Robert Jastrow (1925-2008) was an American astronomer and planetary physicist with a PhD in Physics from Columbia. In 1958, he joined the newly formed National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as head of its theoretical division. In 1961, he became the founding director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and served as its director until his retirement from NASA in 1981. In 1978 he wrote in his book God and the Astronomers,

“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”

Jastrow described himself as an agnostic rather than a Christian, though he acknowledged that scientific evidence pointed to a beginning of the universe that implied supernatural forces. But Jastrow had the right perspective with his observation that theologians had the answers to ultimate reality.

While reason can go a long way to opening windows into some of the mysteries of creation, it is theology as revealed by God that unlocks metaphysical reality. I’m convinced that this is true of the mystery of time. Here is a fascinating video by a PhD elaborating on the mystery of time at different levels of understanding from a child up to PhD. It seems that the more we know, the more we realize how little we know. I argue that it is ultimately only a theological understanding of time (something that I have been struggling with for years) that has the potential to unravel the mystery of time. In the video, Dr. Greene admits that some questions are beyond the realm of physics and are philosophical in nature. Philosophical questions are in fact the purview of theology, not physics.

Galatians 4:4-5 states, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” What does “fullness of time” mean? Is it possible that both Newton and Einstein were correct in their conclusions regarding time? What is the nature of time? I argue that the answer lies in a theological exploration of the concept of time itself . . . for as Jastrow recognized, it is theologians who possess the key to metaphysical reality.