How is it possible that the past, present and the future all exist at the same time?

Answer 1

because that is the way without the past it can not be present,and without present the future will never arrive. so all those time frames must be at the same time.

Answer 2

The past is a fraction of a second after I write each of these words. As I write the present, as I am now, you can see my past - which is also yours - but you don't know what I will write until you see it and read it. So also you.

The past, as you can see, is always available to examine and think about. The present cannot be held at all - as soon as you try, it's gone into the past. There are many futures, but, again as you can see, I can choose only one.

The past and the future only exist within our human existence, and for us alone. Think: if humans did not exist in this universe, how could time exist?

Answer 3

A movie is printed on a strip of film, one moment at a time. All moments exist simultaneously. But It only makes sense when we experience each of the moments as a sequence in the proper order at the proper speed. That we experience it that way does not change the fact that the at any point on the reel, there is a past and a future that exists as assuredly the present.

The same may be true of spacetime. We easily accept that all space exists simultaneously, but have trouble with time as we seem to have no capacity to move about within time at will.

But like a movie reel, all moments in time do exist. We simply to not know how to navigate.

Answer 4

All three are imagined. You have no way of directly experiencing the present without first interpreting, recognizing and naming what your senses are coming into contact with and the past is only the memory of this process. The future is the imagined projection of your past with minor changes due to a desire to hope for something 'better'.

Answer 5

The past, present and the future all exist at the same time in an individuals mind as they think and analyze their thoughts about all three as it pertains to their life.

Answer 6

your question is inconsistent with itself. to try and fit more than one time into a single time is like trying to fit thirty (or infinite...) jars of the one size into a single identical jar.

if you change the phrase "at the same time" to "simultaneously" or even better, "extra-temporally synchronized" you would now be asking the question you think you are asking.

as for the question, its simple: the three terms are cyclically defined. to have one without the others doesnt make any sense, so it logically follows that they exist as one "entity" (for lack of better word). All three are inventions of the mind which (much like Myths and Fairytales) are created to understand something which we cannot make sense of from first principles. Strictly speaking, time doesnt exist outside of our own perception of it. i think the better question would be, "how else could we interpret our perceptions that doesnt invoke these mysterious pasts presents and futures?". now thats a question much more difficult to answer so simply....

Answer 7

The reason why they're all the same is because time doesn't really exist. A flower never asks a a tree: what time is it?
The tree would say: what time is it? It is now.

Answer 8

In reality they don't exist...only in ourselves... for if man was not present there would be no one to care.

Answer 9

The mind creates time and the mind is an activity.

Answer 10

because tomorrow never comes, yesterday is only a memory. And there is always today.