Category of time in science and religion

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleKategorija vremena u nauci i religiji
3. Language term Serbian
4. lemma author Stevanovic, Aleksandra
5. lemma category Orthodox theological tradition and practice - Key thinkers
6. Publication date 12-3-2017
7. lemma work Cucic, Dragoljub [Author]. Category of time in science and religion. 30–39
8. lemma manifestations Inovacije u nastavi: casopis za savremenu nastavu
9. Keywords
   1. Cucic, Dragoljub
10. Keywords Saint Augustine - Physics - physics and theology
11. Url 26/08/2016
12. Lemma body

    1. The key matter addressed by Dragoljub Cucic in the paper “St Augustine and the Foundation of a Paradigm” is time and research about time from the point of both religious and scientific view. The author explores category of time and the religious origin of time, that is, its consideration back in the time of Saint Augustine (354–430). First part of the paper tracks the life and thought of Saint Augustine and his vision of time. His work "Confessions" considers and analyzes the category of time and St Augustine explains his ontological-theological worldview. According to him, time did not exist before God created the Heaven and the Earth. Time emerges with the divine order establishments. Indeed, if relevant cosmological theories today are observed, the theory of Big Bang, the theory of inflationary universe emergence (as a version of the Big Bang), the theory of multiverse, none is out of the paradigm of creation. St Augustine distinguishes three aspects of time: present of things past, present of things present, and present of future things, and denies the existence of past and future as we understand them. In addition, he distinguishes time from eternity as two incomparable categories, such as finiteness and infinity are. Although St Augustine is not a physicist, he raises questions in the field of natural sciences. He observes measurement as well, which defines physics as science. 

       The author claims that although today’s scientific understanding of time does stem from the seeds sown by St Augustine, there are no reasonable grounds to establish equivalence between religious and scientific understanding of time. According to many authors, religious concepts are inconsistent with the scientific ones as first recognizes infinity, while for the second it is just a possibility. The main problem arises due to the fact the modern science does not accept religious stances. Thereby, the paper considers solely the relation of the correlation between a prominent Christian author and something that still needs to be developed as the science of time. There have been many attempts by diverse authors to establish the science of time and such attempts have even yielded a new name for it – temporology.

       In conclusion, the author states that science about time is in the process of formation and the basic principles that are examined do stem from Christian religious stance, and St Augustine is the one who has established the connection between religious and scientific consideration of time. In order to understand the category of time, it is of vital importance to discard neither religious nor scientific understanding.