Time and Universes

Our perception of physical existence is measured on four dimensions. The first three are spatial: length, width, and depth, to give a location of an event or object in the universe. The fourth and most complex is time, which gives that event or object a classification of “when.” Our measurement of time is based on the earth's planetary motions; one revolution on its axis being one day, and one revolution around the sun being one year. This type of measurement offers insight into time's being understood as cyclical, but this could merely be an interpretation based on what was most evident when observations were first being made.

Historically, different civilizations have had differing viewpoints regarding the structure of time flow as either cyclical or linear. The notion of cyclical time has been given primacy by many civilizations including the Hindu, Greek, Babylonian, Chinese, Aztec, Mayan, and Norse. The cyclical flow of time is sometimes symbolized by the Uroboros, the snake wrapped in a circle bringing its tail to its mouth. Another manifestation is the circular-shaped calendar, of which the Chinese version is among the most widely recognized. Current cyclical measurements of time include not only how we still use the earth's motions for recognition of the passing of days and years, but also how we divide these measurements into smaller portions. We repetitively use the same names for labeling the 12 months of the year, and use the same number of hours in a day, minutes in an hour, and seconds in a minute.

Although measurements of seconds, minutes, and hours are used in cyclical time measurement, they can also be recognized in linear time measurement. For example, if timing how fast athletes can run the 40-yard dash, their time would be recorded with a linear measurement in seconds. However, the athletes' time could also be broken down into [Page 1335]milliseconds, offering either a linear measurement of many milliseconds, or for every thousand milliseconds a cyclical recognition could be made as the equivalent to one second. Among the first to promote the concept of time being linear as opposed to cyclical was Saint Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE). When he became deeply religious in his 30s, he noted that major events occurred only once in the Bible. The Bible also offers a definitive beginning of existence, with God's creation of the world and everything within it and surrounding it. However, the recurrence of the four seasons passing each year also offers insight as to why cyclical time would have been a natural first perception of time's structure in earlier civilizations.

The modern world uses a combination of cyclical and linear time measurement. This includes the cyclical recurrence of the earth year and the breakdown of its parts (months, days, etc.), and the linear measurements used to keep track of the passing years. Yet if time is actually linear and there is no actual beginning, then following with the second law of thermodynamics (which states that as working systems move forward in time, they move increasingly into a state of entropy), why hasn't the universe completely “run down” on itself? One explanation, discussed later, is the cyclical universe theory.

...