Page 216 - Darwin's Dilemma: The Soul

Darwin’s Dilemma: The Soul

Along with absolute space, Einstein discarded the concept of abso-
lute time—of a steady, unvarying inexorable universal time flow,
streaming from the infinite past to the infinite future. Much of the
obscurity that has surrounded the Theory of Relativity stems from
man’s reluctance to recognize that a sense of time, like sense of col-
our, is a form of perception. Just as space is simply a possible order
of material objects, so time is simply a possible order of events. The
subjectivity of time is best explained in Einstein’s own words. “The
experiences of an individual,” he says, “appear to us arranged in a
series of events; in this series the single events which we remember
appear to be ordered according to the criterion of ‘earlier’ and ‘later.’
There exists, therefore, for the individual, an I-time, or subjective
time. This in itself is not measurable.” 132
In Barnett’s words, Einstein shows that “space and time are
forms of intuition, which can no more be divorced from conscious-
ness than can our concepts of colour, shape, or size.” According to
the general theory of relativity, “time has no independent existence
apart from the order of events by which we measure it.” 133
Since time is a perception, it is also a relative concept that de-
pends on the perceiver. The speed at which time passes varies ac-
cording to the reference we use to measure it. There is no natural
clock in the human body to confirm the passage of time with abso-
lute accuracy. As Lincoln Barnett has stated, “Just as there is no
such thing as colour without an eye to discern it, so an instant or
an hour or a day is nothing without an event to mark it.” 134
When we are left in a closed room where we cannot know the
time and cannot see the rising and setting of the Sun, we can nev-
er determine how fast time goes by nor how long we remain there.
What makes us think a specific amount of time has gone by is
nothing more than the rising and setting of the Sun and the
movement of the watches on our wrists. When these are removed,
anything we say about the time we imagine has passed

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