If there was an infinite amount of time before today, then how did today ever come to be?

Question

Many have answered that the big bang was the beginning, but I think of time as the progression of energy, thinking at an atomic level or the number of revolutions an electron makes around a neutron. So in answer to the big bang theory was there no progressive enery before the big bang or even where did the giant mass come from that exploded? How can order come from chaos?

Answer 1

Do you know what a mobius loop is? Well, picture that as time. It is infinite, having no ending or beginning, but at the same "time" it is finite. There is an infinite amount of time both before you and after you, however they are in fact the same. The time behind you is forward and the time before you is also behind you on this loop. Think of the tv show "Quantum Leap" and how Sam explained being able to move around in time during his own lifetime. For those who have not watched this show. He explains time like a string that has been tied into a circle. He then wads the string up in his hand so that all points touch each other. It is a question of quantum physics and is still being debated in science.

We do not yet have a definite answer to your question but the physicists are working on it. My theory is that we chose the point where we would like to enter the loop in order to learn the lessons we must learn in this lifetime.

Answer 2

Time started at the Big Bang so there is not an infinite amount of time before today.

Answer 3

Time is a constant. Infinite. Think of time as a a long piece of string. The Big Bang is the start of time and that string just goes on and on.

Answer 4

Time didn't begin at the beginning of time.

Time began when human beings started measuring it. And the methods of measuring time are as different as cultural difference throughout history.

Most cultures eventually developed a daily, monthly and year measuring of time, due to sun (rise and set), lunar cycles and yearly seasonal changes.

Some cultures, esp. those near the equator who had limited seasonal variation, developed a completely different measure of time.

It was only the advent of the clock where the west started measuring time decimally, which eventually led to the Big Bang Theory.

So, to say that Time began before humans invented time, is like saying that gravity existed before Newton described it. Yes, a phenomenon was there keeping us grounded to the earth. Yes, a phenomenon was there, a series of events influenced by and influencing other sequences of events. But until humans named it, described and gave it meaning, it didn't really exist.

So, to answer your question, you are confusing eternal with infinite, you are also assuming the correctness of western decimalization of time (discounted native american, african and austrailian aborginal cyclical time measurements, which vary from subculture to subculture.)

In short, you question begs a specific category of answer, reflected here in all other answers... specifcally, reduced to either God/Genesis or Hawking's astrophysics/science definitions of time. Both of which are two sides of the same western coin of prejudices of reality, one coin amongst a handful of pocket change.

To find a real answer to this question, we have to reexamine what we mean by time, today, which begets re examining what we mean by Being, existence and meaning. This was begun already with Heidegger's Being and Time. Excellent reading if you want to really ask yourself the right questions to get at the right unbiased answers.

Answer 5

Time is without beginning and without END. The only way humanity has to measure time is to use artificiallycreated UNITS, ie. 'hours' and of course 'days' and smaller units called minutes, seconds, microseconds, and nanoseconds getting smaller, and weeks, months years, decades and centuries getting bigger.

'Today' is merely a block of 24 'hours' that we artificially relate to the rotation of the earth, and the orbit of the earth around the sun. Humanity has artificially decided that a 'circle' or full rotation is 360 degrees, and decided that it takes 24 hours for the EARTH to rotate 360 degrees and that total amount of time is called a 'day'. NEXT rotation is tomorrow, however, when you get there, it's called 'today' again, so 'tomorrow never comes' as they say.

Answer 6

if there was an infinite amount of time before this, today couldn't be (as that infinite amount would have to have already passed). this is one of the ways that we know there wasn't.
time is primarily a measurement of movement (from cosmic events to watch dials) and both started on the occasion of the big bang.

Answer 7

There was no time before the big bang where everything existed where the laws of physics(there the ideals of philosophy) were not applicable. Time can only be measured if there is someone or something to measure it, time without measurement is meaningless and time is not absolute.

Answer 8

The only way time could be brought in from the infinite is for One who is infinite to act upon that stage. "In the beginning God.." This simple phrase reveals an infinite existence. He is the alpha and the omega and by trying to understand such mysteries you simply are trying to understand who God is.

Answer 9

Before you judge my answer, please read Stephen Hawkings "A Brief History Of Time" This will give you a different perspective on what could or could not be possible.

Infinity is a difficult monster to cage, so in answer to your questions, I would say no.

Answer 10

Because your starting point in time is the Present. So from this starting point, every direction is infinite.