If the universe is infinitely old, how did Today ever get here?

gmark77 said:
Just a friendly reminder that your musings are no more correct than the musings of countless others who, like me, hold differing views.
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You haven't provided any rational explanation of how you can traverse an infinite number of time units to reach the present.

So there really aren't two rational opposing points of view.

There is just one unresolved question which still hasn't been answered after 200 posts.
gmark77 said:
Also: it took me 2 minutes to find that. DIdn't you do any searching on the topic before posting?
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The basic concept of infinity is simple enough I don't have to Google about it.

A couple years ago heard a comment about infinite time made on a podcast. But I've never heard any rational explanation for how we can be here at the present after having passed though an infinite sequential series of time-events.
 
Cypress said:
It seems to me if the universe was infinitely old, there would always be at least one more day before today ever got here.
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Sidebar: A quick review of my math books demonstrates the only way an infinite series can equal a finite number is if the infinite series is convergent, or a recurring decimal expansion 1/2+1/4+1/16+1/32 = 1, or 0.999...= 1, or 0.333...= 1/3.

A divergent series, like sequential linear time, will never reach a finite limit, and it will go forever to infinity. 1+2+3+4+5+7...= infinity.
 
Cypress said:
You haven't provided any rational explanation of how you can traverse an infinite number of time units to reach the present.

So there really aren't two rational opposing points of view.

There is just one unresolved question which still hasn't been answered after 200 posts.

The basic concept of infinity is simple enough I don't have to Google about it.

A couple years ago heard a comment about infinite time made on a podcast. But I've never heard any rational explanation for how we can be here at the present after having passed though an infinite sequential series of time-events.
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Your concept of time is incoherent. There is no such thing as infinite time.
 
Hume said:
There is no such thing as infinite time.
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I agree that infinite time is irrational, but that's what's being claimed by some scientists, and even emminent physicists like Einstein and Fred Hoyle clung to the idea of an eternal universe. Others on this thread have even attempted to justify infinite time in our past.

On the other hand, any attempt to say at some point there was no time, and then suddenly there was time is not making any meaningful distinction between that kind of sophistry an an origin point for the cosmos.
 
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Cypress said:
Sidebar: A quick review of my math books demonstrates the only way an infinite series can equal a finite number is if the infinite series is convergent, or a recurring decimal expansion 1/2+1/4+1/16+1/32 = 1, or 0.999...= 1, or 0.333...= 1/3.

A divergent series, like sequential linear time, will never reach a finite limit, and it will go forever to infinity. 1+2+3+4+5+7...= infinity.
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Thankfully that wasn't my point about infinite series.
 
gmark77 said:
Thankfully that wasn't my point about infinite series.
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That post didn't have anything to do with you.

Since nobody has provided a rational explanation for an infinite amount of time in our past, I'm investigating for myself what the math textbooks say about infinity.

These convergent series and infinite recurring decimal expansions don't explain anything either, because they all begin at an absolute starting point.
 
gmark77 said:
I didn’t talk about convergent series. Not all infinite series converge.
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Right, so again my post had nothing to do with you.

The bottom line is that we have to either believe in 1) an infinite time behind us in the past, or 2) there was an origin event emerging from nothingness.

Both of them require a leap of faith, both are fundamentally irrational at the level of science and math, and both invoke an appeal to mystery and miracle.
 
Cypress said:
You haven't provided any rational explanation of how you can traverse an infinite number of time units to reach the present.

So there really aren't two rational opposing points of view.

There is just one unresolved question which still hasn't been answered after 200 posts.

The basic concept of infinity is simple enough I don't have to Google about it.

A couple years ago heard a comment about infinite time made on a podcast. But I've never heard any rational explanation for how we can be here at the present after having passed though an infinite sequential series of time-events.
Click to expand...
how are you calculating 'present'?
 
Cypress said:
210 posts, and no logical or rational explanation for infinite time in our past.
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I see it as the default supposition with any less-easy-to-imagine theory requiring the bulk of explanations.

There's something before everything so there couldn't have been a beginning.
That's the easy part to imagine.

Something with nothing before it, not even nothing itself,
is what seems impossible to the human mind.
 
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