God... Is Time.

It shows some courage to continue to maintain this stance, especially in the face of some vociferous opposition.

It maintains, however, an erroneous conception of the human mind, linguistics and subjectivity.
 
We can only be conscious of now.

But we can only be conscious of 'now' after 'now' happened. We cannot directly observe 'now' because it's not physically possible. Our perception of reality depends on faith that 'now' happened as it seems to have and this is perfectly logical. However, science has crossed paths with what was thought to be 'logical' before. Enough so that we should understand, our perception of what is 'logical' could be incorrect.

For sake of discussion, let's imagine time as slices or frames, (someone mentioned this earlier). We know through application of basic physics that the 'present' frame existed before we were able to consciously observe it. Our perception is of a frame which has passed and a new 'present' frame is currently happening which we are not yet aware of. The "present" exists but we cannot observe it until after the fact.
 
Existence is in place in spite of the presence or absence of Amun Ra.

Never made an argument that existence wasn't in place, never argued for Amun Ra. This has nothing to do with your personal disdain for religion. It's a matter of physical fact that can't be refuted.

I think it's a great thread and has brought a lot of enlightenment to the table. We don't reside in the present, we have no capability of knowing the present. Everything we experience as present is already in the past.
Your god=time meme is not physical fact so yes, it can be disputed.

And no, I see no profound "enlightenment" in yet another thread of you prosyletizing for your new fangled religion.
 
a new 'present' frame is currently happening which we are not yet aware of. The "present" exists but we cannot observe it until after the fact.
But we know it without observing it because we know that no past frame could exist without having been the present first, as you just subconsciously acknowledged. That is physics, not faith!
 
a new 'present' frame is currently happening which we are not yet aware of. The "present" exists but we cannot observe it until after the fact.
But we know it without observing it because we know that no past frame could exist without having been the present first, as you just subconsciously acknowledged. That is physics, not faith!

We know in the same way we know God exists....we have faith that it does.
 
Call knowing consciousness is in the present 'faith', if that pleases vocabulary requirements.
 
a new 'present' frame is currently happening which we are not yet aware of. The "present" exists but we cannot observe it until after the fact.
But we know it without observing it because we know that no past frame could exist without having been the present first, as you just subconsciously acknowledged. That is physics, not faith!

We know in the same way we know God exists....we have faith that it does.
But we don't know that any God or Gods exist, yet we still know there is a present whether a God exists or not.
 
a new 'present' frame is currently happening which we are not yet aware of. The "present" exists but we cannot observe it until after the fact.
But we know it without observing it because we know that no past frame could exist without having been the present first, as you just subconsciously acknowledged. That is physics, not faith!

We know in the same way we know God exists....we have faith that it does.
But we don't know that any God or Gods exist, yet we still know there is a present whether a God exists or not.

e-cynic: But we don't know that any God or Gods exist, yet we still know there is a present whether a God exists or not.
.
likewise, by the present, we know there is an Everlasting irregardless the connection to a Deity or the relevance of believing in one relative to our own Spiritual survival ...

* particularly a personalized deity espoused by political hacks.

.
 
Call knowing consciousness is in the present 'faith', if that pleases vocabulary requirements.

Again, we don't have consciousness in the present. All our consciousness is in the past.
It's not vocabulary requirements, it's physics.
 
a new 'present' frame is currently happening which we are not yet aware of. The "present" exists but we cannot observe it until after the fact.
But we know it without observing it because we know that no past frame could exist without having been the present first, as you just subconsciously acknowledged. That is physics, not faith!

We know in the same way we know God exists....we have faith that it does.
But we don't know that any God or Gods exist, yet we still know there is a present whether a God exists or not.

The primary 'scientific' argument against God is that you can't observe, test or measure God. The same exact argument applies to the instant of present time. It's beyond our ability to observe, test or measure because of physics. Yet you say that "we know" something exists even though we can't confirm it with science. Now you can say that we "know" the present exists because of the evidence... time passing and our perception of what supposedly happened in the instant of the present. It's still dependent upon faith.
 
The primary 'scientific' argument against God is that you can't observe, test or measure God. The same exact argument applies to the instant of present time. It's beyond our ability to observe, test or measure because of physics.
BULLSHIT!
In physics it has been measured and proven that the now can influence the past!

