Einstein, Iran, An Impossible Dilemma, and HOPE

Iranian President Ahmadinejad announced that the Islamic Republic had produced its first batch of 20 per cent enriched uranium. This comes on the heels of the promise by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that Iran will deliver a ‘punch’ that will stun the West to mark today's celebrations.

As I was reading Einstein's bio, I was most interested in the events and circumstances in developing and using the atomic bomb. The irony was that the momentum to develop the greatest weapon of mass destruction came from a staunch passivist as Einstein worked so hard to implement.

Then something strange happened to Einstein's 'theory of passivity'........ and that is, it ran into this thing called 'reality'.

When Hitler came to power, Einstein immediately knew that he had been wrong on so many fronts and even wrote a series of letters apologizing for his error. Indeed there are regrettable times when evil must be confronted, constrained, and destroyed.

Einstein was so disappointed that his famous meeting with Freud offered no answers to removing the threat and reality of war. Freud made it very clear... as long as there are humans with wants- there will be war.

Then Einstein did his darkest thought experiment ever- indeed he had been tipped off on two previous encounters- nuclear fission was not only possible, but horribly accessible.

He wrote a now famous letter to Roosevelt where he expressed concerns about the German's access to the technology and the uranium. In actuality, Hitler had kicked out all the scientists who were capable of achieving this because they were all Jewish.

'Oppenheimer's deadly toy' was dropped by Truman, the cold war erupted, and here we stand as a tinderbox still...... more fragmented and destructive as ever.

Now the world has an unsolvable dilemma. I find it dastardly ingenious what Iran did today. They announced they had the uranium enrichment capability, but denied wanting to make a weapon. "Would you like some ketchup with that load of crap?"

But adding that caveat, buys more time for the doves to fight the hawks. And Obama is in an impossible situation.

What do we do?

Well, at the risk of unleashing the 'rancor of the theologians' I want to propose that ultimately we can do very little. That doesn't mean we don't try. We should work like everything depends on us and pray like everything depends on God. And sometimes that means tough, tough calls. But appeasement does not work..... our softness will not turn away their wrath.

Now, some strange 'good news'- this is in the Book. It would take too long here to lay out my whole view of Revelation, prophecy, and eschatology. But I believe Rev 16 points to a time in the future. It did have a type or shadow of fulfillment in the past, but God's final BOWL (remember that it built up seals, trumpets, thunders which were cut short, and finally bowls of God's wrath) appears to me to be nuclear.

Read below:

Revelation 16:16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. 17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

Ok- the emails and negative comments will begin to pile up.

What do we make of this?        Peace, courage, and confidence.

God is in control. If we have bent our knee to Him and embraced His Son of Salvation, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

If you can read this and your heart is beating- your day of mercy is still open- but one day..... it will close. Either your appointed end day or the world's appointed end day.

Don't be discouraged and don't grow weary. All of us should love life, love others, live confident that Jesus is with us. This day may still be a long way off. We need to pray for a recapitulation, we need to humble ourselves and ask for revival. The gospel is sweeping the globe and our history, the story of our life on the earth, can still go in two directions.

Pray for our leaders- without the wisdom and blessing from God.... they are in trouble.

"The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord". I praise my God no matter my circumstance. AMEN.

Einstein and Jesus- The Biggest God Shaped Gap

This month I am recording some thoughts on the biography by Walter Issacson on Albert Einstein.

Einstein knew something was there. He was amazed at the beauty of the universe and the design of the universe. He was also surprised that the mysteries of complexity were so available to mere mortals. Accessible mathematical calculations!

After Dr. Hubble discovered the universe was moving Einstein and his wife, Elsa visited the Mount Wilson observatory.

Dr Hubble was showing off the very expensive telescopes and monitoring equipment.

"We use all of this, Mrs Einstein, to figure out the shape and size of the universe." He exclaimed.

"That's nothing", she said, "my husband can do that on the back of an envelope."

So what prevented Einstein from discovering the 'last perfect truth'- so simple and so complex..... too wonderful to miss..... what he really longed for?

He was so close.

Read the quotes below:

"As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene."

He was asked in an interview:

You accept the historical existence of Jesus?“

He responded:

"Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life."

Please! Do not let the simple things of the world shame the wise. Accept Jesus as Lord and Savior while the door of mercy is open.

You will find that he fills the God-shaped gaps!

Einstein: Even Geniuses Mess Up

This month my blog is a response to Einstein's biography.

Einstein had a miracle year where he wrote 5 papers that changed Physics forever.

It is interesting how one hits a sweet spot of energy and risk- a youthful exuberance that allows the freedom to fail and the possibility of world changing significance.

According to Einstein, it is a short season- I put two quotes together that expresses this idea:

Anything truly novel is invented only during one’s youth- later he becomes more experienced, more famous, more block headed... Soon I will reach the age of stagnation and sterility when one laments the revolutionary spirit of the young- to punish me for my contempt of authority, Fate has made me an authority myself.

So Einstein hit that sweet spot and changed the world. He still contributed a ton in the aftermath- but he had the right starting point, the right questions, the right imagination, and stayed true to his convictions

Then he made an error- what he called his 'greatest blunder'.

As he was making his calculations and doing more 'thought experiments'- his instinct caused the idea to jump out that the universe was moving.

"That can't be" - was his thought. Every idea at that time was a static model of the universe. It was accepted as a universal truth.

So he did something that is used at times in theoretical physics... he added a cosmological constant in his equations to freeze the universe in place. He fudged the numbers.... He fixed the problem with a variable. You have to do that when you are at the edge of the unknown and transcendent.

