Question by Marc Hector: What do you think about the following understanding of Time? Do you agree? Disagree? Why?
The piece is a small meditation from a particular young person who came to some detailed conclusions. What do you think?
link: http://mlogy.blogspot.com/2008/09/cameo-meditations-on-time-i.html
PS. It’s quite a fun read – and it is a metaphysical topic – it tries to understand the nature of time-perception. It’s a very interesting read – not at all dull, in my opinion.
Best answer:
Answer by Happy Hiram
I prefer not to go to links as promoting your web site with Yahoo! Answers is against the guidelines.
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
I haven’t the time to read peoples blogs. Sorry.
7. AT CARTHAGE – DISCOURSE ON TIME AND SPACE
Most of the time en route to Carthage Jesus talked with his fellow travelers about things social, political, and commercial; hardly a word was said about religion. For the first time Gonod and Ganid discovered that Jesus was a good storyteller, and they kept him busy telling tales about his early life in Galilee. They also learned that he was reared in Galilee and not in either Jerusalem or Damascus.
When Ganid inquired what one could do to make friends, having noticed that the majority of persons whom they chanced to meet were attracted to Jesus, his teacher said: “Become interested in your fellows; learn how to love them and watch for the opportunity to do something for them which you are sure they want done,” and then he quoted the olden Jewish proverb÷”A man who would have friends must show himself friendly.” Time is the stream of flowing temporal events perceived by creature consciousness. Time is a name given to the succession-arrangement whereby events are recognized and segregated. The universe of space is a time-related phenomenon as it is viewed from any interior position outside of the fixed abode of Paradise. The motion of time is only revealed in relation to something which does not move in space as a time phenomenon. In the universe of universes Paradise and its Deities transcend both time and space. On the inhabited worlds, human personality (indwelt and oriented by the Paradise Father’s spirit) is the only physically related reality which can transcend the material sequence of temporal events.
Animals do not sense time as does man, and even to man, because of his sectional and circumscribed view, time appears as a succession of events; but as man ascends, as he progresses inward, the enlarging view of this event procession is such that it is discerned more and more in its wholeness. That which formerly appeared as a succession of events then will be viewed as a whole and perfectly related cycle; in this way will circular simultaneity increasingly displace the onetime consciousness of the linear sequence of events.
There are seven different conceptions of space as it is conditioned by time. Space is measured by time, not time by space. The confusion of the scientist grows out of failure to recognize the reality of space. Space is not merely an intellectual concept of the variation in relatedness of universe objects. Space is not empty, and the only thing man knows which can even partially transcend space is mind. Mind can function independently of the concept of the space-relatedness of material objects. Space is relatively and comparatively finite to all beings of creature status. The nearer consciousness approaches the awareness of seven cosmic dimensions, the more does the concept of potential space approach ultimacy. But the space potential is truly ultimate only on the absolute level.
It must be apparent that universal reality has an expanding and always relative meaning on the ascending and perfecting levels of the cosmos. Ultimately, surviving mortals achieve identity in a seven-dimensional universe. The time-space concept of a mind of material origin is destined to undergo successive enlargements as the conscious and conceiving personality ascends the levels of the universes. When man attains the mind intervening between the material and the spiritual planes of existence, his ideas of time-space will be enormously expanded both as to quality of perception and quantity of experience. The enlarging cosmic conceptions of an advancing spirit personality are due to augmentations of both depth of insight and scope of conscijusness. And as personality passes on, upward and inward, to the transcendental levels of Deity-likeness, the time-space concept will increasingly approximate the timeless and spaceless concepts of the Absolutes. Relatively, and in accordance with transcendental attainment, these concepts of the absolute level are to be envisioned by the children of ultimate destiny.
Wow, it was very thought-provoking. I always wondered if I could ever perceive the “present”. Surely, with a brain capable of about 10 trillion “thoughts” per second, I definitely should be able to observe the present.
However, I realized that the “present” doesn’t exist. What we see is what happened in the past. It takes time for the eyes (or any other sense) to send the message to the brain, for the brain to receive and acknowledge the message, and then for the brain to realize it. We can never see the “present” because for every smaller measure of time, there is an even smaller measure. It like trying to say, “what’s the smallest number?” No matter how small the number you come up with is, you can always divide by 2.
That’s where relativity comes in, and it’s mentioned (though not by name) in the article. The heartbeat is “fast” compared to the sun, but “slow” compared to the grains of sand. The sand is “slow” compared to the thoughts of the mind, which is “fast.” A machine that ran faster than the mind, (it would have to be at least 10,000 GHz – most now are 2-6 GHz), it would say that the mind was “slow” and it was “fast.”
That’s why we have “seconds”, “hours” and “minutes.” We need to measure it to understand it. In reality, time doesn’t go by “seconds” or “nanoseconds” or whatever; it is constant. It just “goes.”
We need something to compare “time” to. Our entire existence is a long time in human history, but if the entire history of our universe was condensed into 24 hours, it would only be the last two seconds.
Time is relative. What one person may see as a long time, another might see as a short time. But they’re both right. And if they’re both right, it means that time does exist, but cannot perceive it. We can only perceive the “passing” of it in relation to something else. If we could perceive it, we would realize that time cannot “measured” because it, simply, does not have any parts.