The Illusion of Time (The nature of a \'Creator\')

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Sunday, September 12, 2010, 05:19 (5185 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

"Balance_Maintained,"-Thank you for coming to the site, I am always happy to see new faces! Now, on with the discussion...
> The original post made some references to Buddhism. I am not an expert on it, and have only just begun studying it. However, I have studied several other major religions, more out of morbid curiosity than anything, but some of the things I have found are interesting in that they expose a basic understanding of things not to be discovered by science for several thousand years. 
> -As far as the Buddhist perspective there isn't much to say: time is man-made; it is an illusion. The only thing that exists at any point in the universe is "now." We can make predictions about the future, we can analyze the past, but the only important part of existence is in "here and now." This wisdom is echoed in many religions--including the Abrahamic religions.-> The issue of time is one of those things, and the Buddhist view is not the only religion by far to have a premise in its religious text. 
> 
> For example, for the bible 2 Peter 3, "a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day." It could be a reference to the perspective of an entity that has an extrodinarily long life, or could be read as, Time has no meaning, or does not exist.
> -This was my argument as a christian to support evolution. Obviously, I've since given up that ghost, but one would wish that more Christians would read their damn book...-> "According to the Hindu theory of creation, time (Sanskrit 'kal') is a manifestation of God. Creation begins when God makes his energies active and ends when he withdraws all his energies into a state of inactivity. God is timeless, for time is relative and ceases to exist in the Absolute. The past, the present and the future coexist in him simultaneously."
> 
> The concept is even reflected in the Jewish Kabballa (though I don't have a copy or link to one to reference.)
> -Kabbalism refers to timelessness in terms of the Godhead. There is a few suggestions of this mentioned in the Zohar; but in general it is applied to God and not to the world or the universe. -> My point is, there is something very intuitive about timelessness. The idea has been around a LONG time. Humans have a nasty tendency towards arrogance, and we arrogantly assume that the ancient civilizations were ignorant and barbaric compared to us. (A lot of horse poo in my opinion, but regardless) However, it is only now that we are rediscovering that time may not exist. Even if the religious texts are not 'Inspired by God' they are worth digging into as a source of insight into things that we are only just now discovering.-Physics has done quite a bit to demonstrate that nature is NOT intuitive. While I don't deride ancient civilizations in terms of wisdom; I would echo dhw here in asking the question: "Would you prefer to submit to medicine of 4000 years ago, or medicine in this day and age?" Especially in terms of emergency care, the ancients had nothing on us. Or, what about disease being caused by demons instead of bacteria? -I bring this up only in the caution that the ancients did not have all the answers, otherwise we wouldn't be wrestling with many of the same questions.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"