The Patent Clerk from Mount Olympus - Books & Culture - ChristianityTodayLibrary.com (via Mowser)

Member Services
My Account
Contact Us

Nov/Dec 2005

FREE ARTICLE PREVIEW

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles
[image]

E-mail this page
[image]

Toggle highlighting

The Patent Clerk from Mount Olympus
Einstein's annus mirabilis.
Karl W. Giberson

November 1, 2005
1. Voyages

We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see a universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws, but only dimly understand these laws. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that moves the constellations.

In 1768, Captain Cook and his crew headed off on their legendary voyage to Tahiti. In that same year a stream of photons from the Hyades star cluster embarked on a much longer journey, along the most literal of beelines to the earth. One and a half centuries later, in the middle of the morning of May 29, 1919, the photons crossed the boundaries of our solar system on their approach toward earth. Scheduled to hit the earth at mid-day, the photons would normally be invisible, overwhelmed by the brilliance of the sun. But May 29, 1919 was no ordinary day.

Shortly after lunch, the moon began to migrate across the face of the sun. The eerie mid-day darkness of an eclipse, with its not-quite-normal color scheme and Stephen King complexion began to move across the face of the earth. Mid-day night fell and the stars began poking through the opaque blue of the sky. The stream of photons that left the Hyades cluster in 1768 grazed the edge of the sun, passing close enough to the solar system's largest body to experience a more powerful gravitational tug than any of the other bodies in the solar system, ...

Are you a CTLibrary member or a Books & Culture subscriber?
To read the rest of this article, log in here:
E-mail Password

If you're a Books & Culture subscriber...
...but have not yet registered for online access, please register here. You'll receive instant, complete access to all articles currently on the Books & Culture website, as well as all articles published in Books & Culture for the past three years.

Please complete one of the following:

Your Account Number
locate your account number

Find Your Account Number as follows:

If you have your mailing label from your magazine delivery, your account number is represented by the 8 digits after BAC00 and before /0#

You can also login in by entering your name and address as it appears exactly on your mailing label. (Use only 5 digits of your zip code.)

*Note: The method used to access the archives the first time will be the method that must be used each time in the future.

close

-or-

First Name
Last Name

Address

City/State/Zip

If you're NOT a Books & Culture subscriber...
Subscribe now and receive Books & Culture print magazine and one-year access to all articles currently on the Books & Culture website, as well as all articles published in Books & Culture for the past three years for just $19.95!

Subscribe now!

Subscribe!

Risk-free trial issue
[image]

Give a gift subscription

Shopping

ChristianBook.com
Books|Music|Videos|Gifts

Bible Studies
Christian History
Leadership Training
Small Group Resources
[image]