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Time is a measurement that owes it existence, to one of the few indisputable truths I have found. There is nothing complex about this truth yet; our very existence depends on it being a constant. The name of this truth is change and it is this we measure and call time. Our perception of time is dependent on how we choose to perceive it, but in reality we will always be in the present. In the time scale of the universe we would go unnoticed. When we look to the stars the light we see is from their past, so it would seem speed and distance can affect our perception of time. I also believe that there must come a point at either of the extremes of time, where change becomes immeasurable and for all intents and purposes times ceases to exist.
Why does time move in the direction that it does? The existence of an "arrow of time" is a fundamental phenomenon that tells us about the nature of the universe, and its ultimate fate. The concept of times arrow ultimately derives from the second law of thermodynamics, which can be stated in two words: "entropy increases". Entropy is a state of disordered equilibrium, and can be seen at work everywhere- most clearly in the way that heat passes in one direction from hot bodies to cold ones. This effect is best seen with a simple example. Although the fundamental principle of physics know as the conservation of energy would allow an ice cream to lose energy to the atmosphere on a hot day, cooling down even further in the process, the second law of thermodynamics would forbid it. Generally, natural processes operate in such a way that entropy is increased It is the increase of entropy that ultimately gives time a direction. If time ran the other way, all the laws of physics would be changed. The way physics does operate lets us know definitely that time is going "forward". The increase of entropy drives the life cycle of the universe itself - if the universe created by the big bang does not end in the gravitational collapse to a single point (a "big crunch"), its temperature will gradually even out as the stars exhaust their fuel, until it reaches a final state of "heat death" in some billions of years time
Copyright Spiritual Journey 2007