Pleasant Plum #3

“A Different Point of View”

I am a Geologist. I teach GEOL 100 (beginning mineralogy) and GEOL 325 (magneto-ferric mapping) at Iowa State University I also am a consultant to Shell, providing a second opinion on the viability of natural oil patches for drilling in Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. I am a scientist. I also believe.

Did you know that if the earth was 3 ft thicker, life could not exist because the gravity would prevent cells from moving quickly enough to reproduce?

. I like the natural process of time. I’ll take my students out into the field and explain to them that the “rock” they are holding in their hands took millions of years to create.

In their world, things are defined by instances and moments, mere flashes of light. A fleeting scene that before you can define it; is gone.

Did you know that if the atmosphere wasn’t the exact balance of carbon, nitrogen hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur; life couldn’t breath?

The antiquity of the world is hard to grasp. Sometimes we have to write down the age of the earth on the chalkboard. 4.5 billion years is hard to wrap your head around. After all, it’s a heck of a lot of zeros. When seconds are an eternity, millennia don’t exist.

Did you know that charcoal is made of the same thing as diamonds?

The constant processes of the earth fascinate me. The world moves and changes in a time that is so alien to may own. Like two drummers with completely different rhythms making wild but complementary beats. It’s hard to reconcile that they have even the same units of measurement.

Did you know that our continents move 18 centimeters each year?

Geology creates things that are so fantastically beautiful. Gemstones birthed by the loving crush of the earth during a millennium. Limestone formations crafted by the tears of a cave. Ocean cliffs’ faces beaten by salty waves.

Did you know that magnetically, the North Pole is actually the South Pole?

My job is to try and explain this beauty, to grasp and understand it. Ever since the word “scientist” we have tried and failed. When we do finally understand, it is so clear and simple it has an elegant beauty.

Did you know that scientists only hypothesize how the world works, and then just get lucky?

People ask me to explain how I can hold such contradictory views.

They think that a scientist’s job is proving that “He” doesn’t exist.

I think that a scientist’s job is proving that He does.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters…..

And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold,

it was very good.”

I get to pay homage to the magic, miraculous thing that is creation.

It is very good.