June 28, 2004

When one considers the impact of Einstein's paradigm-shifting statement of the Special Theory of Relativity from the vantage of a lay person, it is not the fact that it expresses the value of the constant c-squared (where c is the speed of light in a vacuum) that is most impressive. In the moment that it occurred to him that energy and mass were the same stuff if viewed in a certain way, I wonder if he said aloud the 1905 German equivalent of "Eureka!" as another scientist in another age is said to have done.

Now, if instead of the physical universe, one considers the universe of possibilities that lies in each individual (all that there is, all that there was, and all that there could be) how might we rewrite Einstein's equation in human moral terms? Would it be E = gc (where E stands for the potential for evil and g for the potential for good)? Surely good and evil are the same stuff at the sub-atomic level. And if we have got something here, what is the value of the constant c? Do you believe that it is greater than, less than, or equal to one?

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