The falling apple

Isaac Newton was 83 when he told a biographer the tale of observing an apple fall at age 23. He relates the story about how an apple falling in his garden prompted him to develop his law of universal gravitation. “Why should that apple always descend perpendicularly to the ground?”, thought he to himself. “Why should it not go sideways or upwards, but constantly to the earth’s center?”

Newton’s breakthrough was not that objects fell down, but that the force that made them fall extended upward infinitely (reduced by the square of the distance), that the force exists between any two masses, and that the same force that makes an apple fall holds the moon and planets in their courses.

Science allows us to make successful predictions about certain future states. For example, if I mix chemical A with chemical B, I expect to get result C because it has always been that way in the past. This happens the same way every time: if the conditions are the same, I will get the same result. The law of gravity, and science in general, is based on an underlying uniformity in nature. But why should there be such uniformity in nature? And how do we know about it?

With great precision astronomers are able to calculate years in advance the positions of planets, the timing of eclipses, and so on -- only because the universe operates in such a consistent way. We all know that (in basic ways) the universe will behave in the future as it has in the past. Science would be impossible without this critical principle. But what is the foundation for this principle?

The Bible provides that foundation. According to the biblical worldview, God has chosen to uphold the universe in a consistent way for our benefit. He has promised us in places such as Genesis 8:22 that the basic cycles of nature will continue to be in the future as they have been in the past. Although specific circumstances change, the basic laws of nature (such as gravity) will continue to work in the future as they have in the past.

Interestingly, only God is in a position to tell us on His own authority that this will be true. According to the Bible, God is beyond time, and so only He knows what the future will be. But we are within time and have not experienced the future. The only way we could know the future will be (in certain ways) like the past is because God has told us in His word that it will be. Apart from the Bible, is there any way we could know that the future will be like the past? So far, no one has been able to show how such a belief would make sense apart from scripture. The only nonbiblical explanations offered have turned out to be faulty. This turns out to be a very good reason to believe the Bible is true.

Kyle Campbell