The Law of Relativity

Click here to go to the Four Forces in Physics

Albert Einstein taught us that Big Bang cosmology brings not just space and matter into existence, but that time is part of the nitty gritty. Time is a dimension. Time is affected by your view of time. How you see time depends on where you're viewing it. A minute on the moon goes faster than a minute on the Earth. A minute on the sun goes slower. Time on the sun is actually stretched out so that if you could put a clock on the sun, it would tick more slowly. It's a small difference, but it's measurable and measured.

The flow of time varies one location to another location. Hence the term: the law of relativity.

If you could ripen oranges on the Sun, they would take longer to ripen. Why? Because time goes more slowly. Would you feel it going more slowly? No, because your biology would be part of the system. If you were living on the Sun, your heart would beat more slowly. Wherever you are, your biology is in synch with the local time. And a minute or an hour where ever you are is exactly a minute or an hour.

If you could look from one system to another, you would see time very differently. Because depending on factors like gravity and velocity, you will perceive time in a way that is very different. The flow of time varies one location to another location. Hence the term: the law of relativity.

Here's an example: One evening we were sitting around the dinner table, and my 11-year-old daughter asked, "How you could have dinosaurs? How you could have billions of years scientifically - and thousands of years Biblically at the same time? So I told her to imagine a planet where time is so stretched out that while we live out two years on Earth, only three minutes will go by on that planet. Now, those places actually exist, they are observed. It would be hard to live there with their conditions, and you couldn't get to them either, but in mental experiments you can do it. Two years are going to go by on Earth, three minutes are going to go by on the planet. So my daughter says, "Great! Send me to the planet. I'll spend three minutes there. I'll do two years worth of homework. I'll come back home in three minutes, and no more homework for two years."

Nice try. Assuming she was age 11 when she left, and her friends were 11. She spends three minutes on the planet and then comes home. (The travel time takes no time.) How old is she when she gets back? Eleven years and 3 minutes. And her friends are 13. Because she lived out 3 minutes while we lived out 2 years. Her friends aged from 11 years to 13 years, while she's 11 years and 3 minutes.

Had she looked down on Earth from that planet, her perception of Earth time would be that everybody was moving very quickly because in one of her minutes, hundreds of thousands of our minutes would pass. Whereas if we looked up, she'd be moving very slowly.

But which is correct? Is it three years? Or three minutes? The answer is both. They're both happening at the same time. That's the legacy of Albert Einstein. It so happens there are literally billions of locations in the universe, where if you could put a clock at that location, it would tick so slowly, that from our perspective (if we could last that long) 15 billion years would go by... but the clock at that remote location would tick out six days.

Click here to view the whole article by Dr Gerald Schroeder, a former nuclear physicist at MIT, and a former member of the US Atomic Energy Commission. He is closely affiliated with Aish HaTorah, a Jerusalem-based organization promoting Orthodox Judaism. Click here to view a brief Wikipedia article on both his work, and critics of his work.

Click here for further Q & A on space and time — "Get a Straight Answer" put together by David P. Stern.

Click here for a perspective on creation, adapted from an email I sent to a number of friends on June 10, 2007.

Differences of opinion seem to be almost inevitable, when it comes to agreeing on the facts of something that happened in the past. For example, we know there are contradictory accounts and disagreements being recorded even now regarding Hitler and the Jewish Holocaust, an event that occurred only just over 60 years ago. Imagine, then, the arguments and disagreements that could well be made by historians discussing these accounts of the Holocaust 600 years from now (let alone 6000 years). On many issues (though perhaps not this one), it is probably healthier to agree that ultimately, our differences of historical opinion are not that important.

 

Thoughts from a recent email sent to some friends

On July 25, 2013 3:42 PM, "Stephen Williamson" wrote:

That freaky old mystery we call predestination

God's infinite gravity from outside of the universe, or however it was

Back at the start of time and space, God puts the whole operation in motion, perhaps 6 days (from a God perspective), 15,750 million years (or so) from a human perspective.

Totally predetermined, with no variation possible, greater power / voltage and number of electrons moving in objects like the sun, lower power in objects like the moon.

Say, for 15,749,994,000 years, from our perspective here in 2013

At the very close, a relational adaptation occurs, certain living creatures to be conformed via their relationship with God into his likeness and partake of his glory. He creates men (and women) and provides them with this picture of marriage, an earthly picture of this heavenly relationship.

