[Kim Byung-min's Science Village] Great Debate on the Movie 'The Two Popes' and the 'Age of the Earth'

English Thomson, who established the absolute temperature 'Kelvin' system, claimed Earth was 100 million years old in the 19th century
Dismissed claims contradicting his hypothesis and spread distorted knowledge for decades
Mid-1900s radioactive dating revealed Earth's age as 4.6 billion years

Byungmin Kim, Science Writer

We need healing, not apologies.

"So, the year 2020 has really arrived!"

Most movies made decades ago depicting the year 2020 portray it as a bleak era. It is an age where ethics and human dignity are lost against the backdrop of advanced science and industrial civilization, and the majority of humanity suffers due to the limits of capitalism.

Unlike in the movies, humanity does not freely travel between planets in the solar system yet. However, while benefiting from explosively advanced science and industrial civilization, we are also facing serious real-world issues such as the climate crisis and threats to ecosystems. Not only South Korea but countries around the world maintain a balance of power through tense ideological confrontations and checks and balances. At times, many people suffer from wars or poverty caused by the polarization of capitalism, a reality not much different from that depicted in films.

The movie I watched on the first weekend of the new year, starting with the number "2020," left a different impression, as if reflecting these conflicts and harmonies.

The film I saw, The Two Popes (2019), portrays the debates between the real-life figures Pope Benedict XVI and the current Pope Francis. From the beginning, the movie reveals the conflict between the old and the new. It starts with a confrontation between one who seeks to uphold the traditional orthodoxy with its many problems within the Catholic Church and a challenger who seems to embody neoliberal values.

Throughout the film, rigorous and tense debates unfold. However, Pope Francis opens his heart to understand the other’s feelings, acknowledges the Church’s faults, and even draws out Pope Benedict XVI’s reflections.

I understood why people found solace in The Two Popes. It is a message to us, who live by acknowledging each other’s faults and reconciling claims in the dimension of making right choices and changes.

In fact, such confrontations are easily found in the debates between modern religion and science. Especially since the protagonists of The Two Popes accept scientific facts like the Big Bang and evolution, even shedding the thick, old garments of orthodox Catholicism, the famous great debates in the history of science overlapped in my mind throughout the movie.

The age of the Earth still often stands at the center of debate. But it was even more so in the past. Following the Renaissance in the 15th century, science and philosophy, which had been suppressed by religion, revived. However, even new and excellent knowledge and ideas do not suddenly appear before humanity to dominate or change the era.

Science is a discipline that doubts existing explanations and re-proves them. Yet, new knowledge is mostly entangled with old beliefs. Hence, friction arises between the old and the new. It may be natural that even among scientists, conflicts and debates occurred.

However, when an authority figure like the pope stands at the center of the debate, the discussion is greatly influenced. The Catholic Church, which upheld the doctrine of papal infallibility, only admitted its reflection on the Crusades and the complicity in the persecution of Jews after nearly 2,000 years.

Similarly, in the modern scientific community, the flawed worldview of a towering figure had a wrong influence on the debate about the Earth's age.

The unit of temperature used in science is the absolute temperature, Kelvin (K). Zero Kelvin is defined as minus 273.15 degrees Celsius. This name was given in honor of the British scientist Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824?1907), who established the absolute temperature scale.

At that time, he was a world-renowned physicist and electrical engineer who contributed greatly to scientific advancement in many fields, not just temperature. He was a prodigy who entered university at age ten and topped all subjects. He obtained many patents and published papers. He contributed not only to theoretical research but also to the establishment of many measuring instruments and standards. His influence even reached the metric system, the current unit of length.

Albert Einstein’s (1879?1955) theory of relativity could not have been born without James Clerk Maxwell (1831?1879), who completed the electromagnetic equations. It was Kelvin who introduced Maxwell to Michael Faraday’s (1791?1867) theories. Thus, he also contributed to the advanced information and communication technologies we enjoy today. In fact, he was involved in installing the transatlantic communication cables.

Sir Kelvin is a noble title granted by Britain in recognition of his achievements; his original name was William Thomson. He rose to become president of the Royal Society of London, the highest authority in the scientific community at the time.

