THE MAGICAL, THEISTIC IMPLICATIONS OF EINSTEIN’S EQUATION, E = MC SQUARED
THE MAGICAL, THEISTIC IMPLICATIONS OF EINSTEIN’S EQUATION, E = MC SQUARED
By David Gottfried
Einstein’s equation, e = mc Squared may establish that G-d is Real.
First, I will briefly review Einstein’s equation. This may seem like fairly simple, pedestrian stuff, but many people did not get this in school.
In his equation, e stands for energy, M stands for mass or weight, and c is the symbol of the speed of light. E equals MC squared tells us that the tiniest speck of matter encapsulates an exhilarating amount of energy. It means that energy equals matter times the speed of light squared. The speed of light, after all, is pretty damn fast: 186 thousand miles a second. The speed of light squared means 186 thousand times 186 thousand. Take that number and multiply by the number 1, and you have the amount of energy that resides in one pound of ordinary mud.
If so much energy resides in the tiniest specks of matter, then the infinitesimal contains the infinite. If so much energy resides in the tiniest specks of matter, those specks of matter can come to life as burning bushes, as the splitting of the red sea, as Eve being born from one of Adam’s Ribs. This equation makes every seemingly irrational and seemingly fantastic proposition come to life. If so much energy inheres in the tiniest specks of matter, then all the miracles of the Old Testament, and the New, should never be rejected on the grounds that they seem bizarre and too improbable to be true. If E equals MC squared, then God is everywhere.
This formula is perhaps proof of Spinoza’s contention that G-d was in everything. G-d-like power does reside in ordinary matter if ordinary matter has so much energy, or mass times the speed of light squared.
Theistic philosophers have said that although God is everywhere, divine energy or power was not in everything and they considered Spinoza heretical. Quite frankly, I have trouble distinguishing between the notion that God is everywhere and the idea that God, or the divine, was in everything, or that everything was of the stuff of God, but I must concede that I possess no expertise in theology or philosophy.
But this does not undermine the crux of my idea: the concentration of so much energy in the minutest things suggests that we live in a magical, godly world and that the seemingly supernatural is true. Without sounding too sentimental or drippy, it seems as if we should make way for a “magical mystery tour.”
And if God is implanted in the matter of the world, then the world can make itself and evolution exists. See this essay of mine which cites several ways in which Genesis confirms the theory of evolution, “The Theory of Evolution: The Science is Etched in the Genesis Text.”