So unlike all other animals the man and the woman had special God-formed spirits though with extremely tiny gravity. And when Eve sinned (by deception) and Adam sinned (knowingly), their spirits, gaining knowledge, yearned upwards in destructive envy, James 4. And cut off from the fruitful tree of life, the penalty of bodily death was the result, but a mystery as to when, because of the mystery of time.

So death came to every one, because every one's spirit now grew independently with knowledge, puffed up, and knowingly (or unknowingly) going the wrong way, some more so than others. So it was predetermined as a totally right judgment.

And then the glorious good news, Jesus, proclaimed by the ones called, carrying the full weight of that penalty for everyone, at the culmination of the ages Hebrews 9:26

A total mystery, before it happened.
He changes / alters the times (cycles) and the seasons (appointed occasions): he removes kings, and sets up kings: he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding (mentally distinguish between matters) Daniel 2:21.

Now the invitation to freedom in love is open, our penalty of death had been predetermined in Adam's choice, but our freedom in Christ is a total mystery, only God foreknows its ending. It involves a relationship, and marriage teaches us how complex that thing can be. While knowledge puffs up, love builds up.

But He knows our frame, his son emptied himself, became flesh like us, died for us. That's love.

And He gives more grace, James 4 so yes, let's forgive each other, not fight each other.

love Steve

Stephen Williamson Computing Services Pty Ltd

 

Thoughts from another recent email sent to some friends

On August 5, 2013 3:37 PM, "Stephen Williamson" wrote:

Bind us together Lord with cords that cannot be broken - and the four forces in physics

Just been reflecting this morning on the four forces of nature, as taught in modern day physics.

In order of magnitude of strength, they are

  1. Strong Nuclear Force (Binding the nucleus of an atom together) - it's pretty invisible but it's 100 times stronger than
     
  2. ElectroMagnetism (Voltages caused by excesses / shortages of electrons - lack of balance - relative to another point - combined with Current - electrons' subsequent movement - individually tiny, but huge impact when working together)
  3. and this again is many orders of magnitude greater than
  4. Gravity (inertia) - yes, that which is perhaps the most mysterious, but most obvious energy of all.

Note, the fourth force is Weak Nuclear Force or radioactive decay, when an unstable atom changes one or more protons into neutrons, or vice versa.

But, just dwelling on those first three, in line with scripture, let's look at the first three words of Genesis, in Hebrew

  1. B' Resh-ith (In the beginning) - The first letter in scripture is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet "B" - Bet meaning a tent, a house (a son) - a prefix signifying "In" - yes a binding in. The word "Rosh" means "Head" or "First". The suffix "ith" turns this "male" noun into a female noun - signifying the "Drawing Out" - to form cycles of time.
     
  2. Ba - ra (created) - there was movement at the station - This word is a verb signifying to "cut out" or "grow".
     
  3. E - Lo - Hiym (God, who is doing the creating)
    (a) The first letter here is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet "A" - called Aleph - signifying strength, fathering, a letter though that cannot be pronounced until it is associated with
    (b) the second letter, a consonant, and in both that letter "ALeph" and in the word "EL" it is as you see the letter "L" - and both in Hebrew and in English, the letter "L" is pictured as a crook (with the direction/correction) of a shepherd's staff. Note too, by convention, English translations use this letter "E" here instead of "A" to aid pronunciation.
    (c) Lastly, the suffix "iym" signifies a male plurality.

And connecting the two groups, we see the trinity:

3. God the Father, Infinite gravity (Weight), unapproachable brightness (Heat) - His Glory. He is Love - as opposed to bitterness and envy.

1. God the Son, Christ, our Lord, our great High Priest, our Binding force - in contracts - marriage - learning the Joy of obedience as opposed to the anguish of rebellion.

2. God the Holy Spirit, Fire, like EM Force in terms of the invisible trillions to the many times trillion trillionth power of electrons moving and magnetically attracting to the "true north", our God our father, hidden though he may be, bringing us Peace (i.e. flow of movement), irony in humility as opposed to strong delusions of grandeur - not a good idea.

Blessings all Steve

Stephen Williamson Computing Services Pty Ltd
www.swcs.com.au/aboutus.asp

 

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