The Jesus Factor

Years ago (many, many years ago) I read a book called The Jesus Factor. Probably left behind by my brother Ken. The gist of the story is that nuclear weapons only work when they are stationary, thus rendering them useless in a bomb or missile. The titular term is used by the scientists of the book who can’t explain why their bombs don’t work when dropped on, or shot at, their intended targets; it didn’t work because Jesus didn’t want it to work. With every country unsure of whether or not it’s only their bombs that won’t work, it makes for an interesting deterrence. I don’t remember much of the actual story, other than there was a very convoluted explanation of how we pulled off Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but I think I enjoyed it. But don’t’ read too much into that. I thought Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was better than Iron Man.

But where has The Jesus Factor gone as a term for explaining the unexplainable? I imagine some 1940s lab coat adorned, wild-haired man of science dashing his abacus to the ground in frustration when some experiment fails for the thousandth time, screaming, “Again with The Jesus Factor?” Are our greatest minds still able to accept that some things just stay a mystery or must everything be explained, flow-charted, white-boarded, reverse engineered, deciphered-defined-described, and generally cleansed of all mystery and fantasy?

I liked the idea that the very people who managed to put men on the moon, 12 men to be exact, couldn’t explain how a bumble bee with its awkward assemblage of tiny wings and fat body could fly. I liked knowing that we have created all art, literature, chocolate covered pretzels, and ice in the 105-degree Fresno summers by using only 10% or our brains.

But as it turns out, those ideas are folklore. Bees fly because their muscles controlling their wings vibrate about 200 times a second, making those little wings move up and down and create lift like a helicopter. Did I need to know that? Does that change anything about how bees and humans interact? Does not pollination still happen without knowing that? Do not bee stings still happen? Had bee flight dynamics remained a mystery, would honey stop showing up on the shelves at the local VONS?

And most scientists, well all scientists, agree that we use much more than 10% or our brains. In fact, they say that we pretty much use all of 'em. I probably should have known that. No ten-percenter could have every come up with the self inflating tire, sign language, fire, the clock, the compass, the condom, and the Japanese tanning shirt (see graphic below).

Maybe the Jesus Factor is archaic, and has been tossed out like buggy whips and turn tables. So goodnight to The Jesus Factor. Sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite, or bees sting.

I may have spoken too soon. Right now there are people who bent The Jesus Factor for explaining not the actual flight of bees, nor the fictional (unfortunately) uselessness of atomic bombs, but instead, the entire knowable world. These people contend that all of creation; from the mightiest redwood to the oldest bristlecone pine, from the largest blue whale to the smallest virus, from the most pious believer to the most skeptical nonbeliever were all created by…they don’t know what. Or can’t prove what. Distrustful of natural selection they say the creation of everything was God. Jesus himself if you will. They are the Creationists and their mantra seems to be, “We can’t explain how all this happened, so God did it.” That is like me saying, I can’t remember where I put my keys, so Jesus must have moved them to test me. Why he put them in the refrigerator I’ll never understand.

Well maybe he did. Maybe he actually created all those trees, bees, the Japanese, and my keys with a snap of his divine fingers. If so, why couldn’t he really have put the out-of-order signs all those nuclear firecrackers? But how does that exclude Him creating all of this through natural selection or survival of the most fit?

Oh, science still can't explain arous borealis; the Northern Lights.



Oh 2.0, the guy who wrote The Jesus Factor was named Edwin Corley. Just in case you want to add it to your Kindle.