Light Speed Theology
In physics, there is an experiment (theoretical) known as the "twin paradox." In it, two twins who are the same age begin moving. One moves in a space ship at (or close to) the speed of light. The other continues to move at the relative speed of life on earth. When the two meet, the one who has traveled at (or near) the speed of light will have aged less than the one who remained on earth. I won't get into the physics of it - you can look all that up, I'm sure - but what I did begin to ponder is the observation often made that nothing can travel at the speed of light, so the experiment can never take place.
Well, the experiment can take place at speeds of less than the speed of light. But my observation here isn't about that. It is about the speed of light itself. In American terms, the speed of light is 671 million miles per hour. And, as a child, I used to hear that nothing can travel the speed of light. Maybe not anything humans have built, but one thing for certain can travel at the speed of light.
Light.
The photons that are light are emitted, let's say, from a star. That light travels at the speed of light. To us it appears to take a certain amount of time for it to reach the earth. I think the average is 8 minutes for the light from the sun to reach the earth. But for the photon - traveling at the speed of light - the journey takes no time at all. It is where it ends up at the same moment it began its journey. From it's point of view, anyway.
Think about that. Photons reach their destination as soon as they being their journey. So while we might think in terms of objects interrupting the journey of a photon, or preventing the photon from reaching a certain point, from the point of view of the photon it is where it is supposed to end because it reached that point at its outset.
From a theological point of view, if we posit that God is light (as the author of 1st John does in 1:5), then God's observation of time is far different from our own. While some go nuts citing that a day is like a thousand years (from the Psalms) and articulate that point to make Revelation fit a particular time frame or to argue the date of creation, positing that God is moving at a speed in which time does not exist can really alter our thinking. Because if we posit (hypothetically, of course) that God exists beyond time (which is a tenant of eschatology), then how God views creation is instantaneous. God sees both its beginning and end at the same moment. Or, in another way of saying it, God sees all of eternity in a singular point.
We, on the other hand, only experience it in a linear fashion because we do not move at the same speed. As I once heard (and I wish I knew who said it), "Time is that which keeps all things from happening at once." Our lives stretch out before us, but have already both begun and ended. We just don't perceive it that way.
The observation might push us to think of what it means to live a life that is already finished in the sight of God. What do our actions say about that time from our beginning to end? What fights were worth fighting? What loves were lost? Who are we in that span of the speed of light, or the speed of God?
The band Kansas summarized the book of Ecclesiastes (in my opinion, anyway) when they sang, "Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind." In the speed of light, we are also just beginning and already finished.
How will we spend that moment?
Well, the experiment can take place at speeds of less than the speed of light. But my observation here isn't about that. It is about the speed of light itself. In American terms, the speed of light is 671 million miles per hour. And, as a child, I used to hear that nothing can travel the speed of light. Maybe not anything humans have built, but one thing for certain can travel at the speed of light.
Light.
The photons that are light are emitted, let's say, from a star. That light travels at the speed of light. To us it appears to take a certain amount of time for it to reach the earth. I think the average is 8 minutes for the light from the sun to reach the earth. But for the photon - traveling at the speed of light - the journey takes no time at all. It is where it ends up at the same moment it began its journey. From it's point of view, anyway.
Think about that. Photons reach their destination as soon as they being their journey. So while we might think in terms of objects interrupting the journey of a photon, or preventing the photon from reaching a certain point, from the point of view of the photon it is where it is supposed to end because it reached that point at its outset.
From a theological point of view, if we posit that God is light (as the author of 1st John does in 1:5), then God's observation of time is far different from our own. While some go nuts citing that a day is like a thousand years (from the Psalms) and articulate that point to make Revelation fit a particular time frame or to argue the date of creation, positing that God is moving at a speed in which time does not exist can really alter our thinking. Because if we posit (hypothetically, of course) that God exists beyond time (which is a tenant of eschatology), then how God views creation is instantaneous. God sees both its beginning and end at the same moment. Or, in another way of saying it, God sees all of eternity in a singular point.
We, on the other hand, only experience it in a linear fashion because we do not move at the same speed. As I once heard (and I wish I knew who said it), "Time is that which keeps all things from happening at once." Our lives stretch out before us, but have already both begun and ended. We just don't perceive it that way.
The observation might push us to think of what it means to live a life that is already finished in the sight of God. What do our actions say about that time from our beginning to end? What fights were worth fighting? What loves were lost? Who are we in that span of the speed of light, or the speed of God?
The band Kansas summarized the book of Ecclesiastes (in my opinion, anyway) when they sang, "Dust in the wind. All we are is dust in the wind." In the speed of light, we are also just beginning and already finished.
How will we spend that moment?
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