The Theory of Relativity

The Theory of Relativity states that systems in uniform motion will experience no deiviation in any physical laws. No law of physics will be violated. These types of physics problems usually fall in your first physics class where all laws of physics still are intuitive. A car hits a wall going 20 mph and then there is an accident. At no point do you expect otherwise.
But then something changes. You get into your second class in physics and everything you learned about 'the laws' change. Allow me to explain...
*In the theory of relativity one person on the moon ages less than the person on the earth. Another way to say it would be the person on the earth observes the person on the moon as moving slower than he is moving. If he could look at his watch on the moon he would notice it goes a little slower than his own. Time Dilation.
*You get your hot new car going up to...say 150,000 mph...and your friend takes a picture of you that was supposed to be life sized. Only when he looks at it he sees your car looks a lot shorter. From front to back he sees your car AND YOU have been squashed. Length Contraction.
*Your obsessive friend who just had to take your picture also noticed you may be gaining some weight. But when you slow down and weigh yourself you still weigh what you weighed before you went so fast. But the picture really shows you getting chubby... e=mc^2 energy to mass transition.
*and something else called Relativity of Simultaneity. That says when something takes place at the same time as another it may not look like it to both people watching.

The breakdown in intuitive physics leads many to believe that science is not only more complicated than we could have imagined [or planned] but also seemingly irrational!
All this math can be figured out and understood but none of this is what anyone would expect.
It is like there are frames or reference that can take the same event and slow it down, for others it can be stopped. Some see the same object as heavy or short and others see long and skinny.

There are so many ways to see each situation. So many points of view. So many facts to consider. Time being relative. Events being relative. Time...TIME being relative to people.

So God, being superior to creation shows different experiences on time in our own physical universe. Within our laws of physics. His laws of physics I would say. How much more is He not expected to be intuitive. Not subject to act within our laws of physics, not subject to act within our frames of reference. Not locked into human time or situation. But even free to act simultaneously in the past, present and future.

2 Peter 3:8
Nevertheless, do not let this one fact escape you, beloved, that with the Lord
one day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Love this! Ok, I don't get the sciency stuff a lot of the time, but I get the point!

My favorite part: But even free to act simultaneously in the past, present and future.

Totally!
Thank you, Professor Warriner, for this brilliant science lesson and the intriguing Bible connections. I love that verse from 2 Peter.