The Illusion of Time

Truth, Time, and Space

 

    As I've grown in life, continuing my secular education and spiritual education in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I didn't understood why science and religion had to be a paradox. I've learned that it isn't a paradox as long as you are dealing with one thing. Truth.

    Truth as I understand it, is thing as they are, as they always were and always will be. So something that is true is something that has been the same forever will continue to be forever. It says in Doctrine and Covenants 93 Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be." Also in Doctrine and Covenants 88 "truth abideth and hath no end; and if it be in you it shall abound."

    We also learn from the scriptures that truth is light in Doctrine and Covenants 84 "45 For the aword of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is blight, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ."

    Now looking at the converse of truth. Recently I was watching a movie by Ben Stein called "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", I felt I learned a lot from the movie and would recommend it to everybody. Near the end Ben Stein says something to the effect that no lie can live or last forever. This truth hit me hard. I felt that line was the culmination of the whole documentary. Throughout the week I kept thinking and pondering the implications of it.

    Previously I had learned some interesting things about time. For example, we measure time by the rotation of the Earth on its axis, which is one day. And we measure it by the Earth's orbit around the Sun, which is one year. Now what would happen to our perception of time if we were standing in the center of the Sun? It would be totally different then the perception of time to someone on Earth. Also, we comprehend time from the amount of time we remember. We only remember what we've experienced. As we remember more time, it seems to flow faster. So as we get older, minutes, weeks, years all seem to go faster. I remember being young and thinking how long an hour is. Now an hour goes by so fast. Now imagine that you remember what happened before you were here on Earth. And you didn't have a beginning to remember from like you do here on Earth. So you remember everything to infinity in the past. Not only everything in the past but, imagine you remember infinitely into the future. Now think about how long an hour would seem to you. It would be infinitely small! In other words, suddenly there would be no time. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ we understand that God knows everything. So he would see everything in the past and future. God is not bound by the illusion of time. We are trying to be like him. When we go through the veil we will be able to remember our past and see our future and therefore also not be bound by time.

    These things are the foundation of the things I learned the next week. I've been learning about Einstein's theories on Relativity. I was musing on it one night and sharing what I had learned, when I started showing a video on youtube about it. Watching it might help you understand so here it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7vpw4AH8QQ

    The Basics of the video say that light is a constant. It does not change. For example:

Say there are two space ships, A and B. Space ship A has two super high-powered headlights. If A turned on his headlights the light would travel away from him at the speed of light. Say the headlights are off. Space ship B takes off and is going half the speed of light away from A. Then say A turns on his headlights pointing right past B. You would think that the light would pass B at half the speed of light but it doesn't. It passes at the speed of light. Now say space ship B turns around and starts heading back to A at half the speed of light. You might think the light would then be passing B at one and a half times the speed of light but it doesn't. I would still just pass B at the speed of light. Einstein said the reason this can happen is that space and time change. Time for space ship B would slow in relation to A as B is speeding through space. So light is constant and time and space are not.

    The reason for this that I realized is that light is truth. It doesn't change for anyone in any circumstance. And time and space are not true or constant. In other words time and space are a lie.

    Einstein said it in other words. In March 1955, when his lifelong friend Michele Besso died, he wrote a letter consoling Besso’s family: “Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” I got this quote from an article in Discover Magazine about how time may not exist.

    I don't think that secular science caught on to all of what Einstein was saying about Relativity. I found an article at Space.com about a guy who is saying some things about space and time that go along this same line. Peter Lynds from New Zealand says, "There isn't a precise instant underlying an object's motion, And as its position is constantly changing over time -- and as such, never determined -- it also doesn't have a determined position at any time." In the same article it says "One implication of Lynds' work is a really hard to wrap a mind around. If he's right that there are no instants in time related to physical processes, then there is no such thing as a flow of time, because such a flow inherently requires progression through definite instants -- exactly what Lynds forbid" I think what Lynds is finding is true. We're not at a definite place in the universe and we're not in a specific time, because time and space are not a reality.

