is time a man made construct?

if so please provide your argument. if not then also state why.


time=tool right?

a tool to measure a linear length... the changes in things?


"And, the Intellect experiences a similar difficulty when it tries to think of an Eternal--a That which is above and outside of Time. We see Time in operation everywhere, and take it for granted that Time is a reality--an actual thing. But this is a mistake of the senses. There is no such thing as Time, in reality. Time exists solely in our minds. It is merely a form of perception by which we express our consciousness of the Change in Things.

We cannot think of Time except in connection with a succession of changes of things in our consciousness--either things of the outer world, or the passing of thought-things through our mind. A day is merely the consciousness of the passing of the sun--an hour or minute merely the subdivision of the day, or else the consciousness of the movement of the hands of the clock--merely the consciousness of the movement of Things--the symbols of changes in Things. In a world without changes in Things, there would be no such thing as Time. Time is but a mental invention. Such is the report of the Intellect.

And, besides the conclusions of pure abstract reasoning about Time, we may see many instances of the relativity of Time in our everyday experiences. We all know that when we are interested Time seems to pass rapidly, and when we are bored it drags along in a shameful manner. We know that when we are happy, Time develops the speed of a meteor, while when we are unhappy it crawls like a tortoise. When we are interested or happy our attention is largely diverted from the changes occurring in things--because we do not notice the Things so closely. And while we are miserable or bored, we notice the details in Things, and their changes, until the length of time seems interminable. A tiny insect mite may, and does, live a lifetime of birth, growth, marriage, reproduction, old age, and death, in a few minutes, and no doubt its life seems as full as does that of the elephant with his hundred years. Why? _Because so many things haze happened!_ When we are conscious of many things happening, we get the impression and sensation of the length of time. The greater the consciousness of things, the greater the sensation of Time. When we are so interested in talking to a loved one that we forget all that is occurring about us, then the hours fly by unheeded, while the same hours seem like days to one in the same place who is not interested or occupied with some task.

Men have nodded, and in the second before awakening they have dreamed of events that seemed to have required the passage of years. Many of you have had experiences of this kind, and many such cases have been recorded by science. On the other hand, one may fall asleep and remain unconscious, but without dreams, for hours, and upon awakening will insist that he has merely nodded. Time belongs to the relative mind, and has no place in the Eternal or Absolute."


acording to this... time is a man made-based-accepted-invented thing. changes in things is not man made... but the term we use to define it "time" is correct?

so can i still say man discovered time? or how do i go about this.... anyone?


this true...

Saying man invented time is like saying Ben Franklin invented electricity... word is actually "discovered".

????




[edit on 19-9-2006 by krossfyter]

I'd have to agree with you. Time is just another form of measurement, the same as velocity, mass, pressure and linear distance. If I wanted to I could take a rod and cut it to a certain length and call it a George. I could then break "a George" down in to smaller, equal length sections and call them "Jerrys". 100 Jerrys = 1 George. It would be technically corect, just not widely accepted.

Originally posted by JIMC5499
I'd have to agree with you. Time is just another form of measurement, the same as velocity, mass, pressure and linear distance. If I wanted to I could take a rod and cut it to a certain length and call it a George. I could then break "a George" down in to smaller, equal length sections and call them "Jerrys". 100 Jerrys = 1 George. It would be technically corect, just not widely accepted.

that makes perfect sense and is what im trying to get at.

thnx.

did man actually discover the "changes in things" thus discover time???

or did we really invent it? is it our basic invention-simplified to help us understand something greater that is not really confined to a linear change in things? anyone get where im going with this?

Okay, the word invention implies having a mastery over said thing, and having constructed it.

Human Beings did not construct time. We have no kind of control over time, time happens to us. We don't know what it is, but we named it. Just like Gravity.


Being a Christian, I believe that God created Time, and he designed our minds to be Time-based. Therefore, we cannot comprehend anything enternal, simply because we weren't designed to. Just like a Gamecube isn't designed to play Xbox 360 games.

That's my understanding of the situation, anyway.

Originally posted by Voidmaster
Okay, the word invention implies having a mastery over said thing, and having constructed it.

Human Beings did not construct time. We have no kind of control over time, time happens to us. We don't know what it is, but we named it. Just like Gravity.


Being a Christian, I believe that God created Time, and he designed our minds to be Time-based. Therefore, we cannot comprehend anything enternal, simply because we weren't designed to. Just like a Gamecube isn't designed to play Xbox 360 games.

That's my understanding of the situation, anyway.

time= the (linear) measurement for the changes in things

time is a human expression for our understanding of the changes in things.

we did not construct the changes in things... but we constructed the expression ... our way to understand the changes in things.

therefore humans constructed time.

outside of this reality (which is really a virtual reality) exists NO time.


time is arbitrary.