Einstein: Science, Religion, Theology - Review

Judaism, Summer, 2001 by Stanley M. Flatte

2. Mass-Energy Equivalence. The theological implications here are: (a) Can the universe be created out of nothing? Jammer refers to a discussion by Henry Margenau, in which Margenau cancels the rest mass energy of a sphere with its gravitational potential energy. (b) God can achieve physical incarnation. A significant section of Chapter 3 discusses the theories of Thomas Forsyth Torrance and reactions thereto that equate energy-mass equivalence to the possibility that a being (God) of pure energy could transform to matter in an Incarnation. Jammer quotes a number of critics of this position.

3. Gravitation is equivalent to Curved Space. The identification of a force with the very structure of space time has powerful implications for theologians trying to understand metaphysics. Jammer's discussion of this aspect of Einstein's general theory is tied up with his treatment of the Big Bang. However, he does give a light-hearted contribution to the discussion by quoting Kepler, from 1601: "Where matter is, there is geometry."

4. Local Realism. Despite his lifelong aversion to the standard interpretation of quantum mechanics, Einstein was one of the founders of this basic branch of physics. The theological implications of quantum mechanics spring from just those parts of quantum mechanics that Einstein said were ephemeral, and that would be replaced with a more complete theory (which has not come yet). However, Einstein made one crucial contribution by pointing out explicitly how quantum mechanics disagrees with our belief that nothing can travel faster than light. This contribution came in the form of a thought experiment presented by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen, in which two photons are created at a central location, and each travels to a distant star (in the opposite direction). The first photon is measured, and at the instant of this measurement the second photon is modified. Einstein rejected this as absurd, but the experiment has been done (in effect), and quantum mechanics is correct. We have therefore to admit that two ph otons light-years apart are in some sort of relation to each other. We cannot send real signals by this means, but the relation is still mysterious. The theological speculations that this aspect of physical reality induces are mind-spinning.

5. The Big Bang. The general public's view of the early moments of the universe is probably strongly influenced by Steven Weinberg's book "The First Three Minutes," which gives the impression that one can go back closer and closer to a singularity represented by time zero. In 1983, Stephen Hawking and James B. Hartle showed that because of quantum mechanics there is no singularity. Perhaps I can help the reader understand with a reminder of a simple model of the expanding universe in space. There is no wall at the outermost reaches of space. In order to understand this, one can imagine a two-dimensional space that is the surface of a balloon that is expanding. At any time one can travel everywhere on the surface of the balloon but never hit a wall. Hawking and Hartle's theory can be thought of as a four-dimensional version of the balloon, but with one of the dimensions as time. Thus there is no "wall" at zero time any more than there are walls in space.