A eulogy and a lesson in physics
20/01/13 05:22
Some things are easy to find on the Internet. I am often pleased with the results of my Internet searches. But occasionally, I don’t find what I’m looking for. Today I have been looking for the full text of Albert Einstein’s Eulogy for his best friend, Besso. There are plenty of quotes from the eulogy – or at least the same quote is mentioned in many different places on the Internet.
I’ve been looking to read the entire text for a variety of reasons. I am called upon to deliver eulogies on a relatively regular basis and I want to do a good job of serving the needs of grieving families. Reading eulogies is one way to strengthen my skills at writing them. I also have a special interest in the thinking of Einstein. He was an obviously brilliant thinker who pushed our understanding of the nature of time and space. He expanded our understanding of the universe in which we live. We still don’t understand completely, and perhaps never will, but we understand a little more. And I understand only part of what Einstein taught.
I have a member of my congregation who thinks that it is funny every time I make a reference to physics in one of my sermons. He is even more amused when I try to explain a concept from my layperson’s point of view. He is a brilliant doctor and I am sure that he understands much more of quantum physics than I, but I also know that the theories of physics are always a stretch of thinking for our minds and they are only one framework for explaining the world around us. I once read that contemporary astrophysics is able to directly observe only about 3% of the known universe. This means that the “study” is highly based in speculation. It is rational speculation, but speculation nonetheless. Regardless of whether or not the 3% is accurate, it is true that we know only a tiny bit of the nature of the universe. We try to be consistent in our thinking as we push the boundaries of our understanding, but when we are honest, we admit that even the most brilliant among us understands only a tiny fraction of what this universe is and how it works.
I have also been searching for the entire text of the eulogy because I know that there are many different ways to think about time and space. We have been raised with a three-tiered framework for evaluating the passage of time. We think of time as past, present and future. Moments quickly pass. By the time you read this blog, the moment of my writing it will be past. As I am writing it, the moment of your reading it remains in the future. So even this blog is not seen from the same perspective by you as by me.
That is part of what Einstein was trying to say on the occasion of the death of his friend Besso. The quote from that eulogy that I do have is this: “Now Besso has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
In the midst of his grief, Einstein refers to physics as a framework of belief, he refers to it as if it were a religion. “Those of us who believe in physics,” makes his statement a sort of parallel argument to the quote from Thessalonians that I often say at the time of the committal of human remains: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thessalonians 4:14) The book of Thessalonians and Einstein’s explanation of time are both statements of belief.
More fascinating to me than thinking of Einstein as a man of faith, which in contrast to some atheists, I do, is the thought of Einstein challenging us to think of time in a different manner.
I have heard the story of the young Einstein, riding to work in Bern, Switzerland, watching the famous clock tower as he passed. He was speculating on the nature of time and suddenly he thought that if one were able to travel away from that clock at the speed of light, while still being able to observe the clock, the clock from the perspective of the one traveling would remain constant – not changing time at all, while time would pass for the traveler. The thought opened to Einstein a new way of thinking of the relationship between time and space and eventually led to his breakthrough thinking that opened up a new way of understanding physics. The theory of the relativity of time has since been directly observed by using highly accurate timepieces. One clock travels in a fast vehicle such as an airplane or a rocket while the other remains static. There is a measurable difference in the passage of time. Every time I try to explain this principle, I get myself a bit confused, but I know that time appears differently depending on one’s perspective.
To a physicist, then, a moment has both the property of quickly passing and also the property of continuing to exist when viewed from a vastly different perspective. To a quantum physicist each moment continues to exist perpetually in some different dimension. Therefore no moment is ever truly “past.”
I’m not sure how much consolation this perspective is to one who is grieving. For the pain of loss is real. Even if every moment of togetherness exists forever in some dimension of time-space reality, so too does the moment of recognition of separation. Knowing that past moments are not truly past, but on-going doesn’t change the reality of loss.
