"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" - Einstein would have loved it!

In the popular movie "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", author C.S. Lewis created the imaginary land of Narnia, where 4 children encounter time travel and discover the forces of both good and evil, and take a much greater part in that battle than they had ever dreamed possible.

Set during World War 2, four siblings Lucy, Peter, Susan and Edmund are moved to the county because of the bombing in London, and begin to explore the big house that is their temporary new home. In a back room of the house is a large wardrobe filled with many coats. The youngest sister, Lucy, runs into the wardrobe to hide from the other kids, and in so doing discovers that the back of the wardrobe is the door to another world named Narnia. In that world she encounters a faun named Tumnus who lulls her to sleep with an enchanting tune on his flute. When she returns hours later through the wardrobe to her brothers and sister, she finds that no time at all has elapsed. Apparently time in Narnia is non-correlated with time in England. (A notion, by the way, consistent with Einstein's General Theory of Relativity.) Her siblings quite naturally chide her when she tells them of her adventure, but she remains convinced her experience was real. One by one the others also enter, but find that this new world of Narnia is no longer a happy place but is locked in the grip of perpetual winter by the magic of an evil queen.

In due time the children, known in Narnia as "sons of Adam and daughters of Eve" learn that Aslan, the lion king of this world of Narnia, is coming back and can help them against the witch. But when they learn that one of their own, Edmund, was deceived by the witch and now is actually in her service, they need even more help. Aslan is as good as he is powerful, and with him all things are possible. He eventually gives his life in exchange for their release from the magic of the White Witch, then comes back to life due to "deeper magic from before the dawn of time." (Wormholes into another dimension?) After much battling the forces of evil with Aslan's help and finally defeating the White Witch, the 4 children eventually rule the kingdom of Narnia as Kings and Queens for what seemed like a thousand years before being whisked back to England only to find themselves children again playing in the old house.

Hmmmm. Sounds kind of familiar...like something that has been going on in our world for the past few thousand years.

Well, be that as it may, and setting aside for a moment the obvious parallels to Christianity, it occurred to me that Einstein would have been first in line to see the movie.

How so?

For one thing, Einstein, known for his massive knowledge, said "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."

In the land of Narnia time was completely non-correlated to time in England, which is consistent with Einstein' theory of time dilation. And wormholes that tunnel into distant regions of space and time and black holes and string theory and spacetime curvature... "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" has it all and more.

Move over, Albert, I'm coming with you!