Catholic theology/philosophy of time?

[Writer_for_God]

Hi,
I have been thinking about time, how to understand it, what it is, etc. I am planning on taking up piano again, and I find that every time I have attempted to study music, my difficulty is with time, rhythm etc. I have been thinking about the nature of time, how it progresses and unfolds, how history works, etc. There is a lot to think about. I also think about the relationship of God and eternity to time, and how the Son of God entered into time and became man.

Does anyone have any thoughts about time and how you understand it and the mysteries involved? Are there any good philosophers or theologians (Catholic or other) who write about time, eternity, history, etc. and what it is, how it works, how we can understand and better use time?

I hope this post can generate some interesting discussion, study, and reflection.
Please pray that I can understand this subject better too.
God bless you all. Amen.

 

[Maximilian75]

http://philosophy.cah.ucf.edu/fpr/files/10_1/brenner.pdf

 

[End_Timer]

Firstly, there’z NO TIME TRAVEL allowed
Tik-Tok goeth clock as our “out of body” experience approaches.
Time is needed to keep things movin along

 

[IWantGod]

I look at change as the becoming of possibilities or potentialities. Beyond those concepts there is no sense to be made of it. Change can occur because the beings undergoing change do not have what is called the fullness of reality. To give an analogy, a cup of water that is full to the brim cannot have more water, it is full. But a cup with only half the amount of water can potentially have more water. The universe is intrinsically limited in its act of reality in that it is never everything it could possibly be or do. its very act is an actualization of possibilities, so it can always become more, it can be added to. It can take on more reality as it’s potentialities unfold through the passage of time because it is not the fullness of being. God on the other hand is the fullness of being and thus is not potentially more than what he is. God is already everything he could possibly be or do in the very instant of his existence (for lack of a better word), whereas the universe is not; it is always becoming.

I am perhaps confusing you, but i tried. These things are hard to explain.

 

[Psychae]

God created time. It’s His creature, so He can do whatever He wants with it.

This has brought me a lot of peace when wondering about time, eternity, etc.

 

[joeybaggz]

God is eternal. No past, no future. He lives in an eternal present moment. And that is the only place we can meet and live with Him. Sorta like you can’t get sick from the food you ate two weeks ago, and you can’t get well from the medicine you will take next Monday. You can only live now with God. The past is a memory, the future a dream, today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present.
My thoughts on time. I’m sure others differ.

 

[IWantGod]

Which means that if we use observation as our guide, as Aquinas does in the First Way, then pure actuality is impossible.

Why? Pure actuality is an act of reality that is not itself an actualized potential or a mixture of potency and act, but is simply actuality by itself. There is no potential in it to actualize because it is everything it could possibly be. Pure actuality is not becoming, it simply is. An actualized potential is not real in virtue of itself, it is continuously given reality, its potential for existence is continuously realized by something other than itself. Change is possible for it because of its limited act of reality, it does not necessarily exist, it is does not have the fullness of being, it is not pure actuality. In fact if there is no pure actuality then there can be no such thing as an actualized potential. There is no possibility without pure-actuality because potential cannot actualize itself…There has to be a perfect act of reality.that is not limited in anyway in-order for anything else to exist.