Thoughts: Relativity and Rationality

Lunch break ramblings (on relativity and rationality – I was originally just planning on posing a link to a good article)…
Last Wednesday was the 100th anniversary of Uncle Alberts' relativity masterpiece.

Getting to the end of this week's Economists there is a great article on the science and history surroundings his discovery (a little lengthy but still concise). Click Here

I wish I had known some more of this when I was younger. Thankfully at least my dad read to me some great Russell Standard books - which I can't recommend enough. They span a web of intrigue for me into the beautiful intricacies of creation and the order that underpins it. Click Here

Science is one of the most inspiring ways to gain insight into this broken masterpiece of a world. The complexities in conceptualizing the physical world remind me that the same is true in all fields.
Anyone trying to appreciate the wonder of relativistic concepts needs to make prolonged efforts to naturalise the complicated theories and advanced maths. Likewise anyone who wants to engage seriously in the matter of morality and faith should be prepared to restrain predispositions and scratch beyond the surface…

For me an obvious example is the perception that Christianity is homophobic. It is not (although some alleged ‘Christians’ are). But anyone who follows the Bible must yield to its plain condemnation of a multitude of behaviours, of which homosexuality is one of many.

My faith compels me to love anyone who (like me) has/had rejected God’s holy rule and gift of grace. To love them enough to risk jail, persecution and distain - for the sake of their eternal souls. To love them enough to say, “You/we are not God. You/we do not get to define morality. You/we are not perfect. You/we are wrong. But you/we are loved.”

Of course I know some will not see these admonitions as loving. Indeed I don’t always instantly warm to the bible’s instructions. But neither to my children warm to my stern voice when I demand that they do not touch the plug sockets. They are shiny, interesting and attractive (blame myself for picking brushed nickel) but the hazards are real. The same is true of any unrepeated sin. A holy creator God demands perfection, anything less receives no place in His eternal perfect kingdom. Hell is surely worse than electrocution. Thankfully God offers to substitute His perfection for our wretchedness – we need only accept His mercy. The knowledge of such love and forgiveness is the only thing that could compel us to repent and gradually sanctify our lives.

We as Christians should not single out homosexuality as a more grave transgression. The only grave transgression is our rejection of God as our leader and placing ourselves as the ultimate authority in our lives. –Everything else is just our personal preference of idolatry; be it ambition, family, hedonism or sexuality. Everyone has a moral compass that does not point in the exact same direction as God does in his word. Even those who try to orientate themselves according to the Bible turn away to our own direction from time to time.

But defamation of Christians will result specifically in relation to our stand in objection to sexual immorality (of both orientations) as this is one area where public consensus differs from biblical instruction. This is unlike many injustices on which the law and the Law agree, and there is less middle ground here than in the example of abortion – where many at least accept that the taking of an innocent life is always wrong and can therefore at least understand the implications if another believes that life begins at the moment of conception. (Again many ‘Christians’ fall into two extremes here of either staying silent or throwing stones- neither is loving)

Anyway to all my old friends and scientists, I miss having more time to investigate physics and discuss epistemology early into the morning (not enough to go back however). My prayer is still that you would be open to the great heroic story of the Bible, attracted to the character of Jesus - the Son of God, and not put off by His broken but compassionate Church – who if true to their beliefs will not stay silent when hopelessness threatens their loved ones. Unlike Einstein’s equations, it’s not all relative.