What is time?

[McCulloch]

What is time?

Is it finite or infinite? Does it flow or is it a path? Is there a minimum possible time interval or is it continuous? What is now? Did time begin? If so, what came before time?

Does religion aid at all in answering these questions?

[TXatheist]

What is time?

Is it finite or infinite? Does it flow or is it a path? Is there a minimum possible time interval or is it continuous? What is now? Did time begin? If so, what came before time?

Does religion aid at all in answering these questions?

Ok, this is probably over my philosophical head, but I wanted to try to kick start this thread since there have been no replies as of yet....

Time is a man-made measure, so it would appear to be finite, having begun when man began keeping track of time. I am not sure about flow or path, but I would think there would not be a minimum time interval as they can be infinitely divided into smaller intervals. Wow, all those questions are starting to blow my mind. I guess time would also be a concept as much as a measure. Or the measure of a concept. Hmm... about all I can say for certain is that religion does not aid in answering these questions as religion is all based on faith. You may as well just have faith in your beliefs about time instead of actually coming to answers based on evidence.

I wish I had more to contribute, but I look forward to reading what others have to say. This is a fascinating topic.

[bernee51]

What is time?
Is it finite or infinite? Does it flow or is it a path? Is there a minimum possible time interval or is it continuous? What is now? Did time begin? If so, what came before time?

I know you may have read my thought on this before but I will present them again….

A human construct – a concept…if sentient beings were not around to describe it, it would not exist. It is a concept we humans use to describe the distance between ‘nows’. We remember previous nows or anticipate coming ones and in order to describe this relationship we have invented time. In a sense time only began once sentient beings evolved to define it – so your question ‘what came before time?’ would perhaps be better phrased as ‘did time exist before it was able to be described?’

‘Now’ is the border between ‘past’ and ‘future’. The concepts of past and future exist only with reference to the concept of the present moment, which is the central point in time. The past and the future are both concepts that exist only in the present moment. Therefore, relatively speaking, the present is the only point in time that is real. Though all that passes by it is constantly changing, the present moment itself always remains without undergoing any change.

‘Now’, being outside of the concept of time, is, like infinity, timeless. Regardless of the existence of this or any other universe there always has been and always will be ‘now’.

Does religion aid at all in answering these questions?

Not that I am aware of.

Although advaita Vedanta, which I see more as a philosphy than a religion, has a bit to say on the matter.

The book Happiness and the Art of Being, chapter 7 (The Illusion of Time and Space) deals with this very question.

[McCulloch]

A human construct – a concept…if sentient beings were not around to describe it, it would not exist.

The perception of time, the measure of time perhaps. But we can speak of time before human existence. I must think that time preceded sentience.

It is a concept we humans use to describe the distance between ‘nows’. We remember previous nows or anticipate coming ones and in order to describe this relationship we have invented time. In a sense time only began once sentient beings evolved to define it – so your question ‘what came before time?’ would perhaps be better phrased as ‘did time exist before it was able to be described?’

Like energy, matter and space, I don't quite understand how time could not have existed before humans could describe it.

‘Now’ is the border between ‘past’ and ‘future’. The concepts of past and future exist only with reference to the concept of the present moment, which is the central point in time.

Past, now, future. You start by defining now as the border between past and future, then describe past and future with reference to now. Circular is it not?

The past and the future are both concepts that exist only in the present moment. Therefore, relatively speaking, the present is the only point in time that is real. Though all that passes by it is constantly changing, the present moment itself always remains without undergoing any change.

Now is constantly changing and timeless. How can something timeless change, when change itself requires time? How long is the present moment?

[McCulloch]

Ok, this is probably over my philosophical head, but I wanted to try to kick start this thread since there have been no replies as of yet....

Sometimes it is good to go out over your head.

Time is a man-made measure, so it would appear to be finite, having begun when man began keeping track of time.

Re-read that sentence. You claim that time started when humans began to keep track of time. If time had not been there to start with, what was it that we discovered that needed to be kept track of? You end up doing what is very difficult not to do, define time as well, time.

[TXatheist]

Ok, this is probably over my philosophical head, but I wanted to try to kick start this thread since there have been no replies as of yet....

Sometimes it is good to go out over your head.

Time is a man-made measure, so it would appear to be finite, having begun when man began keeping track of time.

Re-read that sentence. You claim that time started when humans began to keep track of time. If time had not been there to start with, what was it that we discovered that needed to be kept track of? You end up doing what is very difficult not to do, define time as well, time.

I see your point and agree.

Do you think that there is a difference between time as a concept and time as a measure? Are they separate?

[McCulloch]

Do you think that there is a difference between time as a concept and time as a measure? Are they separate?

Yes. We measure time by using time. We find something that takes a fixed period of time; the rotation of the planet; our orbit about the sun or the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom and use them to measure other periods of time. I am forty nine years old. That really does not say how much time has passed since my birth, what it says is that the length of time since my birth is 49 times the length of time it takes the earth to go around the sun once. Time as a measure, humans have been able to do quite well and sometimes with great precision, but only relative to other periods of time. Time as a concept, is still an open question.

A few things to throw out: Time and causation. An event cannot be said to have had a causative effect on another event unless the first event is prior to the second in time. Why?

It has been said (and I cannot source this just now) that time is what prevents events from happening all at once. If there were no events, could there be time?

In physics, the Planck time, (tP), is the time required for light to travel, in a vacuum, a distance of 1 Planck length. Current theory suggests that one Planck length is the smallest distance or size about which anything can be known. As of 2006, the smallest unit of time that was directly measured was on the order of 1 attosecond (10^−18 s), or about 1026 Planck times. It seems that time may not be continuous, but there is a minimum possible length of time. If reality were a movie, there would be 1026 frames per attosecond.

[TXatheist]

Do you think that there is a difference between time as a concept and time as a measure? Are they separate?

Yes. We measure time by using time. We find something that takes a fixed period of time; the rotation of the planet; our orbit about the sun or the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom and use them to measure other periods of time. I am forty nine years old. That really does not say how much time has passed since my birth, what it says is that the length of time since my birth is 49 times the length of time it takes the earth to go around the sun once. Time as a measure, humans have been able to do quite well and sometimes with great precision, but only relative to other periods of time. Time as a concept, is still an open question.

A few things to throw out: Time and causation. An event cannot be said to have had a causative effect on another event unless the first event is prior to the second in time. Why?

It has been said (and I cannot source this just now) that time is what prevents events from happening all at once. If there were no events, could there be time?

In physics, the Planck time, (tP), is the time required for light to travel, in a vacuum, a distance of 1 Planck length. Current theory suggests that one Planck length is the smallest distance or size about which anything can be known. As of 2006, the smallest unit of time that was directly measured was on the order of 1 attosecond (10^−18 s), or about 1026 Planck times. It seems that time may not be continuous, but there is a minimum possible length of time. If reality were a movie, there would be 1026 frames per attosecond.

Wow, fascinating stuff. What was the method they used to measure time in the 2006 study?

[TXatheist]

It seems that time may not be continuous, but there is a minimum possible length of time.

Can you explain how time can not be continuous? I don't see how that is possible.

[McCulloch]

What was the method they used to measure time in the 2006 study?

I don't know.

Can you explain how time can not be continuous? I don't see how that is possible.

It is analogous to how space is not continuous. It is all part of quantum theory. There is a maximum speed (the speed of light). There is a minimum distance (the Planck length). Thus the minimum duration of time is the time it takes the fastest possible thing to go the smallest possible distance.