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Saturday, April 16, 2005

Einstein and Christ's Sacrifice

This is the centennial of the year in which Albert Einstein began to publish a handful of articles that changed the way we look at the world around us. He is, of course, best known for his theory of relativity.

Einstein's special theory of relativity had two postulates:

"The laws of physics are the same and can be stated in their simplest form in all inertial frames of reference." and "The speed of light c is a constant, independent of the relative motion of the source and the observer." Peter Paul Urone, College Physics, Second Edition. Pacific Grove, CA: Wadsworth Group, 2001. (p. 693)

(The moving earth, or a moving airplane, are examples of inertial frames of reference.)

The Wikipedia says that a postulate is another term for a non-logical axiom, and that such statements "constitute a starting point in a logical system." That's what Einstein did. He started with two assumptions, and went on, assuming their truth, to his theories of relativity. He followed, where the logic took him.

Christianity also has two postulates. They form a starting point in a logical system. (I understand that people do not usually become Christians because of Christianity's logical appeal.) The postulates are:

There is an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and holy God, who abhors evil.

Humans are evil by nature, and only a perfect sacrifice can keep them from eternal destruction.

From these, Christian doctrine and practice should follow.

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