[Serious] Is the Past Real?

[Neo-Scholastic]

That the future does not exist (yet) seems commonplace compared to the notion that the past does in some sense exist. Yet the future as what might be based on present reality seems no different from the past as what could have been based on what is presently available. So why do we think the past is real but the future is not?

Some future events are absolutely real, but have yet to be observed. For instance, our Sun is 8.3 light minutes away from us with photons leaving its surface this very instant, which we will observe in the future. And, yet, those photons, which were created some 100,000 or so years ago, have just now reached the surface of the Sun.

Now, if you are trying to sneak some of William Lane Craig's arguments into this thread, just know that no scholar thinks as he does. As he has no college or university associated with him and no graduate students, his ideas die with him.

I am a bit insulted since I am presenting a purely secular position and soliciting the opinions of others in a spirit of goodwill.

Anyways, what you are talking about is when multiple events within the universe are considered simultaneous. Are you suggesting perhaps that there is only one eternal now?