Space, Time, and Light: as  physics defines it.

Most people think of light as a thing that moves through space, like a bullet or a wave. Fast, yes—but still just another object traveling from one place to another. Modern physics tells us something far stranger. Light is not merely in space and time. It is what reveals how space and time themselves are built.

Space and time are not separate arenas in which events happen. They are inseparably woven together into a single structure: space-time. And light sits at the core of that structure, not as a privileged traveler, but as the defining ruler by which space and time relate to one another.

The speed of light is not simply “how fast light goes.” It is the conversion factor between space and time. It tells us how many meters correspond to one second, how distance translates into duration. Change the speed of light, and you would not merely change optics or astronomy—you would change what it means for two events to be simultaneous, for causes to precede effects, for time itself to flow.

Richard Feynman says this – The speed of light is not simply “how fast light goes.” It is the conversion factor between space and time. It tells us how many meters correspond to one second, how distance translates into duration. If you were to alter the speed of light, you would not only alter astronomy and optics, but also the meaning of simultaneous events, causes preceding effects, and time itself. In this sense, light is not special because it is fast. It is special because space and time are arranged so that there exists a a certain maximum speed, above which no mass or matter can pass . Light happens to move at that speed because it has no mass, but the limit itself belongs to space-time, not to light.

As objects move faster through space, they must move more slowly through time. This is not a mechanical limitation but a geometric one. Every object moves through space-time at a constant “rate,” and motion through space diverts motion away from time. At rest, all motion is through time. Near the speed of light, almost all motion is through space. At the speed of light itself, time ceases entirely.

This is why nothing with mass can reach the speed of light. Doing so would require time to stop completely for that object, which would require infinite energy. The universe does not forbid this by decree—it makes it meaningless by structure. Light, then, is the boundary between what can be experienced as time and what cannot. It marks the horizon of causality. It defines “now,” limits information, and sets the maximum rate at which reality itself can change.

Light is not just something that travels within the universe.
It is something that reveals how the universe is stitched together.

A Biblical Parallel: “Let There Be Light”

When we turn to the Bible, we encounter a strikingly different language—but not necessarily a contradictory intuition.

The opening line of Genesis does not begin with matter, motion, or objects. It begins with structure:

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Before stars, before life, before even the Sun, the first act of ordering is:

“Let there be light.”

Importantly, this light appears before the creation of the sun, moon, and stars. Whatever this “light” is, it is not merely a physical lamp in the sky. It is the first differentiation—between light and darkness, between order and formlessness, between what can be distinguished and what cannot. In biblical language, light is not primarily a thing. It is a condition for distinction, order, and meaning. Without light, nothing can be seen, separated, or known. Light is what makes time possible: “there was evening and there was morning, the first day.”

This resonates uncannily with modern physics. In relativity, without a finite speed of light, there is no consistent way to define simultaneity, causality, or temporal order. Time itself loses coherence. Light is what allows events to be ordered at all.

Where physics says: Light defines the structure of space and time

The Bible says: Light defines the structure of creation and meaning

These are not the same claim—but they rhyme.

Physics describes how space, time, and light interlock.
Scripture speaks to what it means for order to exist at all.

One uses equations. The other uses metaphor. One measures. The other reveals.
But both place light at the foundation, not as a secondary phenomenon, but as the first condition that makes everything else intelligible.

God Beyond Space, Time, and Light

Where does God fit in all of this. Before we get ahead and get any further, perhaps the better question is just the opposite.

If space, time, and light form the architecture of the universe, then God cannot be one more object inside that architecture. God must be prior to it, larger than it, and independent of it.

If God created space, then God cannot be confined to a location.
If God created time, then God cannot be confined to a moment.

Time, as we experience it, is a sequence—past, present, future. But sequence only exists for beings who move through time. God does not move through time. Time exists within God.

That is why God can be described as being at the beginning and at the end at the same time. Not because God moves infinitely fast, but because for God, time is not a river to travel—it is a landscape already complete. What we experience as “before” and “after” are simply different regions within something God holds all at once.

Similarly, space does not limit God. Space is not something God occupies; it is something God contains. God cannot be “here” and not “there,” because here and there are distinctions that exist inside God, not boundaries around Him.

This is what it means to say God is omnipresent—not spread thinly across the universe, not divided into parts, but fully present everywhere because everything exists within God.

God does not surround the universe like a shell.
God does not sit at its center like an object.
The universe exists within God, the way a thought exists within a mind—fully dependent, fully contained, never separate.

This reframes what it means to say “God is everywhere.”

It does not mean God is in every place.
It means every place is in God.