Eternity

Does it exist?

Originally posted by josephw
Does it exist?

Of course. So long as space limitless, then so is time.

Originally posted by josephw
Does it exist?

Only for a few more hours. 😛

Seriously though, I thought that science taught us that entropy will bring everything to a grinding hault as matter falls apart into nothingness............

I always correlated this to be what is meant in Revelation for there being a beginning and an end and then a new beginning again.

Originally posted by josephw
Does it exist?

Yes.
But I could get pretty flaky with trying to give details about it.

Maybe about as much detail as the OP 🙂

as an imaginary concept.

Originally posted by josephw
Does it exist?

What is it?

Originally posted by Pianoman1
Of course. So long as space limitless, then so is time.

And if the multiverse theory is right, there are an endless different times, for instance, time going into a black hole slows down, way way down, so you could have an eternity go by inside while one second goes by on Earth. But time would have different meaning in different universes, like ours started some 14 billion years ago with the big bang if you believe in that sort of thing, but if the multiverse theory is correct there are universes where the rate of time would go by, a billion years there being one year here, and vice versa, multiplied by perhaps trillions of universes.

So in the end, eternity may be just another relative concept. It's already a relative concept even in our own universe because time runs faster the further you get from a gravity well and the slower you travel, so travel very close to c and time slows way down for you the traveler or if you go into a deep gravity well time also slows down like in a black hole time could go on forever, maybe even outlasting our universe.

If it does, it has to be happening now.

Let me see if I can help a little.

Eternity, as a concept in contrast to the measure of time, is time unlimited.

But eternity isn't a measure of time.

So what is eternity?

Originally posted by josephw
Let me see if I can help a little.

Eternity, as a concept in contrast to the measure of time, is time unlimited.

But eternity isn't a measure of time.

So what is eternity?

Time need not be limitless. Time only exists so long as the material universe exists because it only measures point A to point B. So if the material universe began via the Big Bang, that is point A. Point B is now or, in terms of the end, is yet to be determined.......

Therefore, I guess eternity would be the absence of time. 😵

Originally posted by whodey
Time need not be limitless. Time only exists so long as the material universe exists because it only measures point A to point B. So if the material universe began via the Big Bang, that is point A. Point B is now or, in terms of the end, is yet to be determined.......

Therefore, I guess eternity would be the absence of time. 😵

Timeless or everlastingness seem to be the alternative views of what it is or would be, if it were.

Originally posted by josephw
Does it exist?

Eternity is a concept, not an entity, so no, it doesn't 'exist' as such.
Are you really asking 'is the universe eternal'? Or are you asking 'is there something eternal possibly other than the universe'?
What do you mean by 'eternity'? Some people interpret it as meaning 'infinite time' and others take it to mean 'all time, whether finite or infinite'.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Eternity is a concept, not an entity, so no, it doesn't 'exist' as such.
Are you really asking 'is the universe eternal'? Or are you asking 'is there something eternal possibly other than the universe'?
What do you mean by 'eternity'? Some people interpret it as meaning 'infinite time' and others take it to mean 'all time, whether finite or infinite'.

So if eternity does not exist as such, then does it follow that as we consider the past - TIME must have begun ?

Originally posted by jaywill
So if eternity does not exist as such, then does it follow that as we consider the past - TIME must have begun ?

I expect a response with a question mark at the end of it.

Originally posted by sonhouse
And if the multiverse theory is right, there are an endless different times, for instance, time going into a black hole slows down, way way down, so you could have an eternity go by inside while one second goes by on Earth.

Wait a second. I have to correct this. And you say you understand relativity?

It's the intense gravity that distorts space-time. What you obviously meant to say is that one second goes by for you near/inside the event horizon while an eternity goes by on Earth. You just had it backwards.

Actually, this would be just near the event horizon. Time relative to an observer would seem to slow down for someone entering the event horizon and that person would appear to freeze in time, so yes, what is one second for the person entering the event horizon would be perceived as an eternity to the observer. Actually inside the black hole, all bets are off, since no data can make the trip back out.