Past, present, and future

[Giggly_Giraffe]

Why do we know the past but not the future? Did time have a beginning? Will it end? Does time change smoothly or is there a smallest unit of time like the tick of a clock? Can there be a universe without time?

 

[Bahman]

Why do we know the past but not the future?

What we experience is the changes on the spot so called present. We can make memory of what is happened so called past hence without mind there could be no past. Future does not exist.

Did time have a beginning?

Time is only a subjective experience related to changes hence time could have a beginning if there was only one single experience in past.

Will it end?

Yes if there will be no experience if future.

Does time change smoothly or is there a smallest unit of time like the tick of a clock?

Changes are smooth or in another word continuous.

Can there be a universe without time?

A changeless universe.

 

[Verbum]

HI Giggly,

Time is the measure of movement… In our case, it is usually the movement of the sun. To have movement, you must have a body. Before the creation of the universe there was no time because there was no body that could move.

When we die, we come into a dimension that is bodyless. There is no time. There is no such thing as spending “years” in purgatory. What is it like to live in a timeless dimension.? WE don’t know now… But no doubt we’ll know some day.

After the resurrection, we’ll be back into time, because we will live again in a universe of bodies.

What do you think ?

Verbum

 

[Giggly_Giraffe]

What we experience is the changes on the spot so called present. We can make memory of what is happened so called past hence without mind there could be no past. Future does not exist.

(Even without the mind, a past did exist and a future is imminent. We have personal memories, cultural memories, and archeological footprints. Our futures may or may not follow the same pattern of the past or present, but we do not have ability to tell the story of the future as we do the past.)

A changeless universe.

Assuming multiple universes … Could one universe remain changless if the other universes are changing?

 

[Giggly_Giraffe]

HI Giggly,

Time is the measure of movement… In our case, it is usually the movement of the sun. To have movement, you must have a body. Before the creation of the universe there was no time because there was no body that could move.

When we die, we come into a dimension that is bodyless. There is no time. There is no such thing as spending “years” in purgatory. What is it like to live in a timeless dimension.? WE don’t know now… But no doubt we’ll know some day.

After the resurrection, we’ll be back into time, because we will live again in a universe of bodies.

What do you think ?

Verbum

I am caught on the thought Bahman brought up … Can there be a place without time … A: A changless universe.
Would this be that time before the Big Bang and after the pulling back of universes into black holes? Since God is love overpouring can the universe stay unchanged with God having so much love outpouring?

 

[Verbum]

Hi Gigly,

To be timeless a universe would have to be motionless, which seems, improbable.

Verbum

 

[Katholish]

Verbum,

It might be better to say that time is a measure of change (as Aristotle defined it).

Motion, in the physical sense, is limited to a material world, as you point out, but change is not. Change can be immaterial. If there is change, there is a “before” the change, and “after” the change, hence time.

While being vastly different from time as we experience it now in physical bodies which experience near infinite changes (even at a microscopic level), there will be some kind of time in purgatory, because there will be a change occurring in us–a change which Catholic tradition would point to as gradual and not instantaneous.

 

[Verbum]

Hi Katholish,

In a non-material world, change does occur

[

](http://forums.catholic-questions.org/../summa/index.html)

Summa Theologica > First Part > Question 63
　
Article 6. Whether there was any interval between the creation and the fall of the angel
　
I answer that, There is a twofold opinion on this point. But the more probable one, which is also more in harmony with the teachings of the Saints, is that the devilsinned at once after the first instant of his creation. This must be maintained if it be held that he elicited an act of free-will in the first instant of his creation, and that he was created in grace; as we have said (62, 3). For since the angels attain beatitude by one meritorious act, as was said above (Question 62, Article 5), if the devil, created in grace, merited in the first instant, he would at once have received beatitude after that first instant, if he had not placed an impediment by sinning. [

If, however, it be contended that the ](http://forums.catholic-questions.org/../summa/index.html)angel was not created in grace, or that he could not elicit an act of free-will in the first instant, then there is nothing to prevent some interval being interposed between his creation and fall. http://forums.catholic-questions.org/../summa/index.html

http://forums.catholic-questions.org/../summa/index.html

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1063.htm#article6http://forums.catholic-questions.org/summa/index.html

When expounding the more probable opinion, St. Thomas cannot help but use the word **after **even if he favors the opinion that the devil sinned at the moment of his creation.

St. Thomas believed that the Blessed Virgin was freed from original sin the moment AFTER her creation, which is not the position defined by the Church since then.

It is impossible for us to conceptualize time as it might occur in a non-material world, because our reasoning is based on time in a material world.

What do you think?

 

[Katholish]

yeah, that is basically the point I was making.

 

[ynotzap]

The nature of man will never change, although it is subjected to conditions or states, such as separation of body and soul, the body can return to its physical element, but the soul which is the form of the body, and the source of it’s immanent activity with its faculties of intelligence and will will continue to exist independent of the body because they are spiritual. Yet since it is a created entity it is not unchangeable since it is not the source of its existence, and one of the features of a created entity is Potency and Act. It’s movement still exists, for God is still it’s prime mover. So the soul is like a big receptacle, constantly being filled by God, God pouring His goodness, knowledge into this receptacle. So the soul is undergoing a constant filling with God’s goodness, and truth, eternally, the Beatific Vision
God maintains the souls existence, and by doing so the soul exists eternally, and still remains a finite, created entity capable of enjoying God eternally. the body will again be united to the soul at the resurrection, and it will be spiritualized with the glory of the soul. Change still exists in the soul, but it is not physical change, the filling of the intellect, and the will is spiritual change, just as having a capacity to know, to the actual knowing is spiritual motion, and God is the prime mover. Time on earth is measured in physical change, and locomotion, physical movement, and the soul is extrinsically dependent on this change, as long as it is united to the physical body.

 

[ynotzap]

I see the past as something in my memory, I see the future as something in my imagination I only have the present, and it is never still, but ever changing. God is changeless, constant, eternal, absolute, Pure Being and Pure Act, He is the prime mover of creation.
, the first cause, and uncaused cause. For God is ever present, Omnipresent, no Past, no future, encompassing all creation, yet not part of it, sustain it, in time, and eternity

 

[Aloysium]

What ^ he ^ just said.