However, in the debate about the Earth's age, he became a very different figure. At that time, it was believed based on the Bible that the Earth was about 6,000 years old. It was a time when it was difficult to refute this. Even the scientific community acknowledged that the main cause of the Earth's topography was Noah’s flood.

Then, new observations and theories began to cast doubt on the Bible-based claims. The new theory proposed that the Earth was initially as hot as the sun but gradually cooled from a molten state to its current form. Observing and calculating the Earth's cooling rate and the lowering of sea levels increased the estimated age of the Earth.

The Earth's age was estimated at 75,000 years by the French count Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707?1788), and the French naturalist Beno?t de Maillet (1656?1738) even proposed a radical view of 2 billion years.

The principle of uniformitarianism, which explains past phenomena by current processes, emerged in the scientific community. Subsequently, the theory of catastrophic changes caused by floods lost its foundation. Yet, God was still believed to intervene in scientific facts.

The French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace, Marquis de Laplace (1749?1827), viewed the solar system as a mathematical arrangement. However, he still believed in the presence of God’s hand. This belief was shared by Thomson, president of the Royal Society. Thus, old beliefs were intertwined with new opinions.

Thomson showed deep interest in thermodynamics from his student days. The term "energy" was first used by Thomson. He pioneered the field of thermodynamics. His calculations suggested that the Earth was originally part of the sun and cooled at a constant rate since its formation. The clue was the fact that the temperature increased the deeper one went into mines. He thought the original heat source remained inside. His calculation estimated the Earth's age at 100 million years.

British scientist William Thomson (1824?1907)

However, this claim conflicted with estimates by geologists and Charles Darwin’s (1809?1882) theory of evolution. The Earth’s rugged surface and the natural selection-driven evolution of species required much longer time.

Thomson did not accept evolution. But he was not like today’s creationists who take the Bible literally. He asserted his own views and crushed opposing opinions. His theory of the origin of life also involved God. He claimed that bacteria-laden meteorites were thrown by God and started life by chance.

Thomson’s opinion, armed with overwhelming authority, had a profoundly negative impact on debates and scientific progress. The Earth's age, starting at 100 million years in 1846, was stuck due to one man’s stubbornness. Thomson’s position as president of the Royal Society prolonged this debate for about 70 years until the end of the century. Later, French physicist Henri Becquerel (1852?1908) discovered radioactivity, revealing the existence of a heat source continuously supplying heat inside the Earth. Thomson’s theory began to collapse.

The mid-19th to early 20th century was a period when most of humanity’s scientific achievements poured out. Many scientists were scorned and suffered as targets of Thomson’s debates. For decades, many students accumulated distorted knowledge from Thomson’s textbooks.

The influence of a powerful authority who closes both ears and heart and insists only on his own experience and knowledge negatively affects human progress. We can easily find such examples not only in the history of religion and science but also around us.

The new year number 2020 demands some great change. Yet, the authorities around us still insist only on their claims, criticize others with double standards, and refuse to open their ears. Society is divided into clear gaps of hierarchy and blurred boundaries of left and right, drifting away from people’s hopes. Moreover, the world is filled with even tenser tension due to the balance of power.

The world today is so intertwined that a stone thrown from one side causes ripples on the opposite side, resonating even with distant suffering. It is hard to say these ripples originate solely from the poor and powerless neighbors. They start from leaders with power and authority, so-called great mountains, and are transmitted as waves. That is why the thoughts, attitudes, and actions of such elders are important.

Like uniformitarianism, which explains the present by similar past facts, history may repeat itself, and the mistakes of elders may recur. The present anxiety and future uncertainty cause ordinary people like me, countless neighbors, and future generations to feel uneasy and suffer wounds and pain. Anyone can make mistakes. But repeating mistakes is a sin against humanity.

Who should we, the wounded, receive apologies from? I recall a line from the movie The Two Popes: "Sin is a wound, not a stain. It must be healed and cured; forgiveness alone is not enough."

Apologies and forgiveness were not enough for us. We need to be healed by those elders.

Science writer