What is time and does it even exist?\
This is a question that has plagued many philosopher’s and scientist throughout time. ( no pun intended ). We all live by some measure of time. We have appointments we have to attend to, be at work at a certain time and so on and so on. So, you would say time is real. Not so as we are challenged to look at in this chapter.
Robert Lanza in the book Beyond Biocenrism begins by telling us there are two contrasting points of views on the concept of time.
- Is the view point held by Issac Newton who saw time as real in which it constitutes its own dimension and stands separate from events which unfold sequentially within its matrix.
This is how most people view time.
- The opposing view held by Immanuel Kant is that time is not an actual entity. He says it is not kind of like a container that events move through it as most people tend to think . In this view , he says there is no flow of time. It is a framework which we devise as the observer to make sense and organize all the information around us
So, if we go on this premise of time then time cannot be measured.
So, you might be wondering then what about the clocks we use to measure time.
So going on this premise then it means that clocks do not determine or keep track of time in and of itself but instead offer us a picture of evenly spaced events as one digital number is replaced by another. These numbers or the tick tock of a second for example have been agreed upon by some definition put on it by humans. So then this brings in the concept of the Observer. We determine what time is
So this kind of thinking really begins to take us down the rabbit hole of many questions that arise as a result of this concept. What about the past and the future you may ask. Well the past are just memories that we relive as if they were the present when such traumatic events for example continue to affect our present day lives. The future as much has been written is currently happening in the now. There is much information that has been published along the lines of this topic with such authors like Echart Tolle in his book The Power Of Now.
All of this new perspective allows us the opportunity to begin to redefine our role in the universe where we can become Co Creators of our destiny versus being victims of ‘ time” and the past.