Serein,

The light in the photo, at the following link, left its source 13 billion years ago, when the universe was only about 380,000 years old. Goggle COBE universe if you what some background.

http://lambda.gsfc.nasa.gov/product/cobe/more_images/cobeslide28.jpg

It is suggested that time has a begiining and its smallest unit is Planck Time (10 to the minus 43rd power of second, I think). Space and time are bundled (4-D) and in very, ver, very beginning the first unit of time may not have been definitive.

As noted above, the arrow of time seems to be forward for psychological time and for the second law of thermodynamics. "If" there is a Big Crash after the Big Bang runs out steam, would time run backwards? No. The contraction would commence with a higher (more run down) state of entropy.

The behaviour/realisations of something falling into a Black Hole depends on one's relationship with how one experiences/observes the BH.

Offline for a few days.

oliver quote..<<..Physics sometimes explores alternatives.>>>lol

yeah some-times..they may/if the peers allow it
or are the peers are prepared to fund it

and if the media sees fit to publicise it
or a book publisher deems fit to print it

then if the reader can comprehend it
it still raises more questions than answers

what is this thing called time...is a timeless question
a child can say its a clock..or a calender
the mindless can say its a measure

the physisist can say its all relitive to space/time[a totally diveregent topic]...so lets say we know that time is hours...like the time it takes to read a post or the time it takes to read the blue link..

no matter how much time..some wont even take the time to consider alternatives..let alone reply the simple questions..raised by the issue of the empty space...yet filled with alternate realities..completly free of time and space

its funny how people quite seriously debate the small things
but with the big things prepher to return to the ignorant/child time..and trust our fearfilled peers

anyhow i guess some like the knowing/others like the pretence of knowing...and yet others...well who cares they are all insane..everyone knows eternity has no measure

oh-well nothing to learn here
thanks for the fish...they reek...but dont put..a gift to your nose

you can lead a hoarse to water but cant make him think
can he smell the dead fish/floating upon it..i wonder

why does pearl before swine come to mind
/some are simply pig-headed?

others simply hate to think

Oliver

Thank you for your patient answers to my Physics 101 questions. I have enjoyed the challenge of understanding the points you have made and most, importantly, the non-judgemental method by which you responded. And am fully aware of how 'out of my depth' I have been in this discussion.

UOG

The biggest issue that I, as a non-religious person, have with religious is the propensity for the religious to believe they have the right to judge others and the complete disregard as to whether their unprovable beliefs are relevant to whichever topic is being discussed.

Please consider, one significant difference between science and religion is that science evolves, religion is as caught in time as a mosquito in amber.