Does the Universe Exist if We re Not Looking DiscoverMagazine.com

Wheeler's hunch is that the universe is built like an enormous feedback loop, a loop in which we contribute to the ongoing creation of not just the present and the future but the past as well. To illustrate his idea, he devised what he calls his "delayed-choice experiment," which adds a startling, cosmic variation to a cornerstone of quantum physics: the classic two-slit experiment.

That experiment is exceedingly strange in its own right, even without Wheeler's extra kink thrown in. It illustrates a key principle of quantum mechanics: Light has a dual nature. Sometimes light behaves like a compact particle, a photon; sometimes it seems to behave like a wave spread out in space, just like the ripples in a pond. In the experiment, light — a stream of photons — shines through two parallel slits and hits a strip of photographic film behind the slits. The experiment can be run two ways: with photon detectors right beside each slit that allow physicists to observe the photons as they pass, or with detectors removed, which allows the photons to travel unobserved. When physicists use the photon detectors, the result is unsurprising: Every photon is observed to pass through one slit or the other. The photons, in other words, act like particles.

+++
But when the photon detectors are removed, something weird occurs. One would expect to see two distinct clusters of dots on the film, corresponding to where individual photons hit after randomly passing through one slit or theother. Instead, a pattern of alternating light and dark stripes appears. Such a pattern could be produced only if the photons are behaving like waves, with each individual photon spreading out and surging against both slits at once, like a breaker hitting a jetty. Alternating bright stripes in the pattern on the film show where crests from those waves overlap; dark stripes indicate that a crest and a trough have canceled each other.

The outcome of the experiment depends on what the physicists try to measure: If they set up detectors beside the slits, the photons act like ordinary particles, always traversing one route or the other, not both at the same time. In that case the striped pattern doesn't appear on the film. But if the physicists remove the detectors, each photon seems to travel both routes simultaneously like a tiny wave, producing the striped pattern.

Wheeler has come up with a cosmic-scale version of this experiment that has even weirder implications. Where the classic experiment demonstrates that physicists' observations determine the behavior of a photon in the present, Wheeler's version shows that our observations in the present can affect how a photon behaved in the past.

To demonstrate, he sketches a diagram on a scrap of paper. Imagine, he says, a quasar — a very luminous and very remote young galaxy. Now imagine that there are two other large galaxies between Earth and the quasar. The gravity from massive objects like galaxies can bend light, just as conventional glass lenses do. In Wheeler's experiment the two huge galaxies substitute for the pair of slits; the quasar is the light source. Just as in the two-slit experiment, light — photons — from the quasar can follow two different paths, past one galaxy or the other.

Suppose that on Earth, some astronomers decide to observe the quasars. In this case a telescope plays the role of the photon detector in the two-slit experiment. If the astronomers point a telescope in the direction of one of the two intervening galaxies, they will see photons from the quasar that were deflected by that galaxy; they would get the same result by looking at the other galaxy. But the astronomers could also mimic the second part of the two-slit experiment. By carefully arranging mirrors, they could make photons arriving from the routes around both galaxies strike a piece of photographic film simultaneously. Alternating light and dark bands would appear on the film, identical to the pattern found when photons passed through the two slits.

Here's the odd part. The quasar could be very distant from Earth, with light so faint that its photons hit the piece of film only one at a time. But the results of the experiment wouldn't change. The striped pattern would still show up, meaning that a lone photon not observed by the telescope traveled both paths toward Earth, even if those paths were separated by many light-years. And that's not all.

By the time the astronomers decide which measurement to make — whether to pin down the photon to one definite route or to have it follow both paths simultaneously — the photon could have already journeyed for billions of years, long before life appeared on Earth. The measurements made now, says Wheeler, determine the photon's past. In one case the astronomers create a past in which a photon took both possible routes from the quasar to Earth. Alternatively, they retroactively force the photon onto one straight trail toward their detector, even though the photon began its jaunt long before any detectors existed.

It would be tempting to dismiss Wheeler'sthought experiment as a curious idea, except for one thing: It has been demonstrated in a laboratory. In 1984 physicists at the University of Maryland set up a tabletop version of the delayed-choice scenario. Using a light source and an arrangement of mirrors to provide a number of possible photon routes, the physicists were able to show that the paths the photons took were not fixed until the physicists made their measurements, even though those measurements were made after the photons had already left the light source and begun their circuit through the course of mirrors.
 
