Time: Concept and Experience
Alfred
Y. Wong
Professor of Plasma & Environmental Physics, UCLA
Presented at Valley Presbyterian Church, January 2000
- What does the Bible teach us about Time?
- What does Modern Science teach us about Time?
Are they in conflict?
The apparent controversy surrounding the age of the universe can be resolved by understanding the concept of time.
Time and space together form a four dimensional space.
Scientific evidence will be presented to demonstrate the fact that time is not absolute. An event taking place in one frame can appear to take a longer period of time to an observer in another frame. A clock ticks differently in one frame than in another frame if these two frames are in relative motion with respect to each other. Experiments in the world of physics will be described to illustrate the concept that “time is relative”. Examples are the lifetime of an elementary particle and the comparison between atomic clocks and biological clocks.
If God takes six days in His frame to create the Universe it would appear to us stationary with respect to Him that the process takes billion of years.
Genesis 1:2 --- the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. This verse said that God was moving while he was creating. Certainly God can move at any speed. The time interval of one second in His frame can be many years viewed in our frame. According to Einstein's theory of Special Relativity the time interval t' of a certain event taking place in a moving frame will become a different interval t to an observer in the stationary frame according to the following equation:
When velocity v approaches that of speed of light c the time interval measured in the stationary frame can become very long.
Ps 90:4 “ For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night”. This verse can be understood in the context of observers moving at different velocities with respect to each other.
