Presentism vs Eternalism

[Panatheist]

Presentism is the belief that the past and future do not exist whereas in the eternalist worldview the past, present, and future all exist within the universe.  In other words we live in a Block-Space universe.

Do you hold to presentism, eternalism, or perhaps some other viewpoint?  Provide any websites, books, ideas, or arguments if you wish to.  I've become interested in this topic lately.

[Little lunch]

Interesting.
Maybe another concept would be that the past and future only exist as far as the length of time it takes to get from one side of the universe to the other at the fastest speed possible?

[Alex K]

Presentism is the belief that the past and future do not exist whereas in the eternalist worldview the past, present, and future all exist within the universe.  In other words we live in a Block-Space universe.

Do you hold to presentism, eternalism, or perhaps some other viewpoint?  Provide any websites, books, ideas, or arguments if you wish to.  I've become interested in this topic lately.

What is precisely the difference between the past and future existing or not existing?

[ignoramus]

Is this strictly a philosophical topic or is there some complex maths in its favour?

[Alex K]

Is this strictly a philosophical topic or is there some complex maths in its favour?

As I've noted elsewhere, if the laws of nature are fundamentally deterministic after all, then specifying a snapshot of the present state plus the mathematical equations of motion encapsulates all of the past and present at least as far as the theory describes it correctly. Saying that those past and present also exist separately then seems a bit redundant - the present state of a determ. universe contains in it all that was and ever will be hidden in its details - a poetic idea I think.

[Little lunch]

I was thinking about this a little more and my mind just broke.

[robvalue]

Absolutely no clue.

All I know is I'm trapped in a particular perspective which makes objectively examining this kind of thing extremely difficult.

Intuitively, only the present "exists". But I don't trust that for a second. So I have no firm beliefs. What it even means for something to exist or be real, is an incredibly difficult question to answer.

[ignoramus]

sometimes, the simple obvious answer is the correct one...

[Panatheist]

sometimes, the simple obvious answer is the correct one...

That may not be the same for everyone.  I tend to believe intuitively that everything past present and future is "now" somewhere in the universe, that we live in a Block Space reality, but I can't fully articulate why.  I remember I was thinking about the length of a string at the time the thought first struck me.  (Who knows what I was thinking?)  I believed that before I actually heard of the idea of a Block space universe. And it's difficult for me to imagine my "now" existing or becoming without a relation to a real past and future somewhere. I don't know the reasoning behind it -- it's intuition, something that's "obvious" to me (though not necessarily the most accurate model of reality), my gut feeling. I assume most people feel differently.  It's something I'm about to begin reading up on, although I don't think I can ever be sure what is the most accurate description of reality.

edit: had to clean up a really clumsy post

[Little lunch]

But the simple, obvious answer is that presentism is correct but it doesn't fit with the theory that time is relative which I also believe.
And I don't care about embarrassing myself cause I already know I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. :-)