[cosvis]

Hi to all,

I think it is very important to examine the notion of time which could have different meanings as viewed from our common experience, from science and from a transcendental perspective.

2. The Notion of Time.

The notion of an eternal act is difficult to understand and is closely linked with the notion of time. The concept of time can be threefold. Normally, our common or logical understanding of time means the past, the present and the future. What happened before the present is in the past and what will happen after the present is the future. We are all familiar with this understanding of the notion of time. We all were born in the past, we live in the present now and we all will die in the future. Logical time is measured by comparing the period of time of a repetitive action. A year for example, is the period of time that the earth requires to revolve once around the sun. This is the normal experience and understanding of logical time.

Albert Einstein opened up to us another understanding of the notion of time. The physical or relative notion of time which is time dilation. Time in the physical world is relative; it depends on the speed of a moving object relative to another object. The faster the object moves relative to another object the slower is its time factor. If the speed of an object nears the speed of light, its time factor is slowed down. No massive object can move at the speed of light where its time factor would be zero. This is a very different understanding from our common perception of time but it is very important and relevant when it comes to understand the physical universe.

There is another understanding of time which could be called transcendent; it is beyond the understanding of our common experience. It is different from physical time as used by the scientists when measuring the movement of sub-atomic particles. This transcendent notion of time is eternal time where there is no past or future but only an eternal present. It is this notion of time that is applied to the first cause, or to the pure essence of existence. The first cause of everything has no past or future but exists only in an eternal present. It is pure act that gives existence to everything that exists in the past, presence and future. This is a difficult notion of time but it is reasonable. If the first cause of everything that exists, is pure act and acts in an eternal presence, it is reasonable to say that it acts from eternity to eternity. Its action is eternal.

Yours Cosvis.