It's no wonder you think we can't observe the present.

I don't think it, I know it because of physics. Anyone who understands physics also knows it. Now if you have discovered some way for us to defy physics because of hubris and ego, it would be great to have your supporting thesis for the Nobel Prize folks. As it stands, we'll have to stick with physics.
Physics says you are full of shit in your defiance of physics.

Physics says no such thing. I'm not the one contradicting it.

We cannot observe the present. Only the past.

God = Time.
Of course we can observe the present, for an instantaneous moment in time.

There is no indication that Amun Ra = time.
 
Of course we can observe the present, for an instantaneous moment in time.

No we can't. We only have a perception of time after time has passed. Light has to travel, we don't instantly see it. Anything you observe has already happened in time and resides forever in the past.
 
The primary 'scientific' argument against God is that you can't observe, test or measure God. The same exact argument applies to the instant of present time. It's beyond our ability to observe, test or measure because of physics.
BULLSHIT!
In physics it has been measured and proven that the now can influence the past!

Does the Universe Exist if We re Not Looking DiscoverMagazine.com

Wheeler's hunch is that the universe is built like an enormous feedback loop, a loop in which we contribute to the ongoing creation of not just the present and the future but the past as well. To illustrate his idea, he devised what he calls his "delayed-choice experiment," which adds a startling, cosmic variation to a cornerstone of quantum physics: the classic two-slit experiment.

That experiment is exceedingly strange in its own right, even without Wheeler's extra kink thrown in. It illustrates a key principle of quantum mechanics: Light has a dual nature. Sometimes light behaves like a compact particle, a photon; sometimes it seems to behave like a wave spread out in space, just like the ripples in a pond. In the experiment, light — a stream of photons — shines through two parallel slits and hits a strip of photographic film behind the slits. The experiment can be run two ways: with photon detectors right beside each slit that allow physicists to observe the photons as they pass, or with detectors removed, which allows the photons to travel unobserved. When physicists use the photon detectors, the result is unsurprising: Every photon is observed to pass through one slit or the other. The photons, in other words, act like particles.

+++
But when the photon detectors are removed, something weird occurs. One would expect to see two distinct clusters of dots on the film, corresponding to where individual photons hit after randomly passing through one slit or theother. Instead, a pattern of alternating light and dark stripes appears. Such a pattern could be produced only if the photons are behaving like waves, with each individual photon spreading out and surging against both slits at once, like a breaker hitting a jetty. Alternating bright stripes in the pattern on the film show where crests from those waves overlap; dark stripes indicate that a crest and a trough have canceled each other.

The outcome of the experiment depends on what the physicists try to measure: If they set up detectors beside the slits, the photons act like ordinary particles, always traversing one route or the other, not both at the same time. In that case the striped pattern doesn't appear on the film. But if the physicists remove the detectors, each photon seems to travel both routes simultaneously like a tiny wave, producing the striped pattern.

Wheeler has come up with a cosmic-scale version of this experiment that has even weirder implications. Where the classic experiment demonstrates that physicists' observations determine the behavior of a photon in the present, Wheeler's version shows that our observations in the present can affect how a photon behaved in the past.

To demonstrate, he sketches a diagram on a scrap of paper. Imagine, he says, a quasar — a very luminous and very remote young galaxy. Now imagine that there are two other large galaxies between Earth and the quasar. The gravity from massive objects like galaxies can bend light, just as conventional glass lenses do. In Wheeler's experiment the two huge galaxies substitute for the pair of slits; the quasar is the light source. Just as in the two-slit experiment, light — photons — from the quasar can follow two different paths, past one galaxy or the other.

Suppose that on Earth, some astronomers decide to observe the quasars. In this case a telescope plays the role of the photon detector in the two-slit experiment. If the astronomers point a telescope in the direction of one of the two intervening galaxies, they will see photons from the quasar that were deflected by that galaxy; they would get the same result by looking at the other galaxy. But the astronomers could also mimic the second part of the two-slit experiment. By carefully arranging mirrors, they could make photons arriving from the routes around both galaxies strike a piece of photographic film simultaneously. Alternating light and dark bands would appear on the film, identical to the pattern found when photons passed through the two slits.

