Cosmologic philosophy: what is time (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, January 18, 2017, 18:28 (2645 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Another essay on the meaning of 'time'. It is all in our minds:
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2017/01/what-came-before-the-big-bang-intruiging-n...

QUOTE: ""Before" and "after" have a meaning only in time, and linear time at that".

Why “only in time”? That is what most of us mean by time!

DAVID’S comment: This fits our previous discussions. Time is a linear series of 'nows'. In relativity theory everything is in motion and changing. The 'nows' document that constant changing reality and are a construct of our conscious recognition to the change. Our consciousness, therefore, creates time as a concept. Time materially does not exist. Change exists and is constantly happening. God exists outside time, and our consciousness may well come from outside time.

dhw: It doesn’t fit my view of the discussion at all. You can’t have change without a before and an after, and as far as I am concerned, time is indeed a linear series of ‘nows’, that is to say a now that becomes a ‘then’, or a present that becomes a past. The words to describe the concept, and the various divisions we make, are certainly a human invention, but it is my firm belief that changes took place even before humans were around, i.e. that the history of the universe and life really have taken place, and that before, now and after represent a sequence that goes on even without our consciousness of them. In other words, time materially does exist if you accept this definition. I don’t know what you mean by “God exists outside time”. If your God created the universe and life and evolution, you cannot escape the same sequence. This whole argument is a game, and it depends on definition. If you really and truly reject the sequence of before, now and after, please give me your own definition of time.

Of course there is a sequence of before, now and after. That is understood. If God is eternal, He exists out of any time concept. Time begins as the universe starts, without question. We study and find the before sequences of events in time leading to us, even if we did not personally experience those events.