The Past and the Future Are Modes of the Present

The past is the present viewed in a certain way: present memories and objects are viewed not as merely present, but as signs of times that have vanished. A card in my pocket evokes the memory of the person who gave it to me; an itch on my knee casts my mind back to the bee that stung it; the shell of a building reminds me of the good times I once had there.

The future is the present viewed in another way: what is present is looked to as portents of what is to come. A smile on my boss's face means a promotion is likely; gathering clouds signify an imminent storm; an angry speech from the Secretary of State leads me to buy oil stocks in anticipation of war with Iran.

Comments

  1. So do you regard some aspects (i.e. those events which God does not directly instantiate) of Biblical prophecy as God's "best guess" of what will happen?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Libertarians, My Libertarians!

"Machine Learning"

"Pre-Galilean" Foolishness