OU blog

Personal Blogs

Jim McCrory

The One Place Time Stands Still

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jim McCrory, Friday, 13 Sept 2024, 07:42

No matter how far we travel, the memories will follow in the baggage car.

                                                                                                 August Strindberg.


 Image provided by https://unsplash.com/@enginakyurt

 

Once upon a time, time began at the moment of the big bang. Don’t try to work that out; that’s what theoretical physicists get paid for.

As soon as the Book of Genesis proclaimed, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth " Time not only began, but continued to move forward. As soon as you read one word here, the moment has gone, never to return. It’s easier to find porchetta at a Bar Mitzvah that move back time.

Fortunately, time refuses to stands still in our head. If I ask you the capital of Scotland, you might say Edinburgh. But if I ask you to describe the last meal you had with family or friends, a film rolls in your head. A captured moment in time.

 

My Captured Moment in Time.

 

As a child, I was brought up in Govan, Glasgow. My friends and I would take the ferry over the River Clyde and eventually find ourselves in the Dowanhill area where Avril Paton’s famous painting was set.

https://avrilpaton.co.uk/prints/windows-in-the-west

I would stare into these homes envious of the happiness that seemed to emanate as I observed get-togethers and cosy chairs with people sitting reading with cats on their lap and children playing board games on a table. Strange, many years later, I had the same sensations when I saw observed winter scene in a Stockholm suburb. I can only conclude that it takes us back to our cosy fairy-tail childhood where logs where on the fire and the family sat around reading and talking. It is a rolling film in my head that only dementia can rob me of.

Writing:  © 2024 Jim McCrory

 


Permalink Add your comment
Share post
Jim McCrory

The None-Theist Quandary : Part One, The Petit Pois

Visible to anyone in the world
Edited by Jim McCrory, Tuesday, 9 July 2024, 08:35

“Be careful when a naked man offers you a shirt.”

African proverb


Image by https://unsplash.com/@catiaclimovich



“Be careful when a naked man offers you a shirt.”

African proverb

 

Let us take this universe with all its stars, galaxies, and dark matter. Now condense it into a ball the size of our solar system.

Let us take this giant ball of 4.5 billion kilometres and condense it to the size of our sun. Now, with this 4.3 million Kilometres, keep going until we reach the diameter of the earth, then a watermelon, then an apple, then a petit pois, then an atom. Be careful now, you have quite a mass.

Now the trick is to convert it to nothing. Absolutely nothing. No space, no time, just nothing. What is nothing? How can you get something from nothing in the physical sense. How can we get our heads round nothing. It is like infinity, our mind has walls. 

Can you explain this paradox? There is no theory in science where you get something from nothing. So be careful when a naked man offers you a shirt.

An intelligent mind outside space and time brought the universe into being. The universe has all the hallmarks of purposeful designer which will be dealt with in the next episode. 

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth — Genesis 1:1


Quandary: a difficult situation; a practical dilemma.




Permalink
Share post

This blog might contain posts that are only visible to logged-in users, or where only logged-in users can comment. If you have an account on the system, please log in for full access.

Total visits to this blog: 121847