How do you define Time?

What about when the horse you backed got beat by the shortest of short noses and the timekeeper gave the first and second an identical time?

By heck ci. You are one miserable sod. Are all atheists as negative as you? You should announce which cruises you are going on.

What's negative? You are the one reading negativity into my post.

Job himself would have thought that negative mate. Even he battled forth manfully.

What you fail to see is the obvious; once we are born, we die. What we do in between our birth and death are the histories of individuals, but many leave nothing behind.

yes, but if it's going in a circle... and everything is happening at the same "time" kinda going back to my previous post where past, present and future are all together in kind of layers like an onion ... and everything is kind of happening at the same time, it would be possible to "go back in time" because you really wouldn't be going "back" at all.

If time is not linear that does not require that it be circular--only non-linear. I once used the metaphor of time as a lake IN CONTRAST TO A RIVER. The latter suggests a reification of the notions of past (downstream) and future (upstream) which is why to us riverites the notion of time-travel makes sense (one can conceivably get out of his boat on the river and walk upstream into the future or downstream into the past.
But if we use the metaphor of a lake. Time goes nowhere; it is just the CHANGING surface of the lake--no upstream and no downstream.

We really don't know the effect of time outside of our galaxy. We look at all those stars and planets, but its effect in that realm are unknown to man. We say they are xxx years away, but that's about the only perception we humans have.

Yes, C.I., but we don't even know how time is perceived by other species on our planet. And there is some variations (however subtle they may be) in notions of time and space among humans of radically different cultures.

I agree... non-linear it is, circular was just my way of saying that I believe that "time goes nowhere" that the surface just changes... maybe adding more layers?? There are a lot of things in a lake besides the surface. Usually, what happens on the surface gets churned down and vise versa, so it kind of ends up getting all mixed up. Which might explain ghosts (or some at least)?? Perhaps they're just stirred up from the bottom. They're "running" in place, doing the same old thing and we're just the new surface ???

Ahaha!
Was just looking back over this thread and found some contributions from me from 2005... How very embarrassing.

Time - He's waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me, boy

Time - He flexes like a whore
Falls wanking to the floor
His trick is you and me, boy

Time - In Quaaludes and red wine
Demanding Billy Dolls
And other friends of mine
Take your time

The sniper in the brain, regurgitating drain
Incestuous and vain, and many other last names
I look at my watch it say 9:25 and I think "Oh God I'm still alive"

We should be on by now
We should be on by now

Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai

You - are not a victim
You - just scream with boredom
You - are not evicting time

Chimes - Goddamn, you're looking old
You'll freeze and catch a cold
'Cause you've left your coat behind
Take your time
Breaking up is hard, but keeping dark is hateful
I had so many dreams, I had so many breakthroughs
But you, my love, were kind, but love has left you dreamless
The door to dreams was closed, your park was real and greenless
Perhaps you're smiling now, smiling through this darkness
But all I have to give is guilt for dreaming

We should be on by now
We should be on by now
We should be on by now
We should be on by now
We should be on by now

Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
Lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai, lai
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la

Yes time

I believe most humans perceive time based on culture and religion.

The Hindu Goddess, Shiva, is dancing as a metaphysically significant event. Her dancing is sheer movement, or change for its own sake. It is intrinsic going nowhere, unlike utilitarian movement that is extrinsice, moving with a destination in mind. I like to think of the Universe as a Cosmic Dance, existing and changing for its own sake.

I believe nowhere and destination are based on our personal perception of our own reality; it only has meaning on a personal level.

I agree, C.I.; the best--perhaps the only real--knowledge is personal knowledge. The rest is just abstract formula.

Hindusim is just so much more profound than christianity.
It's such a good construct, you can go in pretty much as far as you'd like and not meet so many problems.

*awaits bashing*

PQ, I've always had the impression from long ago that Hinduism and Buddhism had much in common.

C..I. that's right. Buddhism grew out of Hinduism. Siddhartha Guatama (the Buddha) was raised a Hindu, but one who rebelled against the caste system

I haven't read through the whole discussion - but if you've read 'The Time Machine' by HG Wells, I think that has a pretty good definition of Time as the 4th dimension.

To quote - "Can a cube [having Length, Breadth and Height] that does not last for any time at all, have a real existence?"

It seems a bit obvious after you read it, but explaining it like this makes a lot of sense and abundantly clear that Time can be defined as a dimension of our reality. I'm not too sure about the linearity/non-linearity of Time - that kind of branches out into the question of a single or multi-verse and all the existence by choice crap.