Page 795 - Atlas of Creation Volume 3

Harun Yahya

eternal Now in some configuration of the universe, as do our own deaths. But in Barbour's cosmos, the hour of

our death is not an end; it is but one of the numberless components of an inconceivably vast, frozen structure. All
the experiences we've ever had and ever will have lie forever fixed, set like crystalline facets in some infinite, im-
mortal jewel. Our friends, our parents, our children, are always there.

"We're always locked within one Now," Barbour says. We do not pass through time. Instead, each new in-
stant is an entirely different universe. In all of these universes, nothing ever moves or ages, since time is not pre-
sent in any of them. One universe might contain you as a baby staring at your mother's face. In that
universe you will never move from that one, still scene. In yet another universe, you'll be forever just
one breath away from death. All of those universes, and infinitely many more, exist permanently, side

by side, in a cosmos of unimaginable size and variety. So there is not one immortal you, but many: the
toddler, the cool dude, the codger. The tragedy— or perhaps it's a blessing— is that no one version rec-
ognizes its own immortality. Would you really want to be 14 for eternity, waiting for your civics class
to end? (Tim Folger, "From Here to Eternity", Discover, December 2000, p.54)

These explanations of Julian Barbour's theories illustrate very well the scientific aspect of what has
been related in this section. From this point of view, Barbour's theories parallel the subject of this book.
But the important point that must be explained is this: Barbour explains that nothing that has hap-
pened in the past will be lost, and that every event is present in this moment as a series of photographs.
Certainly, past and future are pre-
sent every moment in God's mem-

ory but not as a series of
photographs; they are actually
being experienced at this moment.
For example, Joseph's brothers are
actually putting Joseph in the well
at this moment. The Egyptian pyra-
mids are actually being constructed

at this moment and the workers are
putting the stones in place. Just as
we are experiencing this moment
actually and vividly, so all the past
and future are being experienced in
God's sight as actual and vivid.

Today these facts have been scien-
tifically proven by developments in
modern physics and there is a great
correspondence between them and
what is said in the Qur’an about

timelessness and eternity. This
great wonder in God's creation is a
sign of God's eternal power and
majesty; it is a reality which must
be carefully considered and under-
stood.

Physicist Julian Barbour says that none of
a person's moments is lost and that every
one of them continues to exist forever
along with others. The place where man's
life continues to be lived is God's memory.

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