Barry John Setterfield was born April 15, 1942 to Ron and Beth Setterfield, both of whom were Salvation Army officers. Three and a half years later his only sibling, Marilyn, was born. Brain damage from a physical injury shortly after birth left Marilyn epileptic and, as the years passed, more and more autistic, although very high functioning. Marilyn's condition has had a profound effect on Barry's life.
Because of his parents' occupations, the Setterfield's ended up moving 17 times in 20 years while Barry was growing up. He remained an excellent student, however, and by the time the family had retired from the Salvation Army they were located in Adelaide, South Australia. Thus, when he was 18, Barry received a Commonwealth Scholarship and enrolled in Adelaide University. He had planned a double major in physics and geology. In his third year, however, Barry found himself unable to continue his studies due to the severity of both health and family problems.
At that time, he was involved with CRA, an international mining company, where he assisted their chief geologist to complete a mineralogical survey of South Australia. Both his geology and physics had contributed to his continuing interest in astronomy. As a result, he was asked to lecture for the Astronomical Society of South Australia, which he continued to do for six years.
Because a relationship with the Lord is an individual affair, Barry came to terms with Christianity at this time and committed his life to Christ. This made him hesitant to re-enter University with its anti-Christian bias. Thus he concentrated on his work with the Astronomical Society, as well as helping his parents in their presentation and upkeep of the historical Old Government House in Belair, South Australia, where they had been appointed curators.
Concurrently, this was the time when the former Government Astronomer for South Australia, George Dodwell, died. Dodwell's research papers were in the possession of the Astronomical Society and they approached Barry to finalise some incomplete chapters with a view to publication. Dodwell's notes were complete enough to allow Barry to finish the work, have it retyped, and approach prospective publishers.
Due to circumstances beyond his control, Barry was unable to get Dodwell's papers published. Nevertheless, they had a profound effect upon him, showing that there might be scientific explanations for some biblical phenomena. This led him to explore a number of interpretations for Genesis 1. Eventually he settled on a 'gap theory' as the best answer to the vast apparent time-scales of astronomy and geology, and during that time he presented it that way when questioned about the dichotomy during his public lectures.
It was not until later that he realised neither the gap theory nor the day/age theory, which he had explored before that, were a possibility either biblically or scientifically. It was as he collected and examined the data regarding the speed of light, and its implications, that he also started to understand that a straight-forward reading of Genesis had to be correct: this creation is not very old.
In 1975, Ron Setterfield became seriously ill and was hospitalised. From that time until he died in 1976 the family was preoccupied with his illness and spent much time at the hospital. Upon his death, Barry knew that further formal education would be impossible as his mother and sister now required his care.
By the close of 1979, Barry had sufficient information from his continuing studies to recognise there was a good chance that the speed of light might not have been constant during the life of the universe. The speed of light research was initially done in conjunction with Creation Science Foundation in Australia, which published the first in a series of articles in 1981. In 1983 he presented the initial results to a conference in the USA. Throughout 1985 -1987 he worked with Trevor Norman of the Maths Department at Flinders University dealing with the collected data. They were invited by a senior research physicist at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International to write a Research Report for internal discussion at SRI.
The Report, Atomic Constants, Light, and Time, was then written, and it was Flinders University which published it in August 1987. It immediately started a controversy, mainly among creationists. Flinders University had reviewed the paper initially and accepted the research and results as valid. They asked Norman and Setterfield to organise a seminar dealing with it. However one creationist, then working for the Institute of Creation Research (ICR), phoned both Flinders University and SRI International and asked them if they knew that Barry Setterfield and Trevor Norman were creationists. As a result, Trevor Norman's job at Flinders University was threatened, and Barry was denied access to any of their facilities except the library. Because a major change of personnel at SRI International also occurred then, the support team was dismissed. The final result was that both institutions withdrew support for the paper. At the same time, ICR published a critique of the Report in their Impact Article series, despite the fact that the critique was known to be faulty. Following this, a 'mini-symposium' was organized to refute the Norman-Setterfield paper, and published in four parts in the Creation Research Society Quarterly, a creation peer-reviewed journal. Setterfield was allowed to respond one time, in the final quarter. He was not allowed to respond to follow-up letters responding to his article. The Creation Science Foundation in Australia publicly retracted support for Barry's work.
The Norman-Setterfield Report was thus attacked from both sides of the evolution-creation controversy for different reasons. Nevertheless, statistician Alan Montgomery and others came to its defense publicly. Montgomery's math and statistical defense was later published in Galilean Electrodynamics with co-author Lambert Dolphin, the SRI physicist who initially invited the Report. Montgomery presented an updated defense at the International Creation Conference in 1994, which has never been refuted.
In the midst of this controversy, Barry found himself handicapped by another family problem. A few months after the Report came out, his mother suffered a major heart attack, which left her bedridden. Up until this time, Barry had an ongoing series of lecture commitments at several theological colleges in addition to lrctures relating to his research. The necessity of caring for both an invalid mother and sister 24 hours a day precluded all travel and left him without time to defend his work himself.
Barry's mother died in 1995, and he found himself his sister's sole caretaker. He continued his research, aided by a number of professionals and well-wishers who forwarded a constant flow of current materials in physics, astronomy, and geology, in addition to materials he was gathering from is own research. The research has resulted in a new technical paper dealing with the redshift and its relationship to light speed, as well as to several shorter, less technical papers. Four mainstream peer-reviewed journals refused to publish the technical paper because, as one put it, Barry "did not have institutional affiliation" while another considered it "too speculative." Another did not like the fact that one of his references was a university text rather than an original research paper. Still another stated this material was not timely and not of general interest. Nevertheless, speculation about the variable speed of light (VSL, or Vc) has gained increasing attention in physics journals and the popular press. However, the cosmological model that emerges from Barry's research agrees with both observational data and the Bible rather than being merely theoretical.
He had been aware of Helen Fryman, of northern California, as an editor and science contributor for some time. In 1998 he asked her to review one of his papers. She initially refused, as her area of understanding was in the life sciences. When she finally agreed, it was the start of a very effective professional relationship. A professional relationship became a friendship and a friendship became his courtship of her. In October, 2000, they were married in Australia. Helen had been previously married for twenty years to a man who left her for another woman in 1991. Helen had six children, ages 6 to 17, to raise by herself then but, as she puts it, "we came together as a team and we did it." She had had no intentions of ever getting married again but, again in her words "I lost!" Before deciding to marry, Barry and Helen looked long and hard at the biblical directives regarding remarriage, fully prepared to both remain single. Under counseling from a number of pastors and her brother, an elder in his church, they realised Helen was biblically free to marry again.
Barry has been able to stablise his sister's situation in her own home with a caretaker. He is applying for permanent residency in the United States. He and Helen are living in northern California, from where he will continue the series of invited lectures around the world he has been able to recommence in the last few years. Helen often travels with him as a co-speaker. "I have to translate him into English" she laughs. From Australian? Sometimes. More often, though, from his more technical language.
As time goes on, Barry Setterfield is gaining the respectful attention from more and more lay and professional groups. He is approaching the field of the changing speed of light and its implications by looking at the data first, instead of from any theory or approach first. Because of this, his model, as it develops, is now being looked at more analytically. In this vein, the Discussions page is now offered on this website, and will be added to as both questions and new data arrive.
Though often referred to as Dr. Setterfield, Barry has taken pains to point out that he has not received a Ph.D. and the term "Dr." should therefore not be used with his name.
Barry and Helen Setterfield, October 21, 2000
updated April, 2003
