Is Time Absolute or Relative: Bob Enyart argues it's absolute...

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Clete

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elohiym said:
One experiment that I heard of involved subjects being shown pictures on a computer screen. Some pictures contained shocking images, other pictures did not. Researchers measured reactions to the shocking images that registered PRIOR to seeing those images. In other words, they knew the future.

Would that experiment fit the bill?
No. What does this, if it is even real, have to do with anything Johnny said concerning Relativistically relaying the future from one inertial frame to another?
 

Clete

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taoist said:
Insufficient, Clete.

There must be more than an ordered sequence of events to infer causality. The events must also be connected. The aggregate of these connections is what we refer to as time. Any discontinuity in these connections, even one less all-encompassing than non-coexistence of the discrete elements of the sequence, would break the chain of causality. A single discontinuity among these connections would in effect isolate the sequence of events into two causal chains.

Thus the logic of empiricism includes the assumption that time is continuous, that every moment must be attached continuously to the moments that precede and succeed it. Without an unbroken chain of events, without the continuity of time itself, there is no implied causality that can be read from the sequence of events.

As ever, Jesse
No one suggests that they aren't connected. They are connected by the present. A cause doesn't coexist with it's effect. If you mix two reactive agents together in a test tube, do you have the resulting chemestry before the mixing was done or after? And when the reaction is complete do you know how three components in the test tube or only one? Of course you only have the one resulting chemical.

If I perform an experiment where I take a helium atom and do whatever it takes to remove one of its electrons I end up with a hydrogen atom, not an atom of hydrogen AND helium but just hydrogen. I didn't have the hydrogen before the exeriment and I dont have the helium after and the experiement which cause the change is over and done with.

This seems like a realy simple and straight forward concept to me. You will have to show me the syllogism that demonstrates in formal logical terminology the necessity for anything but the present to currently exist. Even stating the problem is sufficient to prove my case. How can anything but the present exist currently?

Resting in Him,
Clete
 

elohiym

Well-known member
Clete said:
No. What does this, if it is even real, have to do with anything Johnny said concerning Relativistically relaying the future from one inertial frame to another?
It sounds to me like you are looking for experimental evidence that the future exists. For example, you just asked Jesse: "How can anything but the present exist currently?"

Perhaps you should check out if the research "is even real" because it suggests that a person has knowledge of an event that you claim doesn't exist yet.

Peace
 

taoist

New member
I'm gonna have to break this up, as much as I hate interrupting the flow of your post, Clete. Sorry if it looks too much like a sparring match. My intentions are good, cross my heart!

Clete said:
No one suggests that they aren't connected. They are connected by the present.
Formal logic must separate objects and the operators which effect them. What this statement implies is that the present is acting as its own operator, effectively the present is then a mix between the physical and the metaphysical.

Jumping this gap, there's a greater chasm ahead. Let's look at it. If the present is doing its own linking ... what is it linking to. What else but the past and future. They are then either continuous -- that is, coexistent -- or separated. If they are separated, there is no effect that can jump the gap. If there were such an effect, they would then be forced into coexistence by the operator relation.


A cause doesn't coexist with it's effect. If you mix two reactive agents together in a test tube, do you have the resulting chemestry before the mixing was done or after?
The underlying chemistry existed before the reaction and continues to exist after the mixing is done. Which is fortunate, as it allows us to test the reaction repeatedly.

And when the reaction is complete do you now have three components in the test tube or only one? Of course you only have the one resulting chemical.
This is incorrect. In fact, all three components will be physically present in the test tube when the reaction has come into equilibrium. The speed of the reaction and equilibrium concentrations for common reactions can be found in tables in most chemistry books.

If I perform an experiment where I take a helium atom and do whatever it takes to remove one of its [protons] I end up with a hydrogen atom, not an atom of hydrogen AND helium but just hydrogen. I didn't have the hydrogen before the experiment and I dont have the helium after and the experiement which cause the change is over and done with.
This is a much better example, Clete. You can accomplish this by neutron bombardment. Before the transformation, however, you had all of the constituent parts. After the reaction, you still have all the constituent parts. This transformation does not actually involve gross nucleon decay, though a certain amount of binding energy must come from outside the system to make up the change in mass. Don't ask, you don't want to know. The individual nucleons involved are still distinguishably present, though bound to different particles in gross. Only their spatial arrangement has been changed.

This seems like a realy simple and straight forward concept to me. You will have to show me the syllogism that demonstrates in formal logical terminology the necessity for anything but the present to currently exist. Even stating the problem is sufficient to prove my case. How can anything but the present exist currently?
To answer your question -- by inference, of course.

:chuckle:

Formal logical teminology?! Clete! I'm writing on a vB board, not formatting in LaTeX! I'd love to, but it's not possible. I can't write the symbols. But as far as a syllogism goes, sure.

The past effects the present.
The present effects the future.
The past, present, and future are connected.

We need a name for this connection. We call it time.

