I think one thing that this argument is missing is guns and titties. But apart from that, there is another thing:
Every individual experiences time differently. Hence the time-old adage of 'time flies while you're having fun', or other anglophonic metaphors such as 'in the blink of an eye'. What causes our experience of time to fluctuate so wildly? How is it that when I'm playing a game, half an hour can pass really quickly - yet when I am working a 12 hour shift, the last 20 minutes feel like two whole hours?
I beleive time HAS HAD a beginning and I am uncertain as to whether or not time will have an end.
In this sense, imagine a 3-dimensional graph with 'x' leading away from you, 'y' leading to your left and right and 'z' going up and down. Such is reality. A room has a couple of walls (X and Y), and typically these walls have a height (Z), which give us our floors and ceilings.
But there is (as mentioned previously) a fourth dimension of 'Time'. I would argue that you cannot 'plot' time into this 'reality graph', because in 3-dimensional representation you cannot have a 4th dimension.
Instead imagine a series of power-point slides, or frames - each depicting this X, Y, Z room of ours. And each 'frame' or 'slide' represents a moment in time. The first frame can be as infinitely different to the last frame in the series and there is an infinite number of frames between first and last. The reason that there is a 'last frame', is not because Time has ended, but because time is ending in each and every nano-second that passes.
This throws up the interesting issue of
how linear and progressive time actually is. Sure, we have those dreamers who imagine us creating a machine and punching in a date and travelling backwards in time... but hell, lets be realistic here. In the 3 or 4 minutes it too me to write this post, each key-press i made was signalling another consignation of time to its grave. It was ending, time itself, time as I experienced it, time as it is for everyone at any given moment ended. But, even before that one 'moment of time' had ended, another had already begun. This is made possible only through the incomprehensible speed of light and the total inadequacies of the human body to 'observe' time.
It is impossible to say that 'Time' will end. Just as it is impossible to say that 'god exists' or 'it will rain 34 milimeters on thursday the 17th of december'.
I beleive time began moments before the Big-Bang occured. And the reason 'Time' began was because the Big-Bang (an X, Y, Z event of gigantic proportions) could not exist without the 4th dimension to encapsulate it (Time).
Another question I have is:
Is it the 'passing of time' or our 'experience of time' which makes us aware of 'time itself'?edit: I phrase my arguments simplistically and in a straightforward manner. I try to punctuate and structure my points as best I can. But, ultimately, I know as much about physics as a cheese-grater knows about theological debate.
Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 10 2010, 11:24 pm by Cardinal.
None.