The Mystery of Mystery Hill
Want to see water flow uphill, balls roll up a ramp, or watch a swing sway in perpetual motion? Well come on down to Mystery Hill in Blowing Rock, NC. It claims to be the only site in NC, and one of a handful in the entire USA, that sits atop a bona fide “natural gravitational anomaly.”
Discovered in the 1920s in the Historic Hudson Apple Orchards the only known gravitational anomaly in the state has been amazing visitors from around the world since it was opened to the public in 1948. On a fun and educational guided tour, your family will learn the history of the discovery of this natural wonder and get to try their hand with many demonstrations of how gravity behaves differently in this one section of the historic orchards. Tours start several times an hour and guests get time to explore and experiment on their own after the tour. -- from "About" Mystery Hill
Visitors enter a room that appears to be level, but immediately upon entering, are propelled seemingly “downhill” toward the opposite wall. Balls placed on a track with an apparent 20-30 degree upward grade appear to roll up the track. Water poured into a bucket at the lower base of a pipe running 20-30 degrees below a faucet appears to flow up the pipe and out the faucet above. Children can sit upon a swing and push back only to have it swing forward and stop at a right angle to the ground, before swinging back again with no effort.
Visitors listen in amazement as the tour guide explains that the room they are in sits atop a gravitational vortex – an area of highly dense metal ore buried deep in the heart of the mountain beneath them, which causes gravity to work in contradiction to the laws of nature.
It’s all quite impressive, quite fascinating, mesmerizing, and honestly, utterly disorienting.
But is it real? Well, it’s certainly rooted, in some measure, to a known geological phenomenon of high-density metal ore buried deep beneath the site of the old orchard.
Simply using the level app on your iPhone will reveal that the ascending track on which the balls roled up is actually running a few, subtle degrees below level. In other words, both the track and the pipe were actually slanted just very slightly downhill. Fixtures, furnishing, trims, etc. were all meticulously designed to use optical illusion to disorient and deceive.
Visitors to Mystery Hill are asked to believe a story that contradicts an established law of science. The lesson is that when given a choice between a law of nature and a story that contradicts a law of nature, we should always choose the law of nature.
The theory of evolution presents us with a similar dilemma. As the story goes, for millions of years, early humans have evolved to become an increasingly more advanced species. The problem with this story is that it contradicts an established law of science, namely, the second law of thermodynamics, which tells us that entropy (our current trajectory toward total disorder) will never decrease. Given the choice between a law of nature and a story, which will you choose?
Science Declares The Glory of God
Newsweek columnist George Will wonders if the U.S. government might be required to suspend the space program on the grounds that it violates the separation of church and state. "Soon the American Civil Liberties Union, or People for the American Way, or some similar faction of litigious secularism will file suit against NASA, charging that the Hubble Space Telescope unconstitutionally gives comfort to the religiously inclined," he jests. "Science ... is augmenting, not subverting, the sense of awe that undergirds religious yearnings."
The more we learn about the vastness and complexity of the Universe, the more reason we find for an awe inspired faith. And that's important because awe is prelude to worship.
"The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands" (Psalm 19:1).
A Soul-Satisfying Cosmology
Dr. Richard Swenson has written:
When God set out to create a human-oriented universe, He apparently showed a preference for dimensional symmetry. The dimensions of the largest created entity--namely, the entire universe--are 10 to the 27th power meters in size, while the dimensions of the smallest subatomic particle are 10 to the 26th power meters in size. Humans, [who] are about one meter (10 to the zero power), fall precisely in the middle. When astrophysicist Joel Primack was asked about the significance of this, he was unsure. But, he commented, it does make for a "soul-satisfying cosmology."
[Richard A. Swenson, MD, PhD, is an award winning author of several acclaimed books. He travels extensively, speaking to a variety of business, denominational and government groups on issues of faith and reason, stress, complexity, social change, and management.]
The Scriptures tells us that man was uniquely created in God's image and given the place of prominence over His creation. Therefore, it should not surprise us to discover that the Universe itself has been laid out in a manner that recognizes man's central place.
How about you? Have you come to realize your place in God's order? You are not who your are or where you are by accident. You have been specifically called to fill the space you've been given in a manner that honors your Creator. Do you know why you're here, and are you seeking to fulfill that purpose?
"Then God said, "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground" (Genesis 1:26).
"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).