The bottom line is that much of life and death remain a mystery. Even if the principles of physics provide a small glimpse that opens a bit more understanding, what we do understand is tiny in comparison with what we do not understand.
I live in anticipation of further understanding. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)
I’ve been looking to read the entire text for a variety of reasons. I am called upon to deliver eulogies on a relatively regular basis and I want to do a good job of serving the needs of grieving families. Reading eulogies is one way to strengthen my skills at writing them. I also have a special interest in the thinking of Einstein. He was an obviously brilliant thinker who pushed our understanding of the nature of time and space. He expanded our understanding of the universe in which we live. We still don’t understand completely, and perhaps never will, but we understand a little more. And I understand only part of what Einstein taught.I have a member of my congregation who thinks that it is funny every time I make a reference to physics in one of my sermons. He is even more amused when I try to explain a concept from my layperson’s point of view. He is a brilliant doctor and I am sure that he understands much more of quantum physics than I, but I also know that the theories of physics are always a stretch of thinking for our minds and they are only one framework for explaining the world around us. I once read that contemporary astrophysics is able to directly observe only about 3% of the known universe. This means that the “study” is highly based in speculation. It is rational speculation, but speculation nonetheless. Regardless of whether or not the 3% is accurate, it is true that we know only a tiny bit of the nature of the universe. We try to be consistent in our thinking as we push the boundaries of our understanding, but when we are honest, we admit that even the most brilliant among us understands only a tiny fraction of what this universe is and how it works.
I have also been searching for the entire text of the eulogy because I know that there are many different ways to think about time and space. We have been raised with a three-tiered framework for evaluating the passage of time. We think of time as past, present and future. Moments quickly pass. By the time you read this blog, the moment of my writing it will be past. As I am writing it, the moment of your reading it remains in the future. So even this blog is not seen from the same perspective by you as by me.
That is part of what Einstein was trying to say on the occasion of the death of his friend Besso. The quote from that eulogy that I do have is this: “Now Besso has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
In the midst of his grief, Einstein refers to physics as a framework of belief, he refers to it as if it were a religion. “Those of us who believe in physics,” makes his statement a sort of parallel argument to the quote from Thessalonians that I often say at the time of the committal of human remains: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Thessalonians 4:14) The book of Thessalonians and Einstein’s explanation of time are both statements of belief.
More fascinating to me than thinking of Einstein as a man of faith, which in contrast to some atheists, I do, is the thought of Einstein challenging us to think of time in a different manner.
I have heard the story of the young Einstein, riding to work in Bern, Switzerland, watching the famous clock tower as he passed. He was speculating on the nature of time and suddenly he thought that if one were able to travel away from that clock at the speed of light, while still being able to observe the clock, the clock from the perspective of the one traveling would remain constant – not changing time at all, while time would pass for the traveler. The thought opened to Einstein a new way of thinking of the relationship between time and space and eventually led to his breakthrough thinking that opened up a new way of understanding physics. The theory of the relativity of time has since been directly observed by using highly accurate timepieces. One clock travels in a fast vehicle such as an airplane or a rocket while the other remains static. There is a measurable difference in the passage of time. Every time I try to explain this principle, I get myself a bit confused, but I know that time appears differently depending on one’s perspective.
To a physicist, then, a moment has both the property of quickly passing and also the property of continuing to exist when viewed from a vastly different perspective. To a quantum physicist each moment continues to exist perpetually in some different dimension. Therefore no moment is ever truly “past.”
I’m not sure how much consolation this perspective is to one who is grieving. For the pain of loss is real. Even if every moment of togetherness exists forever in some dimension of time-space reality, so too does the moment of recognition of separation. Knowing that past moments are not truly past, but on-going doesn’t change the reality of loss.
The bottom line is that much of life and death remain a mystery. Even if the principles of physics provide a small glimpse that opens a bit more understanding, what we do understand is tiny in comparison with what we do not understand.
I live in anticipation of further understanding. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12)