Saint Augustine: Confessions
When I think of the many mysteries in our vast universe, one stands out as the most puzzling. It affects our lives, from birth, until we are placed in our graves a generation later. Within it exists history. Without it, we would be aimless and confused. We would not know when we are supposed to be in Philosophy class during the week. We all know what it is, but we can’t explain it. What is this “thing” I speak of? Time. Time is what keeps mankind in stride. Time is what shows men that their lives are nearing a inevitable end. Without time, we would be hopeless. With the help of time, we have been able to measure the unexpected success of the human race. Eons have passed, along with a ...
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is life. Time is everything.
I’m sure that if you asked any person what time is, they would respond by saying some thing about minutes and seconds. Mankind, unfortunately, sees time as an object. The human mind has the tendency to make everything objective. We have even made objects of God and his holy son, despite the commandment in Exodus, which forbids it. This is all great, but the question remains; What is time? In this paper, I hope to achieve some understanding of this question by refering to Chapter 11 of .
In this chapter, Augustine attempts to find the answer to the puzzling mystery of time. He immediately realized that finding the answer has no “quick and easy answer.” In order to help us understand where time comes from, Augustine says that God created all time. This leaves another question on our hands; What was there before God, if he made time? This wouldn’t be philosophy if we did not continually ask questions of this manner. For now, we will stick to the ...
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be eternal because then we would also be eternal with it. We all know that people die, making that impossible. When I hear this, I think that maybe the present is eternal. Maybe our “present” exists forever, while our physical bodies die away. Maybe I’m just crazy.
When speaking of the present, Augustine asks if the “present can be long.” By this he means to ask if we can put a length or measurement on the present. We can’t do this to the past or future because they do not exist, as we established before. If we asked how your “present week” was going, we are would be asking you an illogical question. How can a whole week be present if there are many parts and components to a week. The ...
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"Saint Augustine: Confessions." Essayworld.com. August 30, 2008. Accessed November 18, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Saint-Augustine-Confessions/89151.
"Saint Augustine: Confessions." Essayworld.com. August 30, 2008. Accessed November 18, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Saint-Augustine-Confessions/89151.
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