Time as Einstein demonstrated is an illusion as well. If I go to Mars travelling the speed of light and return to the earth after having been gone 300+ years, I will arrive at a much earlier point in time. Time is a marker, nothing else. Statistics indicating the age of the earth etc. are at best unreliable in that they imply a steady state that does not exist anywhere in the universe.
And there are many unexplained features. What exactly is Dark Energy and Dark Matter, for instance? Actual physical entities, or our miscalculations because we simply do not yet see the entire picture? I suspect many of the mysteries of Space-Time are like this.
Excellent point. Yes, I fully agree. Look at black holes. Not too long ago, they were treated as fantasies relegated to a Star Trek episode. Now, scientists appear to have observed them in action. As the human being is very arrogant, I often wonder if we do not come up with complex theories or names just to conceal the fact that WE DO NOT KNOW and yet do not want to admit it. Most of the universe is a mystery. Our knowledge is extremely extremely limited.
What you said is not true. Einstein said time is relative, but time passing is also a constant. If one were able to travel at the speed of light for a significant length of time, the passengers would experience less time passage than someone sitting relatively still on earth. But it's the traveling at such high speeds or near high gravimetric disturbances that can "slow" the passage of time. Traveling to Mars and back at the speed of light would make basically no difference because it's such a short trip. You most definitely wouldn't return to a time before you left, traveling backwards in time isn't possible from what we know of the universe. There is a steady state of time in most of the universe, it takes huge, huge amounts of speed or mass along with being there for a while to make noticable changes to time.
As a brief follow-up and second point, time dilation is a fascinating concept, with tremendous implications. Assume a spaceship accelerates at a constant 1 g (in its own reference), it will reach speeds a little under the speed of light from the perspective of an Earth inhabitant in ~ 350+ days. Due to time dilation, the space traveler's lifespan will be increased to thousands of Earth years (when the reference is the Solar System ). However, the traveler's (subjective or felt) lifespan will not have changed.
Upon returning to Earth, the traveler would arrive thousands of years into the future. This is despite the fact that the travel speed (as observed from Earth) would not have ever exceed the speed of light. This is in fact consistent with my original point, though my presentation as a novice in this area may have been very sloppy.
To the average human being, this would suggest that time is quite variant.
As Mark Twain once said, “First get your facts, then you can distort them at your leisure.” I am not an expert in this area, and don’t pretend to be. Nor, to be honest, do I have any desire to be. However, there are two points where you appear mistaken. One, time dilation is a known scientific process. For instance, if you’re in the vicinity of a black hole it is currently understood that time goes more slowly--in some cases the deviation can be extreme, in the vicinity of 1 hour = 7 years, depending upon your precise location. Second, and directly, related, contrary to what you state, the rate of “time” is by no means constant throughout the universe. As a quick and easy example, the rate of time on earth is slower than the rate of time on the GPS satellites in orbit.
In order to "go back in time" you would have to exceed the Speed of Light, which modern physics considers impossible. I have no interest in quarreling with this belief, although it is almost certainly wrong as well. (Most if not all scientific theories are eventually falsified, depending upon the rate of progress). More relevantly, the passage of time on earth is relative, as influenced by the earth's rotational speed, which varies. Speeding up the earth's rotation would cause time to actually pass faster, while those living on the earth would not necessarily notice the difference. A year would still seem like a year.
That is the extent of my interest in this topic. More relevant to the point I was originally trying to make is that time is a construct. It was created by God, who exists outside of time. Thus, heaven and hell are eternal in that they too exist outside of time. If you grasp that distinction, then perhaps you can overlook my lack of scientific rigor. Thank you!
Happy New Year.
Time as Einstein demonstrated is an illusion as well. If I go to Mars travelling the speed of light and return to the earth after having been gone 300+ years, I will arrive at a much earlier point in time. Time is a marker, nothing else. Statistics indicating the age of the earth etc. are at best unreliable in that they imply a steady state that does not exist anywhere in the universe.
And there are many unexplained features. What exactly is Dark Energy and Dark Matter, for instance? Actual physical entities, or our miscalculations because we simply do not yet see the entire picture? I suspect many of the mysteries of Space-Time are like this.
Excellent point. Yes, I fully agree. Look at black holes. Not too long ago, they were treated as fantasies relegated to a Star Trek episode. Now, scientists appear to have observed them in action. As the human being is very arrogant, I often wonder if we do not come up with complex theories or names just to conceal the fact that WE DO NOT KNOW and yet do not want to admit it. Most of the universe is a mystery. Our knowledge is extremely extremely limited.
What you said is not true. Einstein said time is relative, but time passing is also a constant. If one were able to travel at the speed of light for a significant length of time, the passengers would experience less time passage than someone sitting relatively still on earth. But it's the traveling at such high speeds or near high gravimetric disturbances that can "slow" the passage of time. Traveling to Mars and back at the speed of light would make basically no difference because it's such a short trip. You most definitely wouldn't return to a time before you left, traveling backwards in time isn't possible from what we know of the universe. There is a steady state of time in most of the universe, it takes huge, huge amounts of speed or mass along with being there for a while to make noticable changes to time.
As a brief follow-up and second point, time dilation is a fascinating concept, with tremendous implications. Assume a spaceship accelerates at a constant 1 g (in its own reference), it will reach speeds a little under the speed of light from the perspective of an Earth inhabitant in ~ 350+ days. Due to time dilation, the space traveler's lifespan will be increased to thousands of Earth years (when the reference is the Solar System ). However, the traveler's (subjective or felt) lifespan will not have changed.
Upon returning to Earth, the traveler would arrive thousands of years into the future. This is despite the fact that the travel speed (as observed from Earth) would not have ever exceed the speed of light. This is in fact consistent with my original point, though my presentation as a novice in this area may have been very sloppy.
To the average human being, this would suggest that time is quite variant.
As Mark Twain once said, “First get your facts, then you can distort them at your leisure.” I am not an expert in this area, and don’t pretend to be. Nor, to be honest, do I have any desire to be. However, there are two points where you appear mistaken. One, time dilation is a known scientific process. For instance, if you’re in the vicinity of a black hole it is currently understood that time goes more slowly--in some cases the deviation can be extreme, in the vicinity of 1 hour = 7 years, depending upon your precise location. Second, and directly, related, contrary to what you state, the rate of “time” is by no means constant throughout the universe. As a quick and easy example, the rate of time on earth is slower than the rate of time on the GPS satellites in orbit.
In order to "go back in time" you would have to exceed the Speed of Light, which modern physics considers impossible. I have no interest in quarreling with this belief, although it is almost certainly wrong as well. (Most if not all scientific theories are eventually falsified, depending upon the rate of progress). More relevantly, the passage of time on earth is relative, as influenced by the earth's rotational speed, which varies. Speeding up the earth's rotation would cause time to actually pass faster, while those living on the earth would not necessarily notice the difference. A year would still seem like a year.
That is the extent of my interest in this topic. More relevant to the point I was originally trying to make is that time is a construct. It was created by God, who exists outside of time. Thus, heaven and hell are eternal in that they too exist outside of time. If you grasp that distinction, then perhaps you can overlook my lack of scientific rigor. Thank you! Happy New Year.