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Originally Posted by LadyShea
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I understand time just like you do
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Uh, no
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Originally Posted by peacegirl
As far as time, it is always in relation to our units of measurement. But to say that time exists without humans to measure its passage is like saying time is conscious of itself
How can time exist outside of ourselves when all we have is the present? There is no past or future except in our memories. Without our memory of the past, or our thinking about what's to come, we would only be cognizant of this moment in time. post |
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Originally Posted by peacegirl
How can anyone measure time as if it's a thing? We measure the effects of time, not time itself. Post |
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Originally Posted by peacgirl
Exactly. That's (atomic clocks) an objective measurement of time. But this subjective measurement of time, is not proven at all.
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Originally Posted by peacegirl
time itself is a manmade construct and doesn't exist except in relation to ourselves.
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I was trying to explain that all we have is the present. The movement of time is actually done in the present. A second ago, a minute ago, an hour ago, a day ago, a month ago, or a year ago is a relation that we hold in our minds as a memory. We cannot live in the past or future. I think I have to repeat this post again. Through his insights, he proves that there is nothing to fear in death because we're born again and again, but there is no relation to the YOU that exists now and the YOU that will come into existence after you're gone. That's all I'm going to explain.
Decline and Fall of All Evil: Chapter Ten: Our Posterity pp. 488-489
To solve this apparently unsolvable problem, it is first
necessary to establish certain undeniable facts. Therefore, let me
begin by asking you if there is such a reality as the past? Does this
word symbolize something that is a part of the real world?
“Of course…yesterday is the past, today is the present, and
tomorrow is the future. And this is a mathematical relation.”
It is true that yesterday was Thursday, and the day before was
Wednesday, and there isn’t any person alive who will disagree. But
this does not prove whether the word past is an accurate symbol. Can
you take it, like you can the words apple and pear, and hang it up on
something so I can look through it at the real McCoy? When does
the present become the past? I actually want you to demonstrate how
the present slips into the past. That cannot be done, by God Himself.
The reason man cannot do what I asked is because there is no such
thing as the past. The past is simply the perception of a relation
between two points. As I move from here to there, the past is what I
leave behind while in motion; it is my ability to remember something
that happened. In actual reality you are not moving between two
points, a beginning and an end, you are in motion in the present. I
know that we were talking yesterday, and that I was talking a fraction
of a second ago, and that I am still talking.
The word 'past' is
obviously the perception of a relation that appears undeniable because
it has reference to the revolution of the earth on its axis in relation to
the sun. You are conscious that it takes a certain length of time to do
something, and because you are also conscious of space you perceive
that as you traverse a point from here to there, what is left behind as
you travel is called the past and your destination is the future. Here
lies a great fallacy that was never completely understood, for how is it
humanly possible for there to be such a thing as the past and future
when in reality all we ever have is the present? Yet we have a word to
describe something that has no existence in the real world. Socrates
didn’t live in the past — he lived in the present, although our
recollection of him (which is in the present) allows us to think back to
this time period.
The reason we say that Socrates lived in the past is
because this particular individual is no longer here. But is it possible
for you to say that God or the sun existed in the past? Does anyone
ever sleep in the past; does the sun ever shine in the past; is it possible
for you to do anything in the past? If you were sitting up on a high
cloud these last ten thousand years, never asleep, as is the sun, you
would have watched Socrates in the present, just as you are watching
me write this book in the present. In order for me to prove what
seems impossible, it is absolutely necessary that I de-confuse the mind
of man so we can communicate.