On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 8:28 PM, Edgar L. Owen <edgaro...@att.net> wrote:
> Jesse, > > That's possible but it's only one quote and considering the circumstances > it could have just been an attempt to provide comfort to the grieving > family. Also Einstein is known to have spoken metaphorically at times and > even to seemingly contradict himself on occasion (eg. on religious belief), > so I think one would need to have more than just that one quote to make a > convincing case. > All of his statements on religion I've seen seem completely consistent with a Spinoza-esque pantheism, where do you think he contradicted himself on religion? As for block time, that wasn't his only comment in support of the idea, for example at http://everythingforever.com/einstein.htm we find the following even more explicit endorsement of the block time view: 'Since there exists in this four dimensional structure [space-time] no longer any sections which represent "now" objectively, the concepts of happening and becoming are indeed not completely suspended, but yet complicated. It appears therefore more natural to think of physical reality as a four dimensional existence, instead of, as hitherto, the evolution of a three dimensional existence.' > > On the other hand I suspect one can find very many Einstein quotes in > which he mentions the PRESENT which would stand in direct contradiction to > a belief in a block universe. > > Did he use it in the context of talking about the nature of time in physics or philosophy, or was he just using it in the ordinary everyday way, like talking about the "present political situation" or something? If the latter, I think eternalists talk that way all the time, simultaneity issues make no practical difference when you're just talking about events confined to the Earth. And aside from simultaneity issues, talking about the "present" doesn't preclude the possibility that other times are equally real, it's just an indexical term like "here". Jesse > > > On Monday, February 3, 2014 7:37:44 PM UTC-5, jessem wrote: >> >> >> On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 6:44 PM, Edgar L. Owen <edga...@att.net> wrote: >> >>> Liz, >>> >>> You keep repeating your UNSUBSTANTIATED claim that both Newton and >>> Einstein believed in block time. >>> >>> I've repeatedly asked you to substantiate this claim with some actual >>> quotes from them but you have been unable to do so. >>> >>> Please provide quotes substantiating this or withdraw the claim. That's >>> only fair... >>> >> >> In Einstein's case this does definitely seem to be his own belief, for >> example when his lifelong friend Michael Besso died in 1955, he sent his >> family a letter in which he wrote: >> >> "Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That >> means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the >> distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly >> persistent illusion." >> >> I think the serious context of this letter likely precludes the >> possibility that he was joking, or that he was just speaking in an offhand >> way about how relativity models the world as opposed to expressing a belief >> about the way the world really is. >> >> Jesse >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
