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Full Idea
The centre of a circle is directly opposite any designated point on the circumference. In this way, whatever is in any part of time coexists with what is eternal as being present to it even though past or future with respect to another part of time.
Gist of Idea
Eternity coexists with passing time, as the centre of a circle coexists with its circumference
Source
Thomas Aquinas (Summa Contra Gentiles [1268], I.66), quoted by Robin Le Poidevin - Past, Present and Future of Debate about Tense 2 c
Book Ref
'Questions of Time and Tense', ed/tr. Le Poidevin,R [OUP 2002], p.27
A Reaction
A nice example of a really cool analogy which almost gets you to accept something which is actually completely incomprehensible.
| 15202 | Eternity coexists with passing time, as the centre of a circle coexists with its circumference [Aquinas] |
| 8197 | Maybe past (which affects us) and future (which we can affect) are both real [Dummett] |
| 15024 | The spotlight theorists accepts eternal time, but with a spotlight of the present moving across it [Sider] |
| 17960 | Eternalism says all times are equally real, and future and past objects and properties are real [Merricks] |
| 14020 | 'Eternalism' is the thesis that reality includes past, present and future entities [Crisp,TM] |
| 15104 | The 'moving spotlight' theory makes one time privileged, while all times are on a par ontologically [Cameron] |
| 19026 | If time is symmetrical between past and future, why do they look so different? [Vetter] |
| 22988 | The block universe theory says entities of all times exist, and time is the B-series [Baron/Miller] |