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What Do Albert Einstein, Joseph Smith, and Lehi Have in Common?

I came across something from Albert Einstein the other day that sounds suspiciously similar to something attributed to the prophet Lehi in the Book of Mormon, as well as to something alleged to have been revealed to LDS prophet Joseph Smith as contained in the LDS Church's Doctrine and Covenants.  The quotes are presented below. Are all three talking about the same thing? Let me know what you think.,

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?  Cosmologically thinking, The great scientist Albert Einstein seems to think the answer is no.  He explained it this way:
Till now it was believed that time and space existed by themselves, even if there was nothing else—no sun, no earth, no stars—while now we know that time and space are not the vessel for the universe, but could not exist at all if there were no contents, namely, no sun, earth and other celestial bodies.
In other words, for there to be existence, there must be opposites.  The prophet Lehi said in the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, that:
it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so...righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one; [and without opposition] it must needs have been created for a thing of naught; wherefore there would have been no purpose in the end of its creation. There could have been no creation of things, neither to act nor to be acted upon; wherefore, all things must have vanished away.
Similarly, Joseph Smith claimed as revelation from God the following interesting insights:
Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be. All truth is independent in that sphere in which [it exists], to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence. 
Are all three men talking about the same thing?  I'm still mulling it over, but I do think that they are...

   

Comments

  1. Unknown6/17/2013 02:11:00 PM

    "In other words, for there to be existence, there must be opposites."
    Frank, how is space/time the opposite of the physical entities in space?
    I do think of space as being defined by the matter that is contained in space, the three dimensions. If there is nothing to observe beyond a point is that the end of space? if you travel beyond that point then you become an observable object and thus extend "space". Time is much the same we can't observe the future, except through divine assistance. Observations of time are related to things that happened before. again if there was nothing to observe, before the point of creation, did time have meaning?

    ReplyDelete

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