Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Law of Gravitation

(Haven't decided whether to put this into Chapter 1 - "God Loves Us" or into Chapter 4 - "Jesus is the Saviour of the World".  As always your opinions, views, criticisms are most welcome.)

I enjoy reading science. 
Although my science degree (from 50 years ago) is in Physics, I like to keep in touch with where mankind is up to in appreciating and understanding God's wonderful creation in other areas as well - like chemistry, biology, geology and astronomy.
So please indulge me and let me digress a little to talk some science.

Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation states that any two objects exert a gravitational force of attraction on each other.
The direction of that force is from the centre of one object to the centre of the other.
The size of the force is determined by the size of the objects and their distance apart.
For any two particular objects the force on one is the same as the force on the other, but the effect of that force will be more visible on the smaller object.

Let me illustrate by considering the earth and me.
We attract each other with a force of about 800 “force units” (in the metric measurement system).
If I step off the top of a building, remove the “obstacle” between me and the earth, this force causes us to come together quite rapidly. 
But which one of us does the moving?
The force of 800 force units is not enough to get the earth moving towards me, but it sure moves me towards the earth.
So, small objects will move towards, and may eventually collide with, large objects because the force of attraction between them gets the smaller one moving more easily.

So why this digression?
I knew you'd be wondering by now.

I see the law of love working in the same way as the law of gravitation.
They are both universal laws put in place by God - one in the physical realm and one in the spiritual.
In the universal law of love, God is the big object and mankind is the small one. 
There is a love force of attraction between God and us whose direction is from the centre or heart of God to our centres or hearts.
That force is always acting so that when obstacles between us and God are reduced or removed, we will start moving towards God - and will eventually meet him, be united with him.

Jesus referred to this when he said that he would draw all people to himself.
It might take a while, it might need lots of obstacles to be removed, maybe reduced bit by bit, but eventually all people will meet him and be united with him.

Love to hear from you on this (or anything else for that matter)  Barry

2 comments:

  1. Although it can be dangerous to take parables or illustrations too far, let me continue this thought a bit further.
    You will remember that I said the size of the gravitational force of attraction between objects is influenced by the distance between them.
    Without getting immersed in the mathematics involved, it should be obvious that the greater the distance between them, the less will be the size of the force - the further they are apart, the less influence they will have on each other.

    When an astronaut is in outer space, the distance between him and the earth is so great that a feeling of weightlessness is experienced.
    The force between them, the weight force experienced, is thought to be zero.
    Mathematically, this is not correct as the force can never reduce to nothing at all.
    But the force is so small that the astronaut is not aware of it.

    Equally with the law of love.
    God's influence on mankind is never zero, no matter how far from God any person might be.
    Reason requires this to be so, and the Bible assures us of this truth.

    If God is God, the creator of all there is, he must be touchable from any and every part of his universe.
    A creator just has to have his creation within his sphere of influence.

    The Bible declares it this way.
    Where could I go to escape from you?
    Where could I get away from your presence?
    If I went up to heaven, you would be there; if I lay down in the world of the dead, you would be there.
    If I flew away beyond the east or lived in the farthest place in the west, you would be there to lead me, you would be there to help me.
    I could ask the darkness to hide me or the light around me to turn into night, but even darkness is not dark for you, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are the same to you.
    [Psalm 139 : 7 - 12 GNB]


    Isn't it good to know God stays in touch with us - even though we might not be aware of it.
    Barry

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rog here. Excellent original thought Barry. I love it. Quite an effective analogy. I certainly could not add to this piece. I think it will be good somewhere in your book for sure.

    ReplyDelete

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