John Polkinghorne - What is Time?

John I've been talking to many physicists and cosmologists about the nature of time comparing time and general relativity versus in quantum mechanics and the general feeling among most is that time is an emergent quality is not fundamental it may be real but it is derivative of other things and indeed some say a perhaps even a growing number that time is an illusion how do you look at it first as a physicist well it's a physicists I think there is no reason to deny the reality of time some people think the special relativity for example has can't put that in doubt different observers judge simultaneity in different ways you've observed one things that events a and B of same time as ever number two the B is before a number three a is before P say well gosh time must be therefore an illusion in that sense and the real real reality is the whole of space and time taken together I think that's a mistaken argument it's a mistaken argument because no observer has knowledge of a distant event or the simultaneity of different events until they are big you ously in that observers past in the past light cones we say in the trade and therefore that argument can just tiny focused on the way observers describe the past organize though description in the past cannot establish the reality of the awaiting future so I don't think the block universe is total package deal to space and time together it is correct I think we live in a world of unfolding becoming I think that is perfectly consistent law that science can tell tell us about it well certainly the challenge is relativity because in quantum mechanics time is at least at this level of understanding 8 a an absolute quantity absolutely so in quantum mechanics its dominant so you know that's the argument that those who are trained in quantum mechanics would favor time those whom were relativity we would favor time being being more derived but although people who try to now build quantum gravity bringing the two together many are feeling that time has to drop out of those equations well I think we have to be careful I mean the problem of quantum gravity is a very severe difficult problem they're very interesting ideas string theory is one of course the most interesting highly speculative it tries to guess how nature behaves on a scale sixteen orders of magnitude as to say ten thousand million million times smaller than anything which we have direct experience that's a very bold eventually so I think we have to be careful about the IRF quantum gravity wait and see about that it's quite possible that space some time and some sense emerge from some more basic structure I don't know the answer to that and nobody I think there's the answer to that if that were true if if space and time emerge from something more fundamental what would that do to the fundamental nature of time I don't think it would remove the fundamental nature of time I mean after all matter and energy emerge in the same sort of thing we don't think that they're illusions we're not made of illusions of ourselves it would be a very interesting scientific development but I don't think don't think utilize a reality of time in trying to understand time the physics and the cosmology is certainly the dominant scientific approach and we can talk about the psychology of time psychologists do that right but that's probably her happy hour perceptions and doesn't of course it does not find that I'm turning reality but another way to look at this would be from a theological point of view particularly from the concept of God and if there is a God how does God experience time if at all and there are radically different views on that the classic one being that for God to be perfect God cannot have moved away from the past and and can't be in a position of anticipating the future so God has to encompass past future press everything in one big bold vision and because to do other than that God would not be perfect I think you have a different view I do have a different view that that's that's right the classical view was a goal for the whole of creation all at once in other words actually in scientific terms God saw the block universe the space-time continuum in in that sense that was very powerful and people like Aquinas worked it out but I don't think that's right I think we live in a world of true becoming that is the saying that the future is not there already waiting for us we make it or help to make it as we as we go along and if that's correct about the nature of the world I think it's also obviously theologically correct that God knows things truly that's the same knows as them as they actually are that means I think the goal will not only know in our folding universe not only know that events are successive but we'll know them according to their natures which means that God will know them in their succession if that's the case then there must be a genuine engagement of God with time of course God is not in schools to time in the way we creatures are we can't escape from time and non folio time there must be a timeless eternal unchanging aspect of God or steadfast faithless and so on but I believe that when God brought into being a universe endowed with time down with becoming God as an act of divine self limitation in a way chose to know that world according to its nature and it's becoming this therefore I think that God even God does not yet know the future that's not an imperfection in God God knows everything that can be known but the future is not yet there to be known that would seem to diminish God's providence the ability and capacity of God to really assure the future of the world in the best possible way I understand that that that remark I think but a very important theological insight which has been very widespread in the 20th century is that the act of creation is an act of divine self limitation on God's part nothing nothing limits God's on the outside but God's nature means that God only does things and calls that nature God brings into being a world in which creat creatures are given some freedom to be themselves to make themselves IP but also that restricts college Peron away because God can no longer manipulate everything similarly I believe that God's knowledge is voluntarily restricted by knowing a becoming world in its becoming and I think that does that seem useful that doesn't mean of course that that God is not in total control but we know that anyway if there is a genuine gift of freedom I think it is perfectly possible to believe that God will bring about determined ends but by contingent tall's near if if if creatures don't act this way God will do something the steers in other direction I think that I think that's a obviously I can't work that out in detail but have to leave that to God to do that but but I think that's a I don't think it diminishes God's providential power in a way that makes him no longer a ground for for sure and certain hope so integrating the two from a physics point of view and from a theological point of view what is the nature of time well from the physics point of view it's an interesting point that you could either from the physics point of view believe in the block universe as in fact for example outside there or in a world of becoming that I've been trying to describe described and that tells us that physics by itself though it constrains how we think about time does not a totally determine how we think about time there are a few like reasons going beyond physics metaphysical reasons if you like they can be theological reasons indeed which settle whether we go from the block universe or whether we go for unfolding well so physics is doesn't tell us the whole story even about something so important that embedded within physics as time from the theological point of view I think we have this illuminating idea that that the act of creation is a act of divine self limitation an act of generosity towards towards creatures and that helps us to understand some of the some of the problems of theology about the strange character of the world was the strange and disturbing things that happen in it

Channel: Closer To Truth

Views: 28,268

Rating: 4.4390244 out of 5

Keywords: John Polkinghorne (Academic), Physics (Field Of Study), Closer To Truth (TV Program), what is time, Time (Dimension), Philosophy (Field Of Study), Philosophy Of Science (Field Of Study), Cosmology (Field Of Study), General Relativity (Field Of Study)

Id: tkHfWezUAak

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 25 2014