Here's the odd part. The quasar could be very distant from Earth, with light so faint that its photons hit the piece of film only one at a time. But the results of the experiment wouldn't change. The striped pattern would still show up, meaning that a lone photon not observed by the telescope traveled both paths toward Earth, even if those paths were separated by many light-years. And that's not all.

By the time the astronomers decide which measurement to make — whether to pin down the photon to one definite route or to have it follow both paths simultaneously — the photon could have already journeyed for billions of years, long before life appeared on Earth. The measurements made now, says Wheeler, determine the photon's past. In one case the astronomers create a past in which a photon took both possible routes from the quasar to Earth. Alternatively, they retroactively force the photon onto one straight trail toward their detector, even though the photon began its jaunt long before any detectors existed.

It would be tempting to dismiss Wheeler'sthought experiment as a curious idea, except for one thing: It has been demonstrated in a laboratory. In 1984 physicists at the University of Maryland set up a tabletop version of the delayed-choice scenario. Using a light source and an arrangement of mirrors to provide a number of possible photon routes, the physicists were able to show that the paths the photons took were not fixed until the physicists made their measurements, even though those measurements were made after the photons had already left the light source and begun their circuit through the course of mirrors.

Very interesting stuff indeed, however it clearly states this is a "thought experiment" and we both understand that isn't proven science or physics. Yep... some strange things happening with light in general, the famous double-slit experiment has always intrigued me, I've written OPs about that as well. You could also say that God = Light.

You know, showing me something else that humans struggle to comprehend, which seemingly defies our understanding of logic and physics, is not helping your anti-god argument.
 
The primary 'scientific' argument against God is that you can't observe, test or measure God. The same exact argument applies to the instant of present time. It's beyond our ability to observe, test or measure because of physics.
BULLSHIT!
In physics it has been measured and proven that the now can influence the past!

Does the Universe Exist if We re Not Looking DiscoverMagazine.com

Wheeler's hunch is that the universe is built like an enormous feedback loop, a loop in which we contribute to the ongoing creation of not just the present and the future but the past as well. To illustrate his idea, he devised what he calls his "delayed-choice experiment," which adds a startling, cosmic variation to a cornerstone of quantum physics: the classic two-slit experiment.

That experiment is exceedingly strange in its own right, even without Wheeler's extra kink thrown in. It illustrates a key principle of quantum mechanics: Light has a dual nature. Sometimes light behaves like a compact particle, a photon; sometimes it seems to behave like a wave spread out in space, just like the ripples in a pond. In the experiment, light — a stream of photons — shines through two parallel slits and hits a strip of photographic film behind the slits. The experiment can be run two ways: with photon detectors right beside each slit that allow physicists to observe the photons as they pass, or with detectors removed, which allows the photons to travel unobserved. When physicists use the photon detectors, the result is unsurprising: Every photon is observed to pass through one slit or the other. The photons, in other words, act like particles.

+++
But when the photon detectors are removed, something weird occurs. One would expect to see two distinct clusters of dots on the film, corresponding to where individual photons hit after randomly passing through one slit or theother. Instead, a pattern of alternating light and dark stripes appears. Such a pattern could be produced only if the photons are behaving like waves, with each individual photon spreading out and surging against both slits at once, like a breaker hitting a jetty. Alternating bright stripes in the pattern on the film show where crests from those waves overlap; dark stripes indicate that a crest and a trough have canceled each other.

The outcome of the experiment depends on what the physicists try to measure: If they set up detectors beside the slits, the photons act like ordinary particles, always traversing one route or the other, not both at the same time. In that case the striped pattern doesn't appear on the film. But if the physicists remove the detectors, each photon seems to travel both routes simultaneously like a tiny wave, producing the striped pattern.

Wheeler has come up with a cosmic-scale version of this experiment that has even weirder implications. Where the classic experiment demonstrates that physicists' observations determine the behavior of a photon in the present, Wheeler's version shows that our observations in the present can affect how a photon behaved in the past.

To demonstrate, he sketches a diagram on a scrap of paper. Imagine, he says, a quasar — a very luminous and very remote young galaxy. Now imagine that there are two other large galaxies between Earth and the quasar. The gravity from massive objects like galaxies can bend light, just as conventional glass lenses do. In Wheeler's experiment the two huge galaxies substitute for the pair of slits; the quasar is the light source. Just as in the two-slit experiment, light — photons — from the quasar can follow two different paths, past one galaxy or the other.