Resting in Him,
Clete
I'm always afraid some wit will connect my tagline with yours and leave us both resting ...

In peace, Jesse
 

taoist

New member
freelight said:
Greetings taoist,
Greetings to you, freelight,

As per my PM reply, I'm responding while I've a moment free from preparing for debate on another board. You should be aware, however, that the comments you're quoting are atypical from me, merely a way of asking Clete to justify his stance on the non-existence of time with his belief in the need for repentance.



As I noted...the implications of time relative to Universe Reality and divine-Mind perspectives....may seriously affect our theological views and upset prevailing theories/beliefs about God, atonement, salvation, etc. It appears that most of the redemption or atonement doctrine centered in the person of Christ is 'historic' taking place at a special place in 'time' where this event somehow then enforces an effect or remedy that is supposed to be eternal. How we view 'time', 'God' and our relationship with these concepts/realities will certain colour our theosophy and shape our cosmology.
I would recommend another choice of description emphasising the continuity of time by using a term such as "region" in distinction to your references to "place". More, theoretically or philosophically based spiritual beliefs are unreasonably constrained by restricting them to the theological and leaving them to shape a theosophy. These terms beg the question by denying spiritual frameworks in which theism itself is merely a special case. Further, our cosmological conceptions are naturally constrained by the physical form that makes up our beings to an extent that places firm limits on our philosophy.



One of my teachers, Alfred Aiken who was a major pioneer in Absolute Truth teachings....has a chapter in his book "Now" entitled 'Guilt'. He touches upon this issue of guilt as it relates to the teaching-beliefs associated with the 'fall', the idea of seperation from God, and other religious myths that have their root in a finite, human, relative, mortal frame of reference....and shows these views (having their conception only in 'duality') to be untrue concerning the native, Absolute state of Truth/Being/Existence where it is impossible for there to ever be a 'fall' from grace or a 'seperation' from God,...since God is the Sole Ground of Being, the All, the One....the entirety of all that exists. In the Absolute View of divine Being...being 'ALL'....there cannot be duality or another besides God because God is All there IS. This gets into deeper metaphysical speculations contextually speaking....but it relates to the concept of 'repentance' you bring up.
Whoa. I'm unfamiliar with the Aiken you're referencing, and unlike Pastor Bob, that's sufficient reason for me to withhold comment on his views.

Separation, to me, as a mathematician, is a multiply refined topological construct, with a firm theory built up from the fundamentals of set theory and rigorously studied within its own algebraic subspecialty. Identification of two discrete structures by placing them into an "all" is then analogous to the homomorphic projection of a space containing these discrete structures into a new space more coursely divided by the effectively expanded kernel. Identification of "all there is" effectively expands the kernel into the entire space, resulting in a degenerate topology in which no separation is possible.

I think you can see that without closely defining the terms, communication is hindered.



It would seem in the relative world of cause/effect(karma)....the cycles of repentance, reform, restoration, advancement, ascension, spiritual evolution/progress are innate to the system,....yet when one considers the Infinite and Absolute Now wherein there is only divine Perfection, the totality of God-Presence......there is only God - and a state wherein there is only God...there can be no time, but only the infinite ALL. The whole premise of redemption/salvation in a christian purivew has its story and culmination in 'time' and could not exist without relativity/duality/seperation which only exists in a finite mind that is not the Mind of God, Gods Mind being wholly All that IS....ONE Eternal undivided Being. NOW in God there can be no sin, seperation, division, fallen state, humanhood, duality, mortality, evil......and to abide in this realm of Spirit-reality....and to mind only such is life and peace.
I find nothing in this with which I can disagree. But, as I argued above, the removal of distinguishing characteristics has the effect of creating a degenerate topology. In a degenerate topology, there is no meaningful description possible. Thus, considering the infinite ALL from outside the infinite ALL is tantamount to nihilism.



Repentance then would appear to be a human exercise for ones own personal betterment of changing ones mind in a more wholesome direction, effecting a change of consciouosness, a new direction and embrace of a divine kingdom. It must be a pure state of being like this that God refers to when he says all remembrance of sin shall be forgotten and all transgressions shall be blotted out - there will be no more consciousnes of sin or anything unlawful...for all shall be consumed and permeated with divine Love. Love itself then must be a living resonance-state of being/mind/spirit wherein only the harmony of God exists in total and everlasting Perfection. All time-referentials not consistent with eternal perfection and wholeness must be non-existent or non-binding in this state...wherein there is liberation from all conditional karmas and things associated with sin and death.
With compassionate apologies, see above.

As an end note,.........if one holds that God is All......and this is an absolute Truth...then there never was a fall where one needed to be restored to God since God has never been dismembered or divided from Himself. - this opens up another chapter with many dimensions to explore!
Once again, this is equivalent to an absolutely degenerate truth that forces the purveyor to be restricted to ...
just surface gliding,
... because there is no depth to such a world view.



As ever, Jesse
 
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