Feature

First suppose McTaggart is right- there is nothing called time. It immediately gives rise to numerous problems. What is it, then, that we measure by clock? What are days and nights-seconds, minutes, hours, weeks and years? Why do we take birth, grow up and die? What is all that we call history? What is it that we feel in our biological rhythm so regular in our waking and sleeping? Is it only existing in our head like an illusion and has no physical reality? McTaggart thus leads the world to the blind alley of disastrous timelessness -without past, present and future.

Just think if there is no time, then why do we say we live in good or bad time? We, the Bengalis, were deprived during Pakistan era, and now we are happy in independent Bangladesh. The regimes of Hasina or Khaleda (both of whom are unfortunately in jail now) were better than that of Ershad. Current caretaker government is more successful than the past political governments in fulfilling the aspirations of people. How can we be confirmed about these if there is no time? What is the meaning of saying that Bangabandhu is the greatest Bengali in one thousand years? 'One thousand years' remain vague without the concept of time. In a similar vein, we are barred from saying Nazrul was born in Bangladesh, he is our national poet, and he will always inspire the nation in fighting against injustice. When we make these statements we employ a reference to tenses, which are negated by McTaggart's theorem.

What is McTaggart's point in negating time and tense? His point is logical and philosophical. His argument is that a particular event cannot be termed present, past and future altogether. For example, Socrates' death; it would be called a present event in 399 BC, a future event in some time earlier and past event at the present moment. But it is logically incoherent, which rules out the tensed theory of time. McTaggart is not alone who talked about the non-existence of time. Great logician Kurt Gödel also argued against the existence of time. His mathematical logic came to prove that all the matter in the universe is rotating, giving rise to infinite loops, which are devoid of any sense of present, past and future. The recent theory of quantum gravity is also postulated without any time factor.

If there is no time in reality, what is it that we feel passing by us like shadow? Why do we feel, what I do at present is past the next moment, itself flowing from future? In an inverse order, it will be established as the arrow of time - running from past through present towards future. If not existent, why do we feel 'time'? It is undoubtedly too puzzling a question to answer. It may be that the feeling of time comes from the motion and change in the world we live in. As everything in the universe is in constant motion and change, it gives a feeling of time. Time in this sense is nothing but a by-product of motion and change, which is measurable mathematically. It follows from this fact that if everything comes to a halt, there will be no time. That's why, it is said, there was no time at the point of big bang, nor will there be at big crunch. Big bang and big crunch are assumed as 'singularity'. What we feel as time started from that singularity as it changed into multiplicity. The ever changing universe, the expanding universe, is the root cause of the mysterious feeling of time, which Albert Einstein calls the fourth dimension in his famed theory of general relativity. According to Einstein, time depends on the observer, his relative position and motion to other objects. With increasing velocity, the time of a person will be slowed down proportionately. There is no time divine and eternal.

Then why so fuss about time? If there is no eternity of time, why do we give so much importance to it? Why are we always in a rat race to go ahead of all and touch the pinnacle of Everest? Time is so personal, so fickle. The moment you stop blinking, your time is gone!

(The writer is Assistant Professor at Bangladesh University. He may be reached at: binoy_barman@yahoo.com)