The Divine Universe

The relationship between science and religion has been variable since experimental science entered European culture from Moslem North Africa in the 14^th century. Most of the time they have been at ease with one another, but there have been tense periods when the discoveries of science seemed to contradict the dogmas of religion. Nicholas Copernicus (1473–1543) declared that the Sun was the centre of the universe and the earth and the planets rotated round it. This contradicted mediaeval tradition that the Earth was the centre of the universe. He was rigorously interrogated by the inquisition, and lucky to die peacefully in his own bed.

In the nineteenth century, another rift was caused when, in 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace simultaneously published the theory of evolution as the basis of the diverse world of plants and animals. Geologists later deduced from fossil discoveries that the process had been going on for four and a half billion years, since the first primitive living organisms emerged.

This, of course, seemed directly to contradict the story of creation in six days in the first chapter of Genesis. I am told that 40% of the population of the United States believes that the Genesis myth is the true, scientific account and the Wallace-Darwin theory is false. This seems to indicate that, in the United States especially; there is still a conflict between science and religion. Coincidentally, or maybe as a consequence, most scientists in the U.S. are atheists. This is not the case in other parts of the world.

Some scientists have made a contribution to theological debate, and there is a long list of clerics, from the 13^th century Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon, onwards, who have made a significant contribution to the advance of science. A contemporary example, Robert Russell, professor of physics and also professor of theology at UCLA describes the resurrection of Christ in terms of an evolutionary breakthrough. Other scientist philosophers, Alfred North Whitehead for example and Australians, Paul Davies and Charles Birch, show clearly their belief in a spiritual dimension of the universe.

Other scientists have made discoveries that have theological significance without intending to. Einstein is one of these. He discovered through applied mathematics that the universe is not a static, three dimensional region containing fixed stars and galaxies, but a dynamic, flexible and mobile structure in which space and time are one entity that is stretched and compressed between objects that are moving relative to each other.

We cannot visualize four dimensions, but we can experience it any evening. When we look into the sky, we are not just looking at things that are far away in space; they are far away in time also, because light travels at a finite speed – very fast: about 300,000 Kms a second, but finite nonetheless. This finite speed means that the light we see from the stars has taken time to reach us. We see everything as it was when the light left the star or galaxy. Astronomical distance is measured in light years – the distance light travels in a year, and the most distant galaxies visible through the Hubble telescope are billions of light years away. Astronomers can therefore see the universe as it was billions of years ago.

In 1929, the astronomer, Edwin Hubble, after whom the big orbiting telescope is named, discovered all the stars and galaxies are moving away from us, and, because Earth is not the centre of the universe, as mediaeval theologians believed, that means that everything is moving apart – the universe is expanding. If the universe is expanding, it must have been smaller in the past, and logic suggests that it must therefore have begun as an infinitesimally small object in which all the space-time and all the energy and matter of the universe was concentrated. If the expanding universe were simply a three-dimensional thing it would be like a balloon being inflated, and that would have a spatial centre. But because, as Einstein realized, it is a four-dimensional, space-time thing, it does not have any spatial centre. The centre of the expanding universe is its beginning, when it was infinitesimally small. It lies in a time direction, in the past, not a space direction. So looking into the night sky in any direction we are looking towards the centre of the universe.

The universal speed of light led Einstein to his first theory of relativity, in 1905. He proved that there is no such thing as absolute time or absolute space. There is no universal ‘now’. Time is part of the universe; the universe does not exist in time. There is no “before the universe”. God didn’t hang about in heaven for aeons of time and then suddenly decide to create the world. Time began with the creation of the universe.

In his first theory, Einstein ignored gravity. In 1915, however, in his general theory of relativity, he took gravity into account. Gravity tends to draw things together, even things like light, so he predicted that a ray of light would be bent if it passed close to the Sun. This was proved experimentally in 1932 during a total solar eclipse in India. A star visually near the edge of the sun (which would only be visible during an eclipse) appeared to move away from the Sun as the Sun approached it in its transit across the sky. That meant its light rays were being bent. Since light always travels the shortest distance possible, a straight line in other words, this meant that gravity curved space: the straight line was no longer straight; it was bent by the gravity of the Sun. In his general theory of relativity, Einstein treats gravity, not as a force but as a curvature of space.

Do Einstein’s theories have any theological significance? Do they affect the way we think about God? A reasonably sophisticated believer would, I think, say no. But the Psalmist sang, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” John, in the prologue of his Gospel (1,1-14) and Paul, in his letter to the Colossians (1,15), declare that, in and through Christ, or “the Word”, everything comes into being and has its existence. For them, the whole universe is God’s embodiment, God’s incarnation.

Many scientists believe that, in studying nature, they are learning more about God. Einstein discovered a universe that is not static and inert, but a dynamic organism in which every event is felt throughout its entirety. That sounds much more like the God I believe in than does the old idea of a static, three dimensional universe with the Earth or the Sun as its centre.