Simon_Templar said:The equation E=mc2 doesn't say that matter is energy, or energy is matter, exactly. Rather it says that matter can be converted into energy (and possibly visa versa) and it gives a measurable basis for how much energy will result from converting a given amount of matter to energy.
Amount of Matter x Speed of Light(squared) = Energy output
In this equation Einstine discovered the physical fact that energy released from the break down of matter is immensely greater than the matter itself. Which is why a few pounds of plutonium can level an entire city and then some in a nuclear reaction.
what this deals with is the fact that all matter is composed of atoms, which in tern are composed of smaller particles. It is one of the strange and largely unexplainable facts of physics that the nucleus of an atom (the center mass of an atom) should not stay together, but rather should fly apart. There is some force of energy which holds the nucleus together. Science of course has come up with all sorts of ideas on this.
anyway, Einstine's equation deals with the energy that is released when that "binding force" is broken. When that binding force which essentially holds matter together is broken, matter is converted directly into energy, and the amount of energy released is truly awsome.
We with our limited knowledge and capability have only discovered how to do this with certain types of materials, known as fisionable matterials.. materials that are naturally radioactive.
It is virtually impossible to go the other way and convert energy into matter. First, as the equation shows us, it would take huge huge huge amounts of energy to even make a little matter. Just as a pound of matter can level a city, it would take enough energy to level a city, in order to make a pound of matter.
scientists have sort of created matter out of energy using particle accelerators, but this only creates random loose particles and as far as we know now its pretty much impossible to gather them together into atoms or anything above the sub-atomic level.
When attempting to create matter out of energy, scientists also run into the problem that the physical laws of the universe try to prevent this from happening. When matter is created in this way it is created in a matter/anti-matter pair, which immediately annihilates itself and turns back into energy.
It is possible to stop this reaction and scientists have captured tiny amounts of anti-matter by using magnetic fields.. but this is extremely difficult to do.
I don't believe there is a connection between E=MC2 and biblical teachings on faith. At least in any physical/literal sense.
However, I do think creation is all allegorical for God's truth, if properly understood.
Simple algebraic rules applied to Einstein's relativity formula prove that matter and energy are the same basic stuff. While you are correct that there are massive amounts of energy involved and that fact alone is what led to things like the atomic bomb, it was the functionality of the formula that facsinated science.
That being said, Einstein may have come up with the formula, but the writer of Hebrews already new the principle nearly 2000 years ago:
Heb 11:2-3
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
NKJV
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