    You might ask, "If there is no time or space then how does light travel constantly at 186,000 miles per second? If time and space weren't real then light could travel at any speed." The answer is light has to travel at a constant speed even in an illusion because it is true. And if there is no time and space the light is not traveling.

    This understanding about time suddenly explains a lot of things about the gospel. Like, how long has time been an issue for people on Earth? We know that in the Terrestrial existence of the Garden of Eden there was no decay or death. Time wasn't a part of life there. When Adam transgressed he was suddenly in the power of the Adversary, who is the father of all lies. I think at the instant he fell to a telestial sphere he came into this illusion of time. Death and entropy came into the world. This ties with the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which says in layman's terms that all things tend to degrade over time. Now take time out of the equation and things no longer degrade. I suggest that part of the resurrection is that we no longer believe the lie of time. Therefore we don't degrade and will live forever. It's interesting to note that Adam became subject to the illusion because of a transgression. So if we're going to live forever after the resurrection, united body and spirit, then we can't sin or transgress.

    This may also explain why Adam and his children lived for so long. Adam may have been in the illusion but I doubt if he believed the lie.

    Being in the illusion of time is also an important part of our development. One purpose of mortal life is to receive a physical body. God works in specific ways when he creates life, and we had to be born and grow to full stature. I can't imagine how he would do that except in time. A part of our doctrine is that Adam and Eve needed to fall to "multiply and replenish the earth." It was part of Gods plan. Not only do we need time to be born and grow but to learn to control our physical bodies. Part of the purpose is to put our bodies in subjection to our spirits, because the natural man is and enemy to God. We need time to accomplish this.

    I believe many prophets have known this and there is evidence everywhere. Brigham Young said speaking of spirits in the spirit world, "They move with ease and like lightning. If we want to visit Jerusalem, or this, that, or the other place—and I presume we will be permitted if we desire—there we are, looking at its streets. If we want to behold Jerusalem as it was in the days of the Savior; or if we want to see the Garden of Eden as it was when created, there we are, and we see it as it existed spiritually, for it was created first spiritually and then temporally, and spiritually it still remains."

    Understanding time and light might also explain what happened to John the Beloved, The three Nephites, Elijah, and the People of Enoch. Transfiguration is described as a complete change of form or appearance in to a more beautiful or spiritual state. These people had received so much truth and light that they came out of the illusion. These people seem to have been changed by a combination of their choices to accept the light and truth and the word of God, to a point that they were no longer subject to decay. Along the same lines people who live during the millennium will live in a terrestrial state. Similar to the Garden of Eden where there is no longer death. Doctrine and Covenants 63; 20 says, "Nevertheless, he that endureth in faith and doeth my will, the same shall overcome, and shall receive an inheritance upon the earth when the day of transfiguration shall come." The day of transfiguration is referring to the millennium. We also learn that people will live and be changed in the twinkling of an eye to their perfect immortal body. Maybe this knowledge of time and light is coming out because people living during the millennium need to and will know this. And now we are preparing for that day. 

We can build on this even further to understand the scriptures and miracles in the scriptures. If time is an illusion and time is measured by the amount of space that we travel, then space is an illusion too! If you don't have to worry about how long it will take to get somewhere then suddenly you can get there instantly. There are no limits on where you can be. This explains how God can be everywhere at one time and still have a body of flesh and bone. It also explains how he can hear our prayers. It partially explains how he can know everything because he already had infinity to learn it. 

Even further, if there is no space then there is no gravity. Gravity is defined as the force that attracts a body toward the center of the earth, or toward any other physical body having mass. This attraction is happening in space. If there is no space to be attracted to something in then suddenly gravity isn't a force anymore. This explains how angels are often seen standing in the air. Also how Christ could walk on water. He wasn't disobeying any laws. He simply understood that it wasn't a law. 

In Isaiah 11:9 it says in the last days the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord. I hope and pray that my work will help inspire desire for more of that knowledge.