Suppose that on Earth, some astronomers decide to observe the quasars. In this case a telescope plays the role of the photon detector in the two-slit experiment. If the astronomers point a telescope in the direction of one of the two intervening galaxies, they will see photons from the quasar that were deflected by that galaxy; they would get the same result by looking at the other galaxy. But the astronomers could also mimic the second part of the two-slit experiment. By carefully arranging mirrors, they could make photons arriving from the routes around both galaxies strike a piece of photographic film simultaneously. Alternating light and dark bands would appear on the film, identical to the pattern found when photons passed through the two slits.

Here's the odd part. The quasar could be very distant from Earth, with light so faint that its photons hit the piece of film only one at a time. But the results of the experiment wouldn't change. The striped pattern would still show up, meaning that a lone photon not observed by the telescope traveled both paths toward Earth, even if those paths were separated by many light-years. And that's not all.

By the time the astronomers decide which measurement to make — whether to pin down the photon to one definite route or to have it follow both paths simultaneously — the photon could have already journeyed for billions of years, long before life appeared on Earth. The measurements made now, says Wheeler, determine the photon's past. In one case the astronomers create a past in which a photon took both possible routes from the quasar to Earth. Alternatively, they retroactively force the photon onto one straight trail toward their detector, even though the photon began its jaunt long before any detectors existed.

It would be tempting to dismiss Wheeler'sthought experiment as a curious idea, except for one thing: It has been demonstrated in a laboratory. In 1984 physicists at the University of Maryland set up a tabletop version of the delayed-choice scenario. Using a light source and an arrangement of mirrors to provide a number of possible photon routes, the physicists were able to show that the paths the photons took were not fixed until the physicists made their measurements, even though those measurements were made after the photons had already left the light source and begun their circuit through the course of mirrors.

Very interesting stuff indeed, however it clearly states this is a "thought experiment" and we both understand that isn't proven science or physics. Yep... some strange things happening with light in general, the famous double-slit experiment has always intrigued me, I've written OPs about that as well. You could also say that God = Light.

You know, showing me something else that humans struggle to comprehend, which seemingly defies our understanding of logic and physics, is not helping your anti-god argument.
You could say that Amun Ra = light but that would mean that Amun Ra is forever in the past. You might want to weasel around that by claiming that Amun Ra is a continuous stream of photons. Of course, that would confound your earlier argument such that you can never experience Amun Ra beccause you can have no present perception of him.
 
The primary 'scientific' argument against God is that you can't observe, test or measure God. The same exact argument applies to the instant of present time. It's beyond our ability to observe, test or measure because of physics.
BULLSHIT!
In physics it has been measured and proven that the now can influence the past!

Does the Universe Exist if We re Not Looking DiscoverMagazine.com

Wheeler's hunch is that the universe is built like an enormous feedback loop, a loop in which we contribute to the ongoing creation of not just the present and the future but the past as well. To illustrate his idea, he devised what he calls his "delayed-choice experiment," which adds a startling, cosmic variation to a cornerstone of quantum physics: the classic two-slit experiment.

That experiment is exceedingly strange in its own right, even without Wheeler's extra kink thrown in. It illustrates a key principle of quantum mechanics: Light has a dual nature. Sometimes light behaves like a compact particle, a photon; sometimes it seems to behave like a wave spread out in space, just like the ripples in a pond. In the experiment, light — a stream of photons — shines through two parallel slits and hits a strip of photographic film behind the slits. The experiment can be run two ways: with photon detectors right beside each slit that allow physicists to observe the photons as they pass, or with detectors removed, which allows the photons to travel unobserved. When physicists use the photon detectors, the result is unsurprising: Every photon is observed to pass through one slit or the other. The photons, in other words, act like particles.

+++
But when the photon detectors are removed, something weird occurs. One would expect to see two distinct clusters of dots on the film, corresponding to where individual photons hit after randomly passing through one slit or theother. Instead, a pattern of alternating light and dark stripes appears. Such a pattern could be produced only if the photons are behaving like waves, with each individual photon spreading out and surging against both slits at once, like a breaker hitting a jetty. Alternating bright stripes in the pattern on the film show where crests from those waves overlap; dark stripes indicate that a crest and a trough have canceled each other.

