Bible and the Headlines: News You Can Use

By Editor | May 6, 2026

Time Dilation

By David Bachelor, PhD

In 1915, Einstein coined the term ‘time dilation’ in his General Theory of Relativity. The concept explained why some people would age at different speeds. The dilation of time depended on the speed the person was traveling or the force of gravity where the person was. There are headlines this week about forms of time dilation Einstein never considered.

On May 1, the Indian news source WION offered, “Dinosaurs Are Responsible for Rapid Ageing and Short Lifespans in Humans.” The article examined the findings of a study from the University of Birmingham. Since dinosaurs dined on mammals for eons, the lead researcher concluded, “My hypothesis is that such a long evolutionary pressure on early mammals for rapid reproduction led to the loss or inactivation of genes and pathways associated with long life.” The paper does not explain why long life or rapid reproduction were mutually exclusive propositions.

The April 29^th edition of Popular Mechanics featured, “A Scientist Says Humans Will Go Backwards in Time Within Just 3 Years.” The piece examines the concept of ‘longevity escape velocity.’ According to futurists, longevity escape velocity means, “ .. as our life extension technology gets better, our life expectancy could increase by more than we age over a set period of time.” The author points out that life-extending technology is not uniformly available across the planet, so some regions may not reach longevity escape velocity for decades to come.

New York Times, on May 1, published, “Longevity Science Is Overhyped. But this Research Really Could Change Humanity.” The concept at the center of this article is ‘cellular rejuvenation.’ The rejuvenation happens every time a baby is conceived. A woman’s egg that she has carried in her body since birth and a man’s sperm that also is the product of his age, in the womb, the fertilized egg shakes off the effects of aging from its parents and regains cellular functions its parents may already have lost. In other words, the zygote gets ‘younger.’ A researcher notes, “We don’t start out young; we [the fertilized egg] work our way back to it.” The goal is to trigger cellular rejuvenation at 30, 60 or 90 years postpartum.

The Bible addresses rejuvenation in the first letter to the church in Corinth. Rejuvenation does not happen after conception, but after our demise. Believers are told, “It will be like this at the resurrection of the dead. The body that was buried will be raised imperishable … in glory [and] … in power” (1Co 15:42-43).

The Bible also speaks about longevity. The first humans lived for centuries (Gen 5:1-32). As people began to cover the globe, God decreased human life spans to the upper limit we see today, “The LORD said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years’” (Gen 6:3). The average lifespan was revealed in the Psalms, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures” (Psa 90:10).

When King Solomon was given the opportunity for ‘time dilation,’ he turned it down (1Ki 3:5). God commended Solomon for his choice and told him, ‘Since you have asked for wisdom and not for long life … I will do what you have asked’” (1Ki 3:11-12). It is Jesus who holds the power over time dilation. Believers are told, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Neither gravity or velocity has an effect on eternal life.

Posted in Lifestyles