Time and 12 Monkeys
A lot of people get really confused about the time line of this movie. I think it helps to have toyed with the concept of eternity not being lots of time, but being an absence of time.
It’s the only way you’ll understand that when God in exodus says :
EX 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: `I AM has sent me to you.’ “
and Jesus says in John:
JN 8:58 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
that He’s using the present tense “I am” perfectly. Perfectly used because someone who is based outside of time but involved in it would have their present at all points of time; past present and future. (also proving continuity between old testament new, and also Jesus’ divinity; He’s claiming to be the voice of the burning bush, AND the start of plausible proof that we have an interventionist God) Hence pharisees picking up stones to throw in the next verse We have a weird sense of reality, we don’t know what happens next, and I am always fascinated that time only goes one way, and often exclaim it to people at work that “I’m so glad time goes forward!” which seems slightly retarded if you don’t get the backstory. I don’t see time as linear, only my perception of it is.
Just for a strange aside, if time slows down to a stop in a singularity or black hole which has infinite mass, would the assumption that the more mass you have, the more gravity you have be plausible? And the more gravity you have, the slower times goes? If so would it also be true that the less gravity you have, the faster time goes? I have thus explained why short people run faster and talk faster – they have less gravity. But seriously, as a minor psychological effect…
Have you noticed that as a kid, a year seemed massive, and summer holidays seemed to last forever? But as you matured, the years grew shorter and shorter? Might it be something to do with brain mass, I wonder.
I think a marvellous exercise would be to try and ponder what the human condition is; try and separate personality, soul, heart etc, from whats essentially a tool, our body. What would happen if we weren’t subject to gravity? What would life be like if our bodies could just pass through anything? How would our perception change when not subject to time? What would power our bodies if we had no need for cleansing by blood? What if our brains are just the control panel to the body, being operated, played almost, by personality or spirit which has no proximity or mass, much like software on a computer?
Have you ever noticed how time seems to slow down when you’re having a shite time? Perhaps the phrase “the gravity of the situation” is more descriptive than we realise? Question?
My mind works in weird ways…
Curious.
Anyhoo
Time as we know it is an illusion. There is only one moment in the universe and its now. You have to get out of your thoughts because your thoughts are stuck in time and space and you can’t get out of time through them. Stop thinking and experience the bliss of the eternal present.
True. The way I see it time as we know it is not linear nor is it infinite. The best model I can think of is that time exists inside a neat little box. It consists not of a single straight line, but many, entwined lines. Lines which, mingle, branch out. New lines are formed from existing lines everyday and have a bearing on many of the other lines, while other lines expire. However, there is a definite origin point and a definite end. As you said, God’s outside of it, outside the box, but involved in it on any of these branches at any point that He likes.
Mmm, I try and visualise the divine viewpoint sometimes. I believe, as you say, in the branching idea. I imagine that God sees time as almost a tree, with every fork a moment of decision. there is a particular path you pick your way through; God sees all possibilities at once, as though opening Schrödinger’s box and seeing the cat as both alive and dead. When you consider that God knows not only everything that has been done but also everything that could be done,it makes the idea of omnipotence even more mind-boggling. This also gets you thinking about the impact of today’s actions on tomorrow, eg butterfly wings causing hurricanes. If each of our decisions impact how the interdependent branches interact, what power do our words and our decision to speak them have? I believe that what we speak out into the world impacts it in some fashion. This is why I believe that prayer is so powerful – I can’t recall an instance where a biblical figure has prayed internally and seen God move. It’s also why I believe that positive speech is imperative. TANGENT!
Whoops!