My Insights

My Insights Into My Faith

  1. Meaning of Life
  2. God
  3. Light
  4. Windows XP - A Pleasant Surprise...Or Not!?
  5. Reflection after WYD

Light

The Bible

   Jesus once said, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." (John 8:12) What did He mean? There are probably many many different interpretations of this metaphor. "Light is a necessity for life", etc., etc. But I want to tell you about something I thought of, something that reveals how Jesus is manifested in the universe.

Relativity

   I have a very general understanding of the Theory of Relativity proposed by Albert Einstein, but I do believe it is correct. Here it goes. Before Einstein, some scientists believed that there is an invisible matter called Ether in the universe and that light travels in this matter as a reference point. I.e.) the speed of light is relative to this matter Ether. So, if a person was traveling at 100 m/s in the positive direction of the Ether, he would see the speed of light to be the actual speed minus 100 m/s because he himself is traveling at that speed. It is much like our perspective of speed.  If we are driving our car at 60km/h and some old lady ahead of us is driving at 50 km/h, we think to ourselves: "This lady is driving way too slow". This is because she is driving at -10 km/h relative to us.

   That was before Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity. What Einstein thought of was totally different than the theory of Ether. He proposed that speed of light was absolute (300,000 km/s) no matter where and how you measure it. So, even if you were traveling at 200,000 km/s, when you measure the speed of light, it would still be roughly 300,000 km/s. How can this actually happen?  I would normally think that if I was on a space ship traveling at 200,000 km/s and shined a flashlight in the same direction, the speed of light would be 500,000 km/s (200,000 + 300,000 km/s) The answer is NO! The Theory of Relativity proposes that time would actually slow down. Therefore, if you were on the space ship, traveling at 200,000 km/s, time would actually be elongated (this is called time dilation), with respect to the time a person is experiencing on Earth looking at the spaceship. So, in fact, the light coming out of your flashlight would still be measured at 300,000 km/s both inside AND outside the spaceship. Time is the element that changes, not the speed of light. And, in Einstein's calculation, it is impossible for any matter to reach the speed of light, and if it did, the mass would become infinite.

Quantum Physics - Wave-Particle Duality

   There's another property of light (or all electromagnetic radiation) that is very striking.  It is that light behaves like a wave and matter at the same time.  It behaves like a wave in that it has frequency and amplitude.  It can also be diffracted, reflected, etc.  However, light also has properties of a particle such as energy and momentum.  Can we say that light is half wave and half particle?  No!  We can only say that light behaves both as a wave and particle.  And this is why this property is called the "wave-particle" duality.

So?

   Now, what does all this physics have to do with Jesus? My interpretation is Jesus is just like the speed of light. He is forever the same. He never changes no matter how you look at Him. His love for us is eternal. He IS the centre of the universe because everything revolves around Him. Everything is based on Him alone. Not even time or space has control over Him, but He alone dictates their existence. The proposition that nothing can reach the speed of light further implies that humans will NEVER be like God. We will never be able to achieve the same status. If a mass were to obtain the speed of light, then it's mass would become infinite. This implies that Jesus is infinite and eternal.

   What about that "wave-particle duality" thing? Well, any Christian will be able to anticipate the answer to this question. The fact that Jesus is the incarnation of God in human form fits into this duality property.  Is Jesus God or human? The answer is that He is fully divine and fully human at the same time. He is God in human form.

   Was it by pure chance that Jesus used light as a metaphor to describe Himself?  Was it a coincidence that this physical truth, developed in the early 20th century, is compatible with the Christian belief that is 2000 years old?  That is for you to decide.

Posted: January 27, 2002

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