What I learned from Einstein and it is not E=mc²

When I was a young boy, I loved to read biographies of people who changed the world. I remember reading about great men like the Wright Brothers, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill. The desire to read biographies continues into my adult life. I have always looked for common characteristics among people who have achieved great things. (I do not believe there are as many as people think)

But, there is one characteristic that is obvious: Men and women who change their world are people who see things differently and are not afraid to challenge the status-quo of the majority’s mindset.

Thomas Kuhn, in his very influential book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, made popular the idea of a “paradigm shift.” His basic premise is that every great scientific discovery was predicated by someone who looked at the problem in a radical new way. In his words,

“. . . the successive transition from one paradigm to another via revolution is the usual developmental pattern of mature
science.” (emphasis mine)

I am currently reading Walter Isaacson’s new biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe. It is remarkable that many of Einstein’s contemporary scientists were as brilliant as he, and some of them were very close to the discovery of relativity. But the question remains, what is the difference that enabled Einstein to make this discovery, that some called the greatest scientific discovery of all time, while his contemporaries were not? Henri Poincaré, the French mathematician, was one of his contemporaries who was the closest to making the discovery. Isaackson gives us the answer as he quotes Freeman Dyson,

The essential difference between Poncaré and Einstein was that Poincaré was by temperament conservative and Einstein was by temperament revolutionary. When Poincaré looked for a new theory . . . he tried to preserve as much as he could of the old. Einstein, on the other hand, saw the old framework as cumbersome and unnecessary and was delighted to be rid of it. (emphasis mine)

Christians do not exactly have the best record when it comes to receiving new scientific discoveries. Does this sound familiar; “What? The Earth is round! Hogwash! After all the Bible says, “He will gather the elect from the four corners of the earth.” We also do not have a very good record of experiencing new movements of God. Does this sound familiar; “We have never done it like that before.”

So what is the moral for spiritual revolutionaries in all of this? First, don’t be afraid to think outside the box. Second, don’t be afraid of a leader who challenges your traditional mindset of how we can do ministry. And finally, number three, always remember E=mc².