God and the Arrow of Time

Time. What is time? Why does it flow in only one direction? Is time a trick of our mind? Is God timeless or does he have his own time line or time plane? Ever thought about things like that?

I enjoy leisurely browsing the various time theories while trying to wrap my brain around even the simplest concepts. Most recently, I've read portions of God and Time: Four Views which has contributions from William Lane Craig and others [Paul Helm, Alan G. Padgett, and Nicholas Wolterstorff].  Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos has a couple of chapters on time ["The Frozen River: Does Time Flow?" and "Chance and the Arrow: Does Time Have a Direction?"]. Mind warping stuff. And several years ago I read at least a portion of About Time by Paul Davies.

This week, I listened to physicist Dr. Julian Barbour on Quirks and Quarks talk about his idea that time is optional in relativistic physics as well as in quantum physics (if I heard him correctly). His book is titled The End of Time.


Philosophies of Time

Here are the major philosophies of time, if I have them straight:

• Presentism - only present things exist
  
• Eternalism - things past, present, and future are equally real
  

Also, views on the persistence of objects:

• Perdurantism - an object exists continuously through time; existence at each time is just a portion of its whole existence throughout time. Eternalists are typically perdurantists.
  
• Endurantism - an object exists completely at different times; existence at each time is separate from its existence at other times. Presentists are typically endurantists.
  

The Flow of Time

Then there's the idea of time's flow. Why does it flow in only one direction? Paul Davies has a fascinating essay on the subject titled That Mysterious Flow. And, as mentioned earlier, Brian Greene has a couple of chapters on the flow of time in his book, The Fabric of the Cosmos.

Pat Robertson: Nut Job or Prophet?

Other: I guess you heard about Pat Robertson's comment about Haiti?

Me: Yeah. Anytime there's a horrific disaster it's like a cue for him to pop out of his hole and says something stupid.

Other: [look of shock] I think he's right on spot. The bible says God judges nations that don't acknowledge him and Haiti decided to follow the devil instead of God.

Me: That's a legend -- at best. A black Haitian Church of God pastor a few years ago did a decent job of debunking that pact with Satan idea [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3]. And why hasn't God sent such major disasters to Saudi Arabia, secular Europe, Syria, China, etc.? And what about the nations of centuries past that were thoroughly Christian yet suffered massive plagues, wars, etc.?

Other: Well, Haiti is full of witch doctors and Voodoo beliefs. Those things God has cursed.

Me: Similarly, God also hates worship of false gods (Saudi Arabia, Syria, etc.) and atheism (China, Europe, etc.) so why hasn't he devastated those countries?

Other: Well, we don't know God's timeline or when he will act on his promises.

Me: CBN later issued a clarification that stated that Pat never said the earthquake was God's wrath. But is there a difference between God's curse and God's wrath? Also why does the clarification say "the slaves allegedly made a famous pact with the devil". Why "allegedly"?

Other: All the uprisings and poverty over the history of Haiti is evidence that the country is cursed. That's what Pat was saying. He does a lot of good work for God in his humanitarian efforts to other countries and to spreading the gospel on the 700 Club.

Me: I do applaud his extensive humanitarian work but not so much the 700 Club. Now why would Satan want to help slaves free themselves? Satan is the master slave-owner so why would he want to free them from the heel of the French?