Time is Gods Greatest Video Game
Time is something that has always baffled me. When I was a little kid, I remember a summer day could seem to go on for what felt like ages. You could spend most of the day outside and it felt so long, as if hardly anytime had passed. And then as we grow older, time seems to slip away ever so quicker. Before you realize it, you've celebrated your 25th birthday and then your 30th.. and just this past June I celebrated my 35th. I look back and I'm like, "Where the heck did it all go?"
Better question would be.. what the hell have I accomplished in my 35 yrs on this planet? It's kind of mind blowing when you think about it. Time now goes by so quickly, before I know it, I am preparing for bed.. just when I remember waking up. What happened to my day?! It's kind of frightening to be honest with you. =)
Kierkegaard
When I was in the Seminary, I loved studying the great philosophers, one of my favorites was Soren Kierkegaard. One of his quotes that I loved was:
Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
That one quote just says it all. Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards! Amazing! You could spend ages on that one just contemplating all the wonderful mysteries of life. Much in the same way is how we view time. We remember backwards, but live time forwards, desiring to find fulfillment in the future whereas we didn't in the past, perhaps in some ways we did, but it was on a limited level and so we seek enlightenment in the future and what it holds for us.
Free Will & Plato
That last thought on hoping for the future, begs the question, is the future already written for us? Do we truly have free will? Some of the great philosophers chimed in on this, Plato spoke about what was and what will be, stating that they are inaccurate modes of expression, but that time imitates eternity and revolves around the law of number. Plato also identified time as part of the motion of the heavenly bodies and space as a place in which things come to be.
St. Augustine
St. Augustine stated in his confessions that the knowledge of time depends on the knowledge of how things move and therefore time as we know it, cannot where there aren't creatures or creation to measure it's passing. I remember also another quote by St. Augustine that had a similar thing to do with time, in a sense (smiles), when he wrote
"Lord, make me chaste, just not yet"
LOL! It wasn't his time I guess for a full conversion. =D
Time As We Know It
There are so many different thoughts on time, Eternalism, Thermodynamics, Causation, Relativity, Invariance, ect.. I tend to be a bit of an Eternalist, believing in a certain sense that everything is actually going on at this very moment in the world. The Past, Present, & Future. Now in the world as we know it, time is being calculated and tracked. Today is today, yesterday was yesterday and we cannot change, today we have choices, and tomorrow.. that has yet to be written. That said, I believe that God is outside of time, therefore his worldview on our planet, universe, creation as he and we know it.. is all happening at this very moment. I believe that time itself is flat instead of rounded, that we are just part of a reality of time. One of my favorite past times is playing old 'god' pc games. The games that you play from the top down, which I call 'god' mode. Like so:
And I like to think that our world is being viewed in such a way, it starts out in the beginning and everything is happening on a level playing field. As time ticks away for those in the present, it is actually all happening at the same time.
What do you think? Chime in below.
I concur with Plato in his analysis of "time as part of the motion of the heavenly bodies and space as a place in which things come to be." God dwells in a different dimension in which he interacts with his progeny generally through telepathy while on occasions through more prodigious means. That being said, I conjecture that the fathers and keepers of secular scientific knowledge have intentionally misguided God's children for their own benefit and lucre.
It does seem to go quicker, mind you when I was a kid to count to a million was impossible now we hear of trillions as a small amount. I remember the school holidays seem to be for ever, We fill our lives with all sorts that makes time go quicker but when will the clock turn 5 to go home. Perception of time maybe a human experience but we know that gravity has the power to bend time due to mass but that does not effect earth time, how ever the earth if it was to stop spinning we would be thrown to the other side of earth at about 26,000 miles per hour, just some random thought.
Wow! That's something to think about! Our world/universe is such an amazing thing, isn't it? And yes, totally can relate on the time as a kid. Time is measured more in relativity I think to what we are doing in the world, than anything. I recently finished that new TV show on netflix called 'Stranger Things', which btw.. was freakin epic. Anyways.. the first episode begins with 4 boys playing Dungeons and Dragons and they were just wanting a little more time to finish the game, although they had already been playing for 10 hrs straight.. and to them.. it had likely felt like just a very short time. Yes. I think time is relative to our own experience in it.
I've read where everything is happening simultaneaously... past present and future which is why we may have a glimpse of the future if our focus is right
@rangertx now that is an interesting perspective with which I agree.. one question though, does this then explain why some people have the gift of sight of the things to come? Psychics?
In one book about time, I've read a definition for a time that goes something like this: "Time is like a river in a mist, you can't go back but only watch your past through memories and you can only set your course going forward."
@leksimus Wow.. that is beautiful! I'm going to have to look that one up. Thanks for sharing.
you right