said that he had no
problem understanding it. He said that he had had no science education and did
not have any preconceived ideas (for example that the one-way speed of light
must be finite, isotropic and equal to c,
the measured two-way speed).
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