The Problem With Time

(Philosocom's Subcategory on Time)

(Philosocom's Subcategory Directory on Dilemmas and Problems)

The Problem With Time

(For more on time, please click here)

What if I were to tell you that, at large, there is not necessarily such a thing as a beginning or an end when it comes to all of existence?

What if existence always was, always is, and always will be? What if the local concept of time (seconds, minutes, and so on) is just a construct we invented to explain the duration of certain events, such as days, nights, and our lives, and that true time, which is independent of our solar measures, will never end, just like existence itself?

Thus far, there is no certainty about what led to the creation of existence, assuming it ever had one. The most common belief, however, is that it was created by an external deity, and that all things and beings could not have come into realization without said deity (or deities, if we are to take multi-god religions such as Hinduism).

This is the same belief that leads many to change their lifestyles and dedicate their lives to more religious purposes, such as charity, prayer, and a hope for a "seat" on the good side of a potential afterlife, which is by itself another topic.

While everyone is entitled to their opinions, my own evaluation, as with those of some, has a problem with the belief that the universe has been created, and that problem is that existence must contain everything within it, and never something external, because if we are to consider a higher being that existed before existence, it will defy the definition of existence, which is everything and everyone that has ever existed, exists, and will exist.

For comparison, it is like including the moon with Earth when we only refer to Earth itself and not any other planet or other outer-space object. If existence had something or someone before it, the basic definition of existence will be technically incorrect.

If we follow the basic definition of existence, and the logic that follows it, it will mean that there has always been a past, there is always a present, and there is always a future. In other words, perhaps this very universe has always existed, and thus has never needed, necessarily, a creator to create it.

In addition, the same problem can be involved with this theoretical creator himself -- if the length of the universe had an origin before it, what about the origin of the creators themselves? This would create the problem known as Ad Infinitum, the idea, in this case, that there were infinite gods without a beginning to them themselves.

Therefore, the question required is as follows -- if everything that has ever existed has indeed existed forever, like the definition of existed defines it simply by the word "ever", why would time need any measurement beyond the local motion of the Earth and the Sun, a measurement that is only necessary to evaluate lengths of things and beings locally?

For comparison, if humans were somehow brought into existence on another Earth-like planet, but with a different structure in that other solar system (its Sun would move faster, the Earth slower, and so on), then the concepts of seconds, minutes, and hours would be completely different.

The objectivity of time was therefore created thanks to the subjectivity of our own unique solar system; an objectivity that is only used on other areas of space because it is only understandable to us, the Earthlings. If we will, through a universal translator device, talk with a sentient alien about our Earthly time units, they will not understand unless they are familiar with our local concept of time.

For comparison, it's like talking with a very isolated tribesman about the now-universal Christian calendar; they may know that tomorrow will come, but they will not necessarily know what date it will be for most, if not all, of the world.

You see, the word "ever" can be used both ways, AKA, both in the past and the future; it is another term for "always", which is, of course, either "forever" or "until now". If we accept this definition of existence as literal, then existence was, is, and always will be. It is sufficient to include something or someone that exists outside of this universal sphere to render the basic definition of existence obsolete.

These exceptions are two -- an external creator that exists outside of existence and the end of time, because every end is a beginning, and thus that beginning as well is a "dysfunctional" exception.

The "Earthling" concept of time is used like this; it comes to a circle on a class board, looks at one or more sections of it, and marks each as having a beginning and an end, and then preaches to the whole class that that's how things were and are -- while in fact a circle has neither a beginning nor an end; it is but a basic endless loop that this whole existence might be, if my assessments make sense.

It might as well have happened when we invented clocks. Most of the world thinks that the beginning of the day is at 00:00, but according to Judaism, for example, the beginning of the day is when the sun sets. It's more subjective than we might think.

Feel free to disagree with me; it is not my job to tell you how to think, but that does not mean I cannot communicate what I think, which is my job.