My Trip in Time Read online

Professor thought.

  However, when I said that to the Professor he merely replied, “They are not. James, here is another good example. You are familiar with the Big Bang theory?” I nodded my head that I was. “Well in 4013, the Big Bang theory is still the most commonly accepted theory on how the universe was formed. So let me ask you this question. In your opinion, does the Big Bang theory disprove the creation story in Genesis?”

  “Yes,” I replied confidently. Now I was getting my bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, so while physics wasn’t my area of expertise, I felt pretty safe that the Professor couldn’t turn this one around on me.

  “OK,” the Professor replied. “So would it surprise you to learn that George Lemaitre, the Noble Prize winning physicists that authored the Big Bang theory, was also a Roman Catholic priest?”

  “What?” I replied. I hadn’t expected that one.

  “Yes, he was a Catholic priest and Pope Pius XII enthusiastically endorsed the theory. Ironically, it was the scientific community who were initially skeptical, because it sounded too much like the creation story.”

  “How could a Priest…the Pope…that doesn’t make any sense. I am definitely going to have to Google this when I get back home.”

  But one of my descendants did me one better. “Computer,” Aaron stated. “Display biography, George Lemaitre.” A 40 inch holographic window appeared in front us, displaying George Lemaitre’s bio.”

  “You see,” the Professor stated. “This is the theological ignorance I was referring to, which stems from the mistaken belief that the Book of Genesis was meant to be interpreted literally. Do you see my point, or should we bring up Pope John Paul’s 1996 endorsement of the Theory of Evolution?”

  “The Pope endorsed the Theory of Evolution?” I replied incredulously. “What year was that?”

  “1996 – Pope John Paul II endorsed the theory in his address to Pontifical Academy of Sciences. Though more accurately you can say that he just endorsed it as a plausible scientific explanation of the evolution of life, and restated that it in no way conflicted with the creation story, which was never supposed to be interpreted literally.”

  “That can’t be right…” I started to say, but then once again a 40 inch holographic window appeared in front of me with the headline – Pope Endorses the Theory of Evolution. “How come I never heard about this?”

  “Well, I am sure it made the news in your time,” the Professor replied. “But it probably wasn’t a lead item. After all in the late 20th and early 21st centuries it seems like only sex scandals and celebrity gossip grab the headlines. I devote an entire section of my Middle Earth History class to the study of America’s bizarre fascination with Brad and Jolie.”

  Ok at this point I was mentally spent, and the Professor’s words troubled me. I admit that much of my skepticism of the Bible originated from my belief that the book of Genesis was supposed to be a factual, step by step account. If it was only supposed to be allegory, then…was everything else true?

  “OK,” I said. “I will concede, at least for now, that I have mistakenly believed that the creation story was supposed to be literally true. However, just because it was allegorical does not mean that there is a God, and that this is not just all some of sort of cosmic accident.”

  “Agreed,” the Professor stated. “It does not. As Aaron told you. Today, the year 1413, the God question still remains unanswered.”

  “But how could that be?” I asked, genuinely confused. “I mean you can time travel. Why hasn’t someone just gone back in time and verified that Moses didn’t part the Red Sea, or that Jesus didn’t rise from the grave?”

  “People have,” Aaron replied. “But the results have been inconclusive.”

  “How can that be?”

  “Well,” Aaron replied, excitingly sitting forward in his chair. I could tell this was clearly where he expected the conversation to begin. “Observing historical events can be tricky. First, you have to actually make it to the right place and time. Your directions to us were pretty specific. You told us when and where, and we have very good records of your time period. However, you don’t really have any of that before the 18th century. The first timeologists, Albert Dumbar, who traveled back to observe the life of Jesus was off on his calculations by only a week. But that was enough for him to miss everything. He came back and famously reported that Jesus never existed.”

  “That was a big deal,” Professor Phineas said, shaking his head. “It shook the galaxy for about six months, until a rival of Professor Dumbar’s, Professor Abigail Grace, made her trip back in time, actually three trips. Professor Grace brought back proof that Jesus did exist, and that poor Professor Dumbar had literally been at the wrong place, at the wrong time. It turns out that he had rushed to publish his findings out of fear that Professor Grace would get there first…poor Dumbar.”

