The eclipse next week
may be a big sensation,
but another one back in 1919 may
have had a much bigger impact.
Because as Paul Strand tells
us, it started the ball rolling
on a revolution in our
understanding of the universe.
As we get ready for the
August 21st total solar eclipse,
it's time to note a similar
eclipse brought Albert Einstein
his worldwide fame.
And some would say brought
proof of a creator.
Einstein came up with his
theory of general relativity way
back in the start of the 1900s.
Was there an eclipse
involved in actually
popularizing his theory.
There was an opportunity with
the 1919 total solar eclipse
in Brazil to put the theory of
general relativity to the test.
Because what was unique
about that theory
of general relativity,
it predicted
that the gravity of the sun
would bend the light of stars.
And indeed they were able to
confirm that the star light was
bent by the amount that the
theory of general relativity
predicted.
And so that was an
amazing confirmation.
And that got picked up by
newspapers around the world.
And suddenly Albert Einstein
became a household name,
and his theory of
general relativity
became established in the minds
of physicists and astronomers.
And what was
significant about that,
it's that theory of
general relativity
that predicts there is a
beginning to the universe.
Until Albert Einstein's
theory came along,
astronomers and physicists
thought the universe
was infinitely old.
The theory of general
relativity now
said, no, it's finite in time.
It has a beginning,
which implies
there must be a beginner that
was responsible for bringing
the universe into existence.
So people began to accept
this then, his theory.
And I was going to ask you what
the philosophical implications
of this were.
It said space and
time were created.
Space and time have
a beginning, which
means there must be an
agent beyond space and time
that created our universe
of matter, energy, space,
and time.
Did it show anything about
the God of the Bible as
compared to the other
gods that people
in different places of
the world believed in.
I wasn't raised
in a Christian home.
But when I was studying
the different religions
of the world, what I noticed is
that the non-biblical religions
teach that God or gods create
within space and time that
eternally exists.
But the biblical
God, the universe
doesn't exist until
space and time exists.
He creates space and time.
And so as a young man,
I recognized that thanks
to the space-time theorems,
it's the God of the Bible
that created the universe, not
the gods of the other religions
of the world.
Today, general relativity
ranks as the most exhaustively
tested and best-proven
principle in all of physics.
I mean, there's
nothing we are more
confident of than the
reliability of the theory
of general relativity.
Which means that, likewise,
we have confidence
that there must be a God
beyond space and time
that created our universe.
And that's how an eclipse
brought Einstein global fame
and more legitimacy to the idea
this universe had a beginning
and maybe someone to begin it.
Paul Strand, CBN News, reporting
from Herndon, Virginia.
