WHAT IS TIME? WHAT IS SPACE?
(This was inspired by the following question in Yahoo! Answers, asked by 'homayoun_mh')
What is the difference betwin time & place?
what is time
what is place
what is the difference betwin time & place
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WHAT TIME AND SPACE ARE: A COMPARISON
What is place? Place is a point in physical space. Where we are in space is a place we call HERE
What is time? Time is a point (moment) in temporal space. Where we are in time is a moment we call NOW.
Everything is always in movement through time, the infinitesimal moment we call NOW is in constant movement between THEN and the future.
Time flows at a constant rate in only one direction, which, for lack for a better name, we call forward. Movement back in time, from NOW to THEN seems to be quite impossible.
Movement across space as we see it is optional: we are not obliged to move, it seems to us. We may go across the river and through the trees to Grandmother's house, or we may stay home. This is a true way of looking at movement, but it is incomplete to a high degree.
But most movement we are doing is not optional for us, in reality: the Earth is turning on its axis, and as it does so, is orbiting around the Sun, and the entire Solar System is also in constant movement across space.
The optional movements we make in space are defined in four directions: North, South, East and West, Up and Down, or in a point that combines no more than three of these.
The compulsory movements can also be defined in a similar way, but they differ from the optional ones in that they are not optional.
Time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia and so forth. Everyone agrees on how to measure time. It is related to the movement of the Earth.
Movement in space is measured in a variety of ways: inches, feet, yards, miles, or millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers. The metric system is more logical because (1) it is related to the Earth (10,000 meters from pole to Equator) and (2) it is divided into easy to understand decimals.
Decimals are easier for people to relate to because we are all (well, nearly all ) are born with ten fingers.
OBSERVATIONS ON TIME AND SPACE
It is rather strange that time is not measured decimally, but in units of 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, and 365.25+ days in a year.
This becomes a minor difficulty in programming the microwave: mine divides a minute into 100 units, not 60, so 3½ minutes are 3.50 minutes and not 3:30 minutes.
METAPHYSICAL SPECULATIONS
Although we envision the Earth as a central point in a Creation by God, a Perfect Being, it seems to me that many people ignore that a truly logical and perfect Creator would have done a bit better than making the orbit of the Earth around the Sun a strange number like 365.25+ revolutions of the Earth. Presumably, God also created the Laws of Physics as well, and yet they are not internally consistent as one supposes that a Perfect Being would make them.
It is not possible to even have an exact number of months in a year. Again, time as defined by the movements of the Earth, Moon and Sun are not logically consistent in their orbits. There are fewer than twelve rotations of the Moon around the Earth in a year, and there are fewer than 31 rotations of the Earth on its axis in a month.
Should we dedicate a few moments to speculate on the possibly quirky nature of God Almighty every 29th of February, perhaps?
These inconsistencies cause me to wonder about what some people call the Wonder of Creation. True, it is wonderful that it was created, but the creation itself does not seem to be as well planned as it could be.
SO, IS GOD REALLY ALMIGHTY?
One observes that any computer language is considerably more logically consistent than the Laws of Physics. The Laws of Physics, which are an inherent part of Creation, we suppose to be the creation of a Perfect Being we call God Almighty
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One wonders if God Almighty, with his illogical arrangement of the Laws of Physics, could get or hold a job as a computer programmer with Microsoft or anyone in a position that uses mathematics in a creative application. One asks: would a logically consistent Perfect Being not have devised a mathematical system in which the constant pi (π) was an eternally repeating decimal (3.14159...)?
Perhaps He could not create a harmonious system of time and space, because the Laws of Physics cannot be arranged in this way. If this is so, then He can properly be called, not God Almighty, but only God Semi-Mighty.
Can God cause time to halt? The Bible says that this is happened once in a field of battle, but there is no empirical evidence of this.
There are no claims in the Bible that God can travel, or cause anything to travel, backwards through Time. Speculation about a retrograde movement in time seems only to have occurred to madmen until it was made a part of science fiction in modern times.
And yet if God cannot travel back in time or cause anything to travel back in time, then again, He is not omnipotent, not all powerful, not Almighty.
One speculates: if God could travel back in time, He could have ventured back to the moment of Lucifer's rebellion and squelched it in its tracks. If God did not do this because he could not, He is not omnipotent. If He did not do this because He could and did not wish to, then the presence of evil in the Universe is His doing and blaming it on Lucifer would seem to be a rather bogus proposition.
It is also true that God could have paid a bit more attention to quality control when designing Lucifer. I also speculate about God's attention to detail in the creation of human teeth. Everyone's teeth and gums are constantly being attacked by bacteria. What is THAT about? Are we to assume that Adam and Eve had no tooth decay problems? I don't know of anyone who claims of professional dentistry in the New Testament, let alone the Old.