  “What happened to him?” I asked.

  “Complete and total ridicule,” Jacob laughed. “He was fired, stripped of his degrees. It got so bad that he had to go into hiding and change his name. Dumbar is now in the Galactic dictionary for shoddy, imprecise observation. Computer.”

  A 40 inch holograph appeared in front of us with the caption, Dumbar definition. It read:

  Dumbar: Shoddy, imprecise observation. Associated with Albert Dumbar’s grossly incompetent findings on the historical Jesus on 10/13/3933.

  “I know that may sound extreme to you,” Professor Phineas said. “And perhaps it was. But you have to understand that our standards for the accurate reporting of information is much higher than in your time, where the news media sensationalizes a story for ratings, and where people are somewhat casual with the truth. So when Dumbar published his findings they were not greeted with the same level of skepticism as they would have been in your time, instead most everyone accepted it as fact. And because such a large percentage of the human race classifies themselves as Christian, it was a significant blow to the collective psyche of mankind. Then when people found out that Dumbar had selfishly rushed to publish his findings because he was afraid of being scooped…well, people were upset. Very, very upset. There was actually some serious talk about whether or not Professor Dumbar should be criminally charged. So all in all, you could argue that Dumbar got off easy.”

  OK, people in the future sounded a little uptight, but of course I didn’t say that. Instead I asked, “If Professor Grace brought back proof that Jesus actually existed, then why is there still a question on whether or not God exists?”

  “Because proving that Jesus existed is not the same thing as proving He is divine,” the Professor replied. “Even in your time there was enough historical evidence to prove that Jesus existed. The real question is – was He divine?”

  “But didn’t Professor Grace bring back proof that Jesus performed miracles?”

  “No, well at least not indisputable proof,” the Professor replied.

  “Professor!” Aaron complained.

  “Oh, sorry Aaron,” the Professor apologized. “Go ahead. This is your RE project.” Glancing down at his iPad he said, “Oh, we only have forty minutes left.”

  “So Grandfather, as the Professor stated,” Aaron began. “While Professor Grace brought back visual evidence, it is not indisputable.”

  “But how can that be?” I asked, and the Professor started to answer before he caught himself and let Aaron respond.

  “Because while we have visual evidence that Jesus was crucified, was placed in a tomb, and three days later was not there anymore. We can only view the events, we can’t interact with them. For example, we know that Jesus wasn’t on the cross long enough for a normal, healthy person to die, but scripture acknowledges this and says that Jesus was granted an early death. We can’t very well go up and perform an autopsy on him. And three days later, Jesus’ tomb was empty.”

  “Did anyone see him sneak out?” I asked. “Or see someone remove his body?”

/>   “No, but…”

  “Well that sounds pretty conclusive to me.”

  “Tell Grandfather about time gaps,” Jacob interjected.

  “I was getting to that,” Aaron replied. “So Grandfather, as we were explaining to you before, your mind is here in the future, but your actual body is back in 2011. So, you really haven’t traveled to the future, so much as we have transmitted your thoughts into the future. Well the farther back you go, the more static, interference and just plain gaps there are. When you go back just a few hundred years or less, then you can pretty much record the whole event. In your case, 2,000 years in our past, we are normally only able to record events in 45-90 minute intervals, with approximately the same gaps in between. When you go back to Jesus’ time, 4,000+ years in the past, we can only record in approximately 15 minute intervals, with an hour gap in between. So timeologists are only able to document about 20% of a given event. Leaving 80% of the event unrecorded, which is a pretty significant gap.”

  “I am confused, how can there be in gaps in time?”

  “Well, think of time as an echo,” Aaron replied. “The closer you are to the event itself, the clearer the echo is. The farther away you get, the weaker it gets, till you can’t hear it at all. The actual physics of it would be impossible for us to explain to you, even if we had a year, but does