robin said:
I'm not sure how time being a tightly curled entity could make it seem like there's a direction to time or that time seems to flow from a fixed past to an open future.
There are four aspects to space-time: height=x | width=y | depth=z | time=t [
(t) time is subdivided mathematicaly as +t=future, t=present, -t=past]. In Galilean and Newtonian physics, these aspects are regarded as absolutes and are denoted as
x y z t.
In Newtonian physics, it was accepted that the distance between two observers would remain the same as the difference between two instants. Spatial distance was defined in terms of Euclidean geometry. This however, led to different values of the velocity of light (c) in the vacuum as measured by two observers.
In accordance with our experience, if we assume that both observers measure the same value of the velocity of light, we must introduce the spatiotemporal interval. It is this interval that is conserved when we move from one inertial observer to the other. In contrast to Euclidean geometry, we now have the Minkowski space-time interval. The transition from one coordinate system
x y z t to another
x` y` z` t` is the famous Lorentz transformation that combines space and time.
Thus we have two ways of looking at space-time. The absolute background envisioned by Newton
x y z t and the relational background envisioned by Einstein
x` y` z` t`. Although our universe is fundamentally quantum in nature (relational), both backgrounds have a certain validity.
In the absolute background, if one knows what are called the *initial conditions* of an
x y z t plot, one can accurately plot both predictive and postdictive actions. Time has no arrow.
However in the relational background
x` y` z` t`, time does indeed have an arrow which is manifested in many processes such as entropy, heat loss, viscosity etc.
The core of the problem then is that time and motion can be both indeterminate (nondirectional) or determinite (directional) depending on the background and conditions upon which it is measured or observed.
According to M-theory, the intrinsic properties of space-time (and perhaps gravity) are tightly curled (smaller than a Plank Length) and reside on the brane in which our universe is located. Until science better understands gravity waves and can isolate the *gravitron* (the gauge particle that mediates gravity), M-theory will remain in the realm of hypothesis.
I cannot answer your questions about God... as many far wiser than I have grappled with these questions and have failed to arrive at definitive and conclusive answers. Much like the questions concerning time, theology remains in the domain of philosophy.
