The theory; in short
Our timeline, our existence, is in actuality a single event. Time as we know it is, in actuality, an instantaneous occurrence, essentially, an infinite span of time defined as one event on a completely different greater timeline.
To make this a little easier to comprehend...Clap your hands together right now. This is an event. This clapping occurs on our timeline
That single clap would be equivalent to the lifespan of our entire universe, and the timeline listed above would be the greater timeline.
The theory; in long
I've been asking myself this question a lot recently.
'Where did the first something, come from?"
Its pretty much agreed upon that the universe had a beginning, whether you believe that it started with God, or the big bang or something else. How then, did that first spec of energy, that first atom, that first tic of our general definition of time, spark? It should be impossible...yet here I am, thinking, and typing, in a what we perceive to be a physical world.
After thinking about this for quite some time, i began to question time itself. I did so merely to answer one specific question;
'Can something exist forever?'
My immediate thought...No. Though after a lot of theorizing, it might actually be possible. Let me further explain my idea of time and the universe's creation.
As my topic title indicates, i'd like to first ask you to step outside of our universe and view it as an object. Because we are dealing in theory, I ask you to cast away your general assumptions and definitions, and recreate them to make this easier to perceive.
definition 1; The Universe
For this example, we must view the universe as a single entity, encompassing everything we know, and don't know. It stretches on infinitely, in all directions. It may contain multiple sub timelines. It may also contain more than the known amount of dimensions, or even God.
Definition 2; Time and timelines
It is also important to point out what time is, or rather, how i am viewing it in this theory. A timeline is, in all intents and purposes, a way to describe the passage of time for a specific object. From the past to the present onto the future, we live in a progression, as does all the observable objects. Whether they age, or decay is irrelevant.
Let me explain this in an example. Lets designate Person A as the focal point of our timeline. Even though person A is born and dies on a specific date, the time line for this person stretches on 'infinitely' prior to his birth, and 'infinitely' following his death. Lets now say that Person A travels back in time, 200 years before his birth. For Person A, 200 years prior to his birth, is now the present.
i.e. <-------birth2009---------timetravel1809-------->
As you can see, person A is still progressing positively on his timeline, despite the fact that he is now living 200 years before his birth. Also, lets assume that for this theory, the timelines can indeed split and branch off. However, because they all share a starting point, they can be considered 1 progression of time, from start to finish, or left to right.
Also; if one object has an effect on another object (cause and effect) it is very possible to view these objects on the same timeline in the form of sub-timelines. The cause(creator) acts at some point on his timeline, to make the effect(creation). Whether the effect then moves anywhere on the timeline, expands or contracts, is irrelevant, as it is now a timeline within another timeline...a sub-timeline. Make sure to always look at the top tiered timeline for these examples unless otherwise told.
The theory;
Now that we have defined the universe, and have a agreed upon definition of time, we can get into the theory.
Lets replace Person A with the universe. Now lets make a timeline to describe the life of the universe. It stretches infinitely into the past, and infinitely into the future. Since we are trying to figure out the start of the universe, we will create 1 point on the timeline where the universe was created, or point [a].
|----beforeuniverse----|-------universe---->
<---------------------[a]------------------->
The question now is...how did [a] come into existence in the first place. Well at this point its just a logic puzzle, with a few twists. Remember i asked earlier, 'could something exist forever?' The problem in answering this question lies in 'infinity.'
Existing forever means that the object(universe/god) must have existed infinitely into the past. This means that, looking at the above example, it must have existed infinitely before [a] into beforeuniverse. Here is the problem. If something exists infinitely into the past(existed forever), it must then travel an infinite distance of time to reach point [a]...that is unless, there is only ONE point on that timeline.
Let me repeat that, because it is essentially my theory. For an object that existed forever to reach and event on its inherent timeline, it must travel and infinite amount of time to which it...which would take it FOREVER, and therefore it could never reach that point.
However...that is only true if there are two events on the timeline. Creating 2 events makes it impossible for the cause to perform the events because it can never reach them. The reason it is possible for only 1 event to occur is because that single event can occur AT ANYTIME during the causes progression through time.
Heres an example. Person B(the cause) is walking up a down escalator matching its speed. When he reaches the top, it will enable the effect. However, he will never reach the top because he must travel an infinite distance up the down escalator. However, 5 hours after walking, he gets bored, so he claps his hands and creates the effect right where he is. The universe is now created.
Now because there can only ever be one event, the universe that was created during this event must exist as a single entity/event/effect. To go even deeper, because i believe something can't come from nothing...i believe that our universe is a thought. The thought of the cause, that occurs instantaneously and exists only for an infinitely small amount of time. For us, those who live within the thought, see it as a much longer period.
This thought can be compared to a thought of any person. I can imagine a picture of my family. While the thought can not be touched, or seen by anyone else, it still exists and is still something real.
I will end on that note. I tried my best to make this as un-confusing as possible, but im sure i didn't do a very good job. I hope you at least enjoyed this theory, and perhaps you may be bold enough to comment on it.
If there is something you don't understand feel free to point it out, and i'll do my best to explain it in a better way. If there is something that you don't agree with, feel free to express that as well and we can start a pretty nifty debate.
thanks for reading!