c. 2005 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) A hundred years ago, an obscure 26-year-old clerk in the Bern, Switzerland, patent office did some heavy thinking in his spare time, or perhaps while he was on the job. What the young German Jew came up with forever changed the world when he posited a theory few people then or now fully understand: The measurements of distance and time vary since everything moves relative to everything else.
The brilliant physicist blew apart Sir Isaac Newton’s earlier theory that the universe of space and time is absolute. Not so, argued the patent clerk. We live in a “relativistic” universe where light exists in extremely small particles that move at the incredible speed of 186,000 miles per second, and a world of minuscule atoms that can be counted within a specific space. He confidently asserted that energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared … E(equals)mc2.
Now wonder in his autobiography, the Clark Kent-like patent clerk turned Superman genius wrote, “Newton, forgive me.” Or as we love to say, “It’s all relative!”
Forty years later, atoms were split, creating extraordinary power for either frightening bombs or peaceful energy. And 50 years after Albert Einstein, the youthful genius, presented his theory of relativity, he died in Princeton, N.J. _ beloved global celebrity. During his half-century of fame, Einstein won a Nobel Prize in 1921, helped establish the Hebrew University in Israel in 1924, wrote a famous letter in 1939 to President Franklin Roosevelt urging the U.S. to build an atomic bomb, and in 1952 was offered the presidency of the state of Israel. Although Einstein refused the honor, Israel was always a central passion in his life. In 2000 Time magazine called Einstein the most important person of the 20th century.
I think often these days about Einstein and am glad he did not live to see the current mindless attacks on science coming from religious leaders, as well as the increasing number of nations vying to produce nuclear weapons.
Einstein was always fearful the destructive part of his intellectual legacy _ atomic and hydrogen bombs _ would proliferate throughout the world. Think of today’s Iran and North Korea; think of tomorrow’s Islamic terrorist group threatening the “infidels” with radioactive bombs; and think of the day after tomorrow’s lone psychotic with a dirty nuclear weapon seeking to blow up the “evildoers” in the world.
Einstein once said that “God does not play dice with the universe,” but we humans certainly do shoot craps and press our luck about future existence on this fragile planet.
Evolution is under attack in the United States. Many religious right leaders want to “balance” science with either the Genesis account of “creationism” or with an “intelligent design” concept that refutes the claims of evolution.
The latest religious attack on science is happening in the Odessa, Texas, public school system. In April that city’s school board voted unanimously to offer a Bible course in the 2006 high school curriculum. It would include the assertion there is “documented evidence through NASA” that scientifically validates the biblical claims found in the books of Joshua and Second Kings that the sun stood still to benefit the ancient Hebrews in battles following the Exodus from Egypt.
Now, I am happy that my ancient Israelite ancestors were able to triumph over their enemies. But why waste precious classroom time trying to “prove” that Moses successfully collaborated with God to make the sun stand still?
America’s public, private and parochial schools generally do an inadequate job teaching science to their students. And just as we are overcoming the “boys only” label for scientific studies _ three cheers for Col. Eileen Collins and the other female rocket scientists, engineers and pilots _ the religious right wants students to spend school time on dubious “documented evidence” about faith trumping science.
After living in Asia for two years, I doubt that young students in Tokyo, Taipei, Beijing, Seoul and, yes, Pyongyang are spending lots of science class time arguing about the validity of biblical accounts or are engaged in a wasteful debate between evolution and creationism. How about more quality biology, chemistry, physics and astronomy courses in America’s schools?
Leave the Bible, prayer and creation to synagogues and churches.
Perhaps the next Einstein is a high school student in Odessa, Texas. He or she shouldn’t be wasting time with so-called NASA “research” proving Moses kept the sun shining for two days.
MO/PH END RNS
(Rabbi Rudin, the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Adviser, is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Saint Leo University.)
Editors: Search the RNS photo Web site at https://religionnews.com for a photo of Rudin.
Editors: Replace (equals) in second graf with symbol
