How will Christianity explain Time Travel?
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Those that know me well know that I have recently developed a passionate interest in the works of Professor Ronald Mallett. He is a Physics professor at the University of Connecticut that has developed an equation that makes time travel possible. He is currently working on building a time travel device that he says should be functional within the next 10 years. His machine will not be transporting people back and forth through time (although he does not rule out the possibility that this may one day be possible), but it is supposed to transport subatomic particles and even information through time. He says there is one hitch to the whole time travel idea, you can't send anything back in time farther than the moment the machine is turned on. Even with that stipulation it is still an amazing feat, in my humble opinion.
Now, my question for you today is, how would the great religions, especially Christianity, come to terms with the whole idea of time travel? When Dr. Mallett builds his machine (and I believe he will) and time travel becomes a reality in our world, what will be said about God's divine plan? Will time travel ultimately prove "God's" role in our "destiny" or will we see that life is a series of random occurences that can be changed at random? Will we even know the effects of our meddling with events (will our minds be wiped each time a new future unfolds or will the changes that we inact be made manifest in a parrallel world which we are not aware of?) and will be chalk up our ignorance to being part of God's design? Will we inevitably say that the time machine itself is God's will for mankind to have control of their destinies, but the outcome of the events that transpire as a result are still a result of God's will?
I think there are a lot of theological issues that can come about with the invention of time travel, but I guess we have to wait until the year 2020 to find out for sure. Until then, I think it's fun to speculate about what the future holds for humanity.
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Comments
Interesting. I had no idea time travel was a real possibility. But i must say that i will have to wait until we actually have time travel to make any judgments about it in regards to Christianity.
Hi there
Time travel is coverd well in the bible, its just not that common knowledge. Like your man above, never read about it.
Time is a less than a drop in the ocean of Eternity, we are traveling in time right now. So to say time doesnt exist in eternity. No need to travel in time, its too slow. Science is only proving that now. Using degrading elements.
Go well
I think time travel will be possible at some point in the future but I don't think it will relate to physical events. In other words, we will not be able to go back to a particular event or be able to manipulate what has already occured - or to even see it happening. Time is relative while events are physical. As HOOWANTSTONO suggested, time is eternal - both past, present, and future; consistently reinventing itself even as we speak, (or in this case write). Therefore, to travel back to what once was to the physical in my estimation is conceptual. Traveling forward to what never was, as it has yet to happen is nothing more than speculative visioning which is not a bad thing. However, from a scientific point of view to travel backwards into the physical past would be remarkable as scientists would be able to see the planet size asteroid that's been on a collision course with earth which started perhaps two thousand years ago and intercept it before it crashes into earth thereby saving planent earth five thousand years from now. It poses a facinating but remote possibility!
Nevertheless, I have an open mind on the subject.
Great post - thanks for sharing.
jxb
With all due respect, even a theory on the mechanics of time travel is not realistic, much less a 10 year promise to demonstrate a facet of it.
Unfortunately, I don't even have a partially open mind to the concept of time travel.
I don't believe it is at all possible to travel into an absolute future. Time travel into the past is also doubtful.
The time travel that I am referring is remaining in a particular location and moving within in time at that location. This is similar to the HG Wells Time Machine concept.
Unless time has moved ahead of this moment, then there is no future to travel to. Our future is the next second, and nothing is there until the second clicks.
An analogy of time travel to the past, is video taping say the last twenty four hours with a frame by frame record. Assuming that things were changing in those frames over the course of 24 hours, what mechanism is there to record and capture all of the events that have happened.
Even though our location may have remained stationary, the universe has been active. The objects in space that have motion have changed their location, and this includes the Earth and the Moon.
With a video recorder, the storage device whether it be tape or hard disk or memory chip has captured the past. This past can be played back over and over again.
Where is the capture mechanism for the universe?
If you believe in multiple dimensions, then crossing dimensions is not time travel.
We are 5 billions years into a 14 billion year universe. So there are 9 billion years of past events. This are not our past because the Earth didn't exist.
So without a mechanism to capture every single event in time, the past is gone and the future hasn't happened yet.
As I recall the fastest event in time is referred to by Plank's constant which I believe is 10 to the -44th power seconds. Assuming that is true, every event in the universe has to be capture each tick of that time period.
A video camera running at 30 frames a second is taking a photo every 30th of a second. If something happened in between that 30th of second the video recorder wouldn't capture it. It wouldn't even see the result of that change if it changed back to an initial state before the next frame was taken.
I know about the experiments where an object disappears, but that isn't time travel in my definition.
We want to call Time the 4th dimension but we really don't know the reality of dimensions. How many exist and what purpose they may serve.
Time to me is a monitor function, like a clock. Time is created by motion starting at the smallest particles. Without this motion, the universe would be frozen in time. That is no time, and nothing would ever change.
Here is a question for those that believe in time travel.
How far back in time could you travel?
Could you travel back to the beginning of civilization?
Could you travel back to the birth of Jesus?
Could you travel back to the Garden of Eden?
Could you travel back to the six days of creation?
Could you travel back to the big bang?
Could you travel back to before the big bang?
These questions are not absurd if you believe in time travel, as these or something has to be the bounds of time travel.
My comments were made in a scientific vain, and they are not philosophical nor theological in nature.
Thanks
dutch84
Sorry, I meant to address the comment to you as the author but I posted it before I checked my comment.
This accounts for some of the grammar oops.
Sorry jxb I just had the last comment for this hub, when I addressed it.
opinion duck - no problem. You make some good points on time travel. I guest we can all agree that no matter our viewpoints time travel is theoritical.
I may be missing the point all together
Please be patient with me because I am a believer in the Omnipresence of GOD! He knows what was and what will be. He created time for us. "For it is in Him we live and move and have our being..." Acts 17
He is "Alpha & Omega" meaning beginning and the end!
I personally believe that Jesus was and is the Ultimate "Time Traveler" He was here in the beginning and is here now! "HE IS the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over ALL creation. For by HIM ALL things were created that are in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions or principalities or powers. ALL things are created for and by Him....." Colossians 1
DKO
Would anyone or any being want to take credit for the creation of this world?
If Alpha to Omega, you mean that he is good to evil, then I would agree.
The world today is a cesspool of evil with a sugar coating of good. In that sense, it is no different than it was four thousand or even two thousand years ago.
Evil could not exist unless it was created by God or God was unable to remove it. If you believe in the God of the Bibles, then you have to believe that he is responsible for evil.
Opinion Duck
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ColdWarBaby says:
5 months ago
The fundamentalists won't and don't care about any data that disproves their faith.
Whatever it is, NO MATTER WHAT, they will simply say that "god" made it happen.
I'm sure you're aware that all the dinosaur fossils, some over 100 million years old, in a world that's only 6 to 12 thousand years old, were put in place by "god" to test our faith.
You do know and believe that, right?
Careful how you answer.
The time is ripe for a new inquisition!