I was reading Stephen Hawking’s book, A Brief History of Time, and a thought struck me.

Imagine you are sleeping in a train moving at 150 miles per hour. 

Can you say that you are in a state of rest? Well, your mind is (hopefully), but your body, influenced by the motion of the train, isn’t. 

Now imagine that you continue your sound sleep, even after the train has reached the station. Since the train is no longer in motion, can you now say that you are in a state of rest? Nope. 

As per Isaac Newton, there is no absolute standard for rest. Rest is always relative. In the above example, relative to the train, you are at rest, but relative to the Earth, you and the train are not, as our planet is moving at approximately 1,000 miles an hour. So, both figuratively and literally, there is no rest on earth. 

What about our universe? Can we at least find some rest out there? 

In 1929, Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is not static, but expanding. So even if the train and the earth were static, you cannot find absolute rest, as the universe is moving at millions of light-years per second. (Or let’s just say fast) 

This means, if you want absolute rest, you got to go outside this universe. 

Then I thought of another famous book. In one of the chapters, it says: 

‘…and God rested on the seventh day from all his work…’ 

This verse comes after the six days of creation. I always wondered the significance of ‘resting on the seventh day’. Was the author of this book leaving some clue? 

If God is in an expanding universe, he would not be able to rest. This means God took a rest outside the universe. Maybe heaven is also there. That should be the reason why we say ‘Rest in Peace’ when a loved one dies and the soul is united with the creator. 

I don’t know if this comparison or deduction is correct. Maybe I’m wrong. However, these two thoughts, the very possibility of it, have reinforced my confidence that laws of science and beliefs of theology are branches of the same tree. If we reconcile them, we realize that both are in search of the same seed that created it.