Are the end times really near?
- Thread starter Delirious
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Joey D
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PS
I went back and fully read it and it's nothing more then his experience with an off the wall teacher. It doesn't talk about the world ending or about time in general. Sure it mentions the antichrist being Regan, then he thought it could be him, then he thought his teacher was sexy. Then in the second part it talks about a faith healer.
That still doesn't change my opinion on Manson.
The end of life isn't some antichrist coming to earth, it will be when man destroys themself. Or some sort of cosmic disaster happens. But time can't end, time is forever and has been here forever. There is no way to stop time, and even if you take away all life in the known and unknown universe time will still be there going forward.
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- Metroider17
lets get into some theory now...
if time cannot end, was there a moment when time began, or has time always existed?
a few ways to think of it...lines
all of course being references to time
(Beginning--------------------------End)
(Beginning--------------------------Infinity]
[Infinity------------------------------End)
[Infinity------------------------------Infinity]
which one is the case, and can you prove it? and is there a reason why it is one of those four?
a bit off topic for right now i know, but i want to see your guys' perspective on this, and it kind of does have to do with "end times"
if time cannot end, was there a moment when time began, or has time always existed?
a few ways to think of it...lines
all of course being references to time(Beginning--------------------------End)
(Beginning--------------------------Infinity]
[Infinity------------------------------End)
[Infinity------------------------------Infinity]
which one is the case, and can you prove it? and is there a reason why it is one of those four?
a bit off topic for right now i know, but i want to see your guys' perspective on this, and it kind of does have to do with "end times"
Sage
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The first and last ones are the only ones that can possibly exist the middle two are absolutely impossible, and defy the very definition of infinity. Infinity, by definition, is beginningless and endless.#17
Anyway, with those two ruled out, the first one (a beginning and end) is the only logical choice left. The proof is actually fairly simple: As one looks back in time, there are regions of higher matter density (if you want me to, I could tell you why, but it's fairly boring). Positive energy density causes light rays to bend towards each other. Thus, the farther back in time you go, the more light rays are bending towards each other, until they reach a singularity, where the light cone boundary converges to zero. Our light cone is in the shape of a teardrop.
BTW, for what it's worth, I should note that physicists were originally upset by this proof, and religious leaders delighted, because it gave more reason for the idea of Creation (if time were infinite, there'd be no point of creation).
Anyway, it's even easier to prove that time has an end. Black holes, because they have singularities, destroy time. As time progresses, there is going to be a point where no new stars will be created, thus eventually every star will collapse into a black hole, and the universe will be a singularity again.
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BlazinXtreme
No it isn't... seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and light years are units of measurement applicable to time.... time itself is more complex than that... our measurement of time may seem pretty arbitrary, but it is based upon the movement (rotation and orbit) of our planet around our Sun... our understanding of timescales is limited by our brain's capability to perceive external events... we can perceive things in approx. the range of milliseconds to tens of years... with things shorter than milliseconds, we need a little help... but we can measure things even on a picosecond timescale these days (10^ -15 seconds)... we also seem to need a little help comprehending things on a 'cosmic' timescale... we only live up to around 100 years, which in terms of the age of the Earth, is the blinking of an eye... the Earth still has around 5 billionyears (5 x 10^9 years) to go before it is destroyed by the Sun's expansion phase.... humans, and all life, will be long gone before that happens anyway... that length of time is beyond our imagination... still, it's quite comforting... if I bought that house in central London, I could probably have it paid off somewhere around then...
Joey D
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Touring MarsNo it isn't... seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years and light years are units of measurement applicable to time.... time itself is more complex than that... our measurement of time may seem pretty arbitrary, but it is based upon the movement (rotation and orbit) of our planet around our Sun... our understanding of timescales is limited by our brain's capability to perceive external events... we can perceive things in approx. the range of milliseconds to tens of years... with things shorter than milliseconds, we need a little help... but we can measure things even on a picosecond timescale these days (10^ -15 seconds)... we also seem to need a little help comprehending things on a 'cosmic' timescale... we only live up to around 100 years, which in terms of the age of the Earth, is the blinking of an eye... the Earth still has around 5 billionyears (5 x 10^9 years) to go before it is destroyed by the Sun's expansion phase.... humans, and all life, will be long gone before that happens anyway... that length of time is beyond our imagination... still, it's quite comforting... if I bought that house in central London, I could probably have it paid off somewhere around then...
Ya I realized that after I wrote it, time is more of a diamension then anything. As far as I know time is known as the forth diamension, but then again maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong. I'm still kinda new to the whole modern science things.
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BlazinXtreme
That's pretty much my understanding of it too... the only thing I'd add is that time is a continuum, and that we live our lives in a tiny little part of that continuum - but in the context of this thread (i.e. Are the end times really near?), the answer would have to be no... as individuals, our 'end times' may very well may be near... a terrorist may blow us up, a nuke might wipe out our whole city, or, more likely, we'll reach the age of about 73 and die in our sleep (that's still relatively near compared to the age of humankind or the planet) - either way, it won't amount to a hill of beans - the Earth and life will go on quite happily long after we've all scuttled off the face of the planet...
- 2,063
On the subject of whether time is infinite or not, the question is in many ways irrelevant.
The most prevelant standpoint is that time can have not meaningfully be termed to have a beginning and/or an end because, without it's existence, there is no space-time and therefore no frame of reference.
Space is time, time is space and it is indeed lunchtime as I type this - does that mean that work is an illusion as well then?