The outcome of the experiment depends on what the physicists try to measure: If they set up detectors beside the slits, the photons act like ordinary particles, always traversing one route or the other, not both at the same time. In that case the striped pattern doesn't appear on the film. But if the physicists remove the detectors, each photon seems to travel both routes simultaneously like a tiny wave, producing the striped pattern.

Wheeler has come up with a cosmic-scale version of this experiment that has even weirder implications. Where the classic experiment demonstrates that physicists' observations determine the behavior of a photon in the present, Wheeler's version shows that our observations in the present can affect how a photon behaved in the past.

To demonstrate, he sketches a diagram on a scrap of paper. Imagine, he says, a quasar — a very luminous and very remote young galaxy. Now imagine that there are two other large galaxies between Earth and the quasar. The gravity from massive objects like galaxies can bend light, just as conventional glass lenses do. In Wheeler's experiment the two huge galaxies substitute for the pair of slits; the quasar is the light source. Just as in the two-slit experiment, light — photons — from the quasar can follow two different paths, past one galaxy or the other.

Suppose that on Earth, some astronomers decide to observe the quasars. In this case a telescope plays the role of the photon detector in the two-slit experiment. If the astronomers point a telescope in the direction of one of the two intervening galaxies, they will see photons from the quasar that were deflected by that galaxy; they would get the same result by looking at the other galaxy. But the astronomers could also mimic the second part of the two-slit experiment. By carefully arranging mirrors, they could make photons arriving from the routes around both galaxies strike a piece of photographic film simultaneously. Alternating light and dark bands would appear on the film, identical to the pattern found when photons passed through the two slits.

Here's the odd part. The quasar could be very distant from Earth, with light so faint that its photons hit the piece of film only one at a time. But the results of the experiment wouldn't change. The striped pattern would still show up, meaning that a lone photon not observed by the telescope traveled both paths toward Earth, even if those paths were separated by many light-years. And that's not all.

By the time the astronomers decide which measurement to make — whether to pin down the photon to one definite route or to have it follow both paths simultaneously — the photon could have already journeyed for billions of years, long before life appeared on Earth. The measurements made now, says Wheeler, determine the photon's past. In one case the astronomers create a past in which a photon took both possible routes from the quasar to Earth. Alternatively, they retroactively force the photon onto one straight trail toward their detector, even though the photon began its jaunt long before any detectors existed.

It would be tempting to dismiss Wheeler'sthought experiment as a curious idea, except for one thing: It has been demonstrated in a laboratory. In 1984 physicists at the University of Maryland set up a tabletop version of the delayed-choice scenario. Using a light source and an arrangement of mirrors to provide a number of possible photon routes, the physicists were able to show that the paths the photons took were not fixed until the physicists made their measurements, even though those measurements were made after the photons had already left the light source and begun their circuit through the course of mirrors.

Very interesting stuff indeed, however it clearly states this is a "thought experiment" and we both understand that isn't proven science or physics.
Your God is just powerless to stop you from lying!

From the last paragraph I cited:

It would be tempting to dismiss Wheeler's thought experiment as a curious idea, except for one thing: It has been demonstrated in a laboratory.
 
Somewhere, I lost track of the ideas discussed in this thread.

What are you two arguing about? How is the nature of our present important in determining if Time is God?
 
Your God is just powerless to stop you from lying!

From the last paragraph I cited:

It would be tempting to dismiss Wheeler's thought experiment as a curious idea, except for one thing: It has been demonstrated in a laboratory.

Indeed. You're showing me an experiment which seems to prove that the past can be changed. Something that seems to completely defy logic and physics but it doesn't because it can be demonstrated. Light is a strange and mysterious property in a lot of ways. So is electromagnetism and gravity, and so is Time. As much as we like to think physics has it all figured out, it doesn't. We continue to be perplexed and astounded at things we discover.

But absolutely none of what you are posting has anything to do with observation of the present. In fact, what you are offering is more evidence that we can't be absolutely sure what is happening in the present. Just because we assume it is as we perceive it after the fact, doesn't mean it actually is. Logic can be totally wrong, as in your example.
 

Forum List

Back
Top