Page 720 - Atlas of Creation Volume 4

THE PERCEPTION OF TIME AND THE FACT OF DESTINY

Our life spans are simply a perception

or the time we spend in this world, we make com par i sons, think ing about what we did yes ter -
day and ac cord ing ly mak ing plans for the mor row. We think about what hap pened ten years
F ago, be lieve that time has passed and we have grown old er. What gives rise to this be lief is sim -

ply the com par i sons we make be tween those pre vi ous mo ments and the present one.
If you were watch ing tel e vi sion be fore open ing this book, you com pare the time when you were
watch ing tel e vi sion with the time when you are read ing and im ag ine that time has passed be tween the

two events. You re fer to when you were watch ing tel e vi sion as “the past,” im ag in ing there has been a
pas sage of time be tween the two events. In fact, the time you were watch ing tel e vi sion is in for ma tion
stored in your mem o ry. You com pare “the present,” when you are read ing this book, with the in for ma -
tion in your mem o ry, and per ceive this in ter val as “time.” The fact is, how e ver, that there is on ly the pre-
sent mo ment in which you are liv ing. When you make no com par i son with rec ol lec tions in your mem o -

ry, then no con cept of time re mains.
The well-known phys i cist John Barbour makes this def i ni tion of time:

Time is nothing but a measure of the changing positions of objects. A pendulum swings, the hands on a clock
advance. 129

Time, there fore, con sists of a com par i son be tween var i ous per cep tions that arise in the brain. A
study of peo ple suf fer ing from the mem o ry loss known as an te ro grade am ne sia makes it eas ier to see

that time is noth ing more than a hu man per cep tion. Such peo ple lose all their short-term mem o ry, they

718 Atlas of Creation Vol. 4