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On the subject of Marilyn Manson (puts on flame-retardant-suit), did you know that his name is a non-anagram of "talentless poseur who steals his 'ideas' from others and whose attempts to shock are merely retreads of what more insightful people have done before" ... counts letters ... there seem to be too few in his name for that ... :snaps_fingers: ... ah yes, it's that space-time-curve thingy again
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Sorry if that offends any intense Manson fans out there but the oik gets up my nose - and to make matters worse, my missus buys in to his junk {then again, she watches Big Brother too ... :grrr:}. I have noted that there don't seem to be many fans of his over thirty; I put that down to the fact that we've seen it all before.
On more serious matters, the End of Days is reckoned by some interpretations of the bible to be practically around the corner. Reading of the Signs of the Times in Revelations certainly seems to back that up. However, my personal feelings are that crises of environment and civilisation come along cyclically and thus the signs spoken of actually fit several periods of world history.
As a proviso, in case there is a Divine Creator whose watching the clock, so to speak, I'd just like to say that I'm willing to be proven wrong and any of my statements are not to be interpreted to imply a categorical disbelief in either your existence or your right to destroy what you have made if it doesn't come up to specifications.
The most prevelant standpoint is that time can have not meaningfully be termed to have a beginning and/or an end because, without it's existence, there is no space-time and therefore no frame of reference.
Space is time, time is space and it is indeed lunchtime as I type this - does that mean that work is an illusion as well then?
.On the subject of Marilyn Manson (puts on flame-retardant-suit), did you know that his name is a non-anagram of "talentless poseur who steals his 'ideas' from others and whose attempts to shock are merely retreads of what more insightful people have done before" ... counts letters ... there seem to be too few in his name for that ... :snaps_fingers: ... ah yes, it's that space-time-curve thingy again
.Sorry if that offends any intense Manson fans out there but the oik gets up my nose - and to make matters worse, my missus buys in to his junk {then again, she watches Big Brother too ... :grrr:}. I have noted that there don't seem to be many fans of his over thirty; I put that down to the fact that we've seen it all before.
On more serious matters, the End of Days is reckoned by some interpretations of the bible to be practically around the corner. Reading of the Signs of the Times in Revelations certainly seems to back that up. However, my personal feelings are that crises of environment and civilisation come along cyclically and thus the signs spoken of actually fit several periods of world history.
As a proviso, in case there is a Divine Creator whose watching the clock, so to speak, I'd just like to say that I'm willing to be proven wrong and any of my statements are not to be interpreted to imply a categorical disbelief in either your existence or your right to destroy what you have made if it doesn't come up to specifications.
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Touring Mars
time is indeed complex, we once thought the spinning neutron star would give a reliable interval of time that was forever unchanging. However, time is not constant, it has a fluid property that can stretch or be compressed, c is constant, and time has to adjust to accommodate it.
One theory I like, is shell theory, it can explain the big bang by this attempt to keep c constant, in it's collapsing expanding shell model. Ok, it doesn;t stand up against M theory, but it does make an interesting assertion. That the universe has always been (and why not
)...there is no start or finish. That would make time infinite.Touring Mars....
that length of time is beyond our imagination... still, it's quite comforting... if I bought that house in central London, I could probably have it paid off somewhere around then...
Do you mean, "What?...5 Pints before lunchtime?"sukerkin
"Time is an illusion, lunch time doubly so..."
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The world will end.
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It's quite interesting, that the gaps in the fossil record occur around every 45 to 70 million years. After every diaster, one group of species becomes more dominant than another, advancing in either intelligence, strength, or both. My theory on this is that man will eventually be wiped out, and an even more intelligent species will take our place a few million years after the diaster. What really intrigues me is wondering what species will reign dominant after man? The cats? The dogs? Or perhaps the dinosaurs will return in the form of birds? Birds ARE warm-blooded dinosaurs after all, and are technically reptiles. It would be quite ironic if dinosaurs (birds) reached the intelligence of man, and look down upon man as nothing more than a short-lived stupid being who thought he/she was dominant once in the history of the dinosaur. One species will eventually leave the planet, but it won't be Homo Sapiens in my opinion.
As for time, IMO it is nothing more than a unit of measurement. As are space and speed. I think the reason why we can not handle the concept of infinity in the universe is simply because we are too stupid. Man constantly has to simplify something pure or eternal in order to understand it. I believe that there might be a god, but man will never understand how god can do something better than god itself, if god is infinetly powerful. There might be a god, but it will always appear as if god doesn't exist, because we can not think in infinity. Perhaps another species, 2 billion years from now, will be able to understand it.
As for time, IMO it is nothing more than a unit of measurement. As are space and speed. I think the reason why we can not handle the concept of infinity in the universe is simply because we are too stupid. Man constantly has to simplify something pure or eternal in order to understand it. I believe that there might be a god, but man will never understand how god can do something better than god itself, if god is infinetly powerful. There might be a god, but it will always appear as if god doesn't exist, because we can not think in infinity. Perhaps another species, 2 billion years from now, will be able to understand it.
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No, I'm pretty sure that animals won't ever be smarter than humans.
PS
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Swift
I don't believe in that though. And it's a commandment. There are 7 deadly sins:
Sloth, gluttony, greed, pride, hate, lust, and envy. I don't see anything about taking the lord's name in vain. And for all you know, I could be referring to our poolboy, Jesus, he's...I don't know what nationality he is. But whatever.