Then in the 1920's Edwin Hubble discovered something..... the universe was expanding and slowing.... it was not static.

Had Einstein been willing to follow his sweet spot hunches- we would most likely call  'The Big Bang"- "Einstein's Big Bang".

Now don't misunderstand 'blunder'. The blunder was not adding the constant, in fact his variable is quite useful in the theory of cosmology.

The blunder was hiding from the truth. Letting his incorrect pre-suppositions prevent him from following the path of truth. See, it would have shaken the rafters if he put this idea out... the world was not ready.

I love how he laughed it off and shrugged it off. Oh that we all would be so willing to say... I goofed and just go on.

By the way- Christians do not need to be afraid of the 'Big Bang' because a moving universe suggests a cause and behind the cause ultimately has to be An Uncaused Cause. This is not Christianity or even theism yet- but it actually supports the Bible's account of a beginning.

A couple of closing points:
How do we handle our mistakes?
How do we handle the mistakes of others?

This is a big deal because even geniuses screw it up every now and then.

Einstein: Infinite Appetite for Distraction

This blog continues my analysis of Walter Isaacson's Biography on Einstein:
My starting point with Einstein is where all men start, magnificent beings, the crown jewel of God's creation (Psalm 8) but born with a deadly problem- sin. Not just doing bad things- it is essentially a rebellion. We are born with a rebellious soul and it is encouraged by our environment that is tainted and stained by it in every corner that we touch.

The easiest reformed theological concept to prove is moral inability or, as Calvin says, human depravity. Not that we are as bad as we could be- but a recognition that the default mode of natural men is a refusal to acknowledge the creator and the worship of created things (Romans 1).

As we all go through life, we get more ingrained to our particular sin paths. It may be an addictive nature or a cynical nature. It may be active rebellion or passive indifference. It may be affliction of shame or cowering in fear. It may be moral oppression or lawless expression. I have it- you have it- Einstein had it.

Even though Issacson lauds Einstein as a moral man (he indeed followed strong convictions and was kind and surprisingly humble)- the fruit of Einstein's journey is littered with violations of the creator's boundaries.

• Inappropriate relationship which parents did not approve
• Child out of wedlock that was put away
• Failed marriage
• Rough divorce
• Illicit affairs- lived with first cousin- later admitted adultery and married her

The fruit of our waywardness is consequential. God's precepts are good because they ultimately shield us from the terrible results of sin.

Now let's talk about how this impacted Einstein the most. His life was in some ways mirrors what we all do- run and hide or medicate the pain of living. We do this in a number of creative and complex ways. It often fuels our pursuits and creates flashes of passion.

Einstein admits this in the following quote:

“One of the strongest motives that leads men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness. Such men make this cosmos and its construction the pivot of their emotional life, in order to find the peace and security which they cannot find in the narrow whirlpool of personal experience.”

A route out of this cycle of sin and shame is to acknowledge and bow before the personal, Triune God of the universe. But Einstein's dread of such a Being- the sheer horror of such an encounter- caused him to start with a pre-supposition of a detached god. One with complexity- but not personality.

So this is our first God-shaped gap. We need to be brought into the presence of a Holy deity who relates to us as a person. A reunion with The Father through The Son.

This is what separates the Christian gospel from all other faiths.

Without this relationship, we are merely amusing ourselves with an infinite appetite for distraction.


Do you see the God-shaped gaps?

Einstein: Beauty, Unity, and the God Shaped Gaps

I just finished the 551 page biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. It was an incredible account of an amazing human being.

I will be writing this month a response and application of this man's story- one so connected to life, science, and faith.

I wanted to start with the last two sentences of the book:

"He was a loner with an intimate bond to humanity, a rebel who was suffused with reverence. And thus it was an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom and the universe (551)."

It is always interesting to me to see how great men of human history end up being loners and rebels. It was Emerson who coined the quote: 'To be great is to be misunderstood'.

It actually encourages me (and believe me, I am no Einstein) to know that it is OK to spend time in thought and wonder. I don't think we do it enough. My most annoying habit is that I get lost in the wonder of God and the mystery of the universe- ask my wife.

The last few days, we have been snowed in, and I have found myself rather withdrawn and contemplative. It is a loner existence, but I never feel alone. I am comforted more and more by the presence of Jesus in my life.

Now the struggle is to step out and share the presence with others I love. Namely, my wife and children and the students and teachers I rub shoulders with. But I have to be honest, I feel the draw that hooked Albert his whole life- he called them Thought Experiments- and he played them over and over in his mind. He spent countless hours contemplating buckets filled with water and what it would be like to ride a sunbeam. He did the thinking and later applied the math. It was his free thinking and keen ability to start with the right pre-suppositions that allowed him to unlock the truths of the cosmos.

This book has helped me see a little about how my brain operates. It sounds crazy, but much of my life is running football plays over and over in my mind, then I switch and run Bible verses over and over, then I think about family...friends, and then I think about football. For the last few years, I have been afraid to do this much- I even feel like I am weird. I get lost in a book that describes the grandeur of God's glory and I feel His pleasure. I put together a game plan and I feel His pleasure.

But Einstein encourages me to be willing to be me- if that cuts against what people may desire out of me, so be it. I hope that one day- there will come from me new thoughts in both areas for the benefit of others. I want the gospel to be more real and I want the spread offense to be more deadly.

I seem aloof at times- but I do know that I really care!

So forgive the arrogance of just posting Einstein and me... it is what a blog is for. More will come later- but I hope to bring together a unity and will propose a thought experiment... do you see the God-shaped gaps?