_Somewhat more creationist in approach is the Nerve-Wracking Ball: a bowling ball on a rope, dangling from a tall tree branch. A child stands before the ball, and then a park guide gives it a shove from a specific angle, so that it comes careering back at the child’s face only to stop just in front of it. The child wins if he does not flinch, proving he has “faith in God’s laws” ó in this case, that a swinging object will never come back higher than the point from which it took off._

I know the “actual experiment”:http://demoroom.physics.ncsu.edu/html/demos/427.html, and it requires that you *don’t* shove the ball but rather drop it from a point along its arc. Conservation of energy implies that it will never swing back higher than the original spot.

Of course, now that I mention it, which of “God’s laws” is conservation of energy? Or is there a “Thou shalt not produce energy without reducing it elswhere” commandment?