Is the past real?

Question

Think about it. The rain yesterday, did it happen? You can't see it, you can't sense it, it only exists in your mind. Everything that has ever happened only exists in our mind now, even if you had proof like a video or something, the moment you see it, it would become a part of the past as well, so you would be using the past to prove the existence of the past, which is illogical.

Answer 1

Fixation on the present is obsessive.
You know you think in time. An absolute present is just as unreal to the phenomena as the ripples on the edge of the pond signifying the reality of the skipping stone.

Answer 2

If you look at it that way, then time itself exists only in the mind. But for that one person, whether it is you, me or any other person, if you believe it to exist, or to have happened, then it did, because the mind makes it real for that one that believes.

If one tries to prove the existence of the past, which you claim to be illogical, then logically speaking life itself begins to appear illogical. The now that we are living in, the present that turns into the past so quicily is usually being lived to procure a future, but since that, too will become the past, then it would cease to exist...which in turn leaves the question, do I really exist now?

There is no answer to your question, nor is there an answer to mine, because the truth of the matter is that it doesn't matter, so long as we have something to believe in.

Answer 3

The present is only an illusion, we cannot experience the present because once we have sensed/become aware of something it is already the past.

It is illogical to question the existance of the past, questioning the accuracy of your memory however, is a different issue and I suggest that nobody's memory is perfect and even if someone did theoretically have a perfect memory their perceptions were still affected by bias.

You cannot percieve without context, context is inherintly biased.

Answer 4

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Just because you cannot see the yesterday's rain, doesn't mean the yesterday's rain did not occur.

Farmer's will tell you the hard truth. If rain did not come in June (for example), the harvest in August would be poor. If rain did fall in June, the August harvest would be good. Then tell them that there was no rain in June, when there was. They'll have a good laugh.

How about Hurricane Katrina? Tell the mobile-home dwellers that there was no hurricane.

Although this is just evidence that followed the hurricane, the effects are real consequences.

Answer 5

you rely heavily on your senses which are fallible, your senses are not the ultimate truth since they can be doubted, the minds plays many tricks and experience through senses alone cannot guarantee that an instance has happened, we experience this is dreams all the time where dream actions seem real but did not actually occur. the past to us does not exist but look at a rock, the past is embedded within it. look at yourself and the trials and tribulations that have shaped you, the past has made you and since your existence is not doubtable, the past exists by association with your creation.

Answer 6

The problem is the limits that language present on the expression of these ideas, And if language is limited, it is very easy to accept that the people using language are also limited. Otherwise there would be a plethora of words available to fully describe any phenomenon.

What you are suggesting, by the way, comes from a flawed point of view to begin with. People accept that time is linear. And, indeed, in our perception, it is. But that is not the case. Our concept of time actually comes from the ancient Jews who describe existence moving from creation forward to the end of time. No quantum physicist worth his/her salt would agree to that.

Answer 7

yes, but we know that other people are currently experiencing the same things that we experienced in the past (such as rain)...and things that happened in the past can still happen in the present, so that can prove that our past memories were real. we are using the present to prove the existence of the past, which is completely logical.

Answer 8

i'm experiencing ideas I percieve to be a previous existence. It all started a month in the past. i imagine that's a previous existence, ought to nicely be something else, I actual do not comprehend. She seems not something lie me yet looks to have precisely my emotional decision. this is variety of freaking me out now, yet i will wait and observe if she has something else to reaveal to me :3 to date i have seen her being pushed into chilly water, and strolling with the help of a wooded area at evening. this is particularly incredible O_o

Answer 9

While the past itself cannot change, as it has already occured, people's perceptions of the past can change, and if everyone believes something didn't happen that did happen, in their minds, it never happened. That does not change that it did happen, only that people don't believe it happened, and if people don't believe that it happened, they may not learn from whatever did happen.

Answer 10

when the present become past in the future we will suffer or enjoy from nostalgia. When memories or thoughts bring pleasure or pain can we afford to leave it as mere illusion. Does it not affect our usual course of narmality in one way or the other .It is rather real.