August 30, 2026

From the time that Galileo calculated that the earth was orbiting the sun and not vis-versa critics of Christianity have claimed that the science of the cosmos was contrary to the record of creation found in Genesis 1:1. These claims are often overstated as Galileo remained a man of faith even during his conflict with the Catholic church. In fact he famously stated “the laws of nature are written by God in the language of mathematics.” As physicists learned more about how the universe functioned they usually did so with the conviction voiced by Kepler that they were “thinking God’s thoughts after Him.” Isaac Newton wrote in his famous principia Mathematica that “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being” 

From Newton to Einstein most scientists held to the steady state theory of the universe. However, around the turn of the last century things started to change. Most are familiar with Newtonian physics and may have used some of his equations in high school to calculate gravitational pull. 

Einstein arrives on the scene and develops the theory of general relativity stating that time, space and matter are related to one another. One of the ways we might think of what Einstein discovered is to imagine being extremely fast perhaps like the comic book character Flash. The faster we move the closer we become to being in two places at the same time thus we can consider time and space to be relative. Einstein used a different experiment to demonstrate this principal. He imagined two people one standing on a train platform the other onboard the train which is moving very fast almost as fast as light. Further he imagined two simultaneous lighting strikes on at each end of the train. He points out that only for the person on the platform would the strikes be simultaneous. For the person on the train who is moving away from one strike and toward the other the strike would appear to be separate as they would perceive the one at the front first and the one at the back second. In this way Einstein showed that time is different depending on perspective or relative. Einstein showed that Newtons understanding of the universe was wrong and instead developed general relativity to explain the interaction of matter. Rather than bodies attracting one another Einstein envisioned gravity as mass bending or distorting space similar to how a bowling ball would deform a trampoline. Einstein wrote a series of equations which are known as field equations in which he described his theory of general relativity. The most famous of his equations is of course the relationship between energy and mater E=Mc2. 

Einstein initially didn’t realize it but his theory would demand the universe had a beginning.

~ Kevin Cleary