Eternity
Eternity
The Largest Eternity The Smallest Eternity Units of the Universe
Two Eternities Quantum Weirdness Creation Weirdness
Conclusion
Introduction
We can define eternity as a region where time has no meaning. On this basis a deist recognizes a divine source existing in eternity and creating a universe in space and time. For the atheist, our universe emerges out of eternity as the result of a quantum fluctuation. For the physicist, eternity is the frontier of the 21 st Century -- yet to be explored, hinted at by theories of multiple universes and observation of non-locality, Einstein's "spooky action at a distance", effects traveling faster than light.
Eternity is a concept that has always arisen when we have turned our thoughts to the origins of creation and our own beginnings. It is somehow out of this world, residing in a quintessential elsewhere that has no where or when. However, if we define it as a region of existence where time has no meaning, it may no longer be a theological concept with no connection with everyday life. Such an eternity may in fact be all around us, close by us, within us. Non-locality is a similar concept in that it recognizes that certain types of interactions between fundamental particles take place as if separation in time and space have no meaning. The interaction takes place instantaneously over large distances as if the normal restrictions of space and time are suspended.
To see how this view arises we need to consider how our concepts of time and eternity have developed. Finding that billions of planets in the Milky Way have planets around stars like ours, we wonder about the existence of other planetary civilizations and how they might view eternity. On Earth, we see developments in religion and philosophy as each generation reviews and modifies the thoughts of its predecessors. Within this process the evolution of concepts of time takes place both in spiritual thought and in the material thought of science. Chief among these is the widespread belief that in the past there was an instant of creation before which time and space did not exist.