Imagine God wearing a wristwatch, and that God moves around rapidly—close to the speed of light. Would we, who move much slower than light, see the hands on God’s watch move faster, slower, or about the same speed as the hands on our watches? And, well, so what?
Time Dilation
According to Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity,
a stationary observer will see a moving clock
tGod run more slowly
than her identical stationary clock tman.
This effect is known as time dilation,
and the comparative rates of the two clocks are given by the formula above,
where c represents the speed of light,
and v represents the velocity or speed of the Mover.
Theology
We know about man’s time.
Men have measured geologic time with radioactive clocks since the early 20th century.
But what about God’s time?
According to The Gospel of John 1:9, John refers to God as that That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Now, if God is truly light, then this means that God moves at the speed of light while He is transcending matter—as when He moves through a vacuum, and slows down while He intervenes in some immanent matter—as when He performs a miracle, now and then.
According to Snell’s Law 35:4, light slows down in a material medium such as water, air, or glass. Assume that God has a wristwatch, and that He travels less than the speed of light, but at a constant rate, when He is working through a material medium such as water or earth. Then, when God notices that a few hours have passed, men will see the hands on God’s Timex move so slowly that even the seconds hand seems to stop. Whereas, on man’s calendar, many eons will have gone by. God’s time is called proper time, ’cause He’s the one wearing the watch.
Question 1
How fast was God moving to create the world in 6 days when,
according to man’s scientific measurements,
He took 13.7 billion years to do the job?
This calculator may be useful.
Hints: solve for v in the equation below.
Let v = kc,
where k is a proper fraction of c.
This way you can avoid converting years to seconds, and vice versa.
Let c = 186,282 miles per second, or 299,792.458 kilometers per second.
Warning!
Because God’s velocity is very close to the speed of light when He is working,
vGod ≈ c, your calculator may think
(tGod / tman)² equals 0.
So, you may need to use an approximation somewhere such as:
1 + tGod / tman ≈ 1.
Of course, this question assumes that The Bible is written from God’s perspective, and not from man’s. If you prefer to limit God’s Creation to the Solar System, replace the 13.7 billion by 4.5 billion years. For more perspective, see Genesis & The Big Bang by Gerald L. Schroeder. Godspeed...
Question 2
What day is it on God’s calendar?hmmmmmmmmm...
But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing,
that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day.