I wrote this for a class recently. The prompt was along the lines of discussing time through stories.
The
human condition is marked by deficiencies. We have a psychological
need for understanding our place within the context of how we
naturally perceive time as flowing. That is: the past once was but is
no longer, the present is, the future is not yet but will be. We live
with the decisions we have made and anticipate future decisions which
have not been made. Thus both the past and the future are treated as
pseudo-existing in some way which is less real than the present.
The
true nature of time may not be this way. There is a movement among
physicists that time is more properly perceived as part of a “block
universe”. This view suggests that the past is just as real as the
present is just as real as the future – there is no “flow” of
time. This is the “eternalism” view of time (Dowden pp. 150). But
whatever the true nature of time, humans are doomed to experience it
as a flow. That experience leaves us with needs.
There
are two facets to our needs in this regard. The first is the social
aspect addressing the issue from the perspective of society, and the
second is the psychological aspect addressing the issue from the
perspective of an individual person. We can glean insight from
analyzing humanity through how we act as a group as well as how we
act as distinct persons within a group.
In
the social aspect, stories largely satisfy this need by providing
role models for individuals to emulate. Stories have served this
function since ancient times through examples like “the perfect
husband” in the Bhagavad Gita, a Hindu holy text. Ancient mythology
is often still used as a source of role models for many people in
contemporary society. When one speaks of Job, the listener is
probably already aware of the story of suffering. When one wears a
“What Would Jesus Do” bracelet, there is no confusion about the
distinction meant between a Hispanic person named Jesus and Jesus of
Nazareth as depicted in Christian mythology. Humans have formed
groups and created stories for the individuals throughout all of
human history.
There is no need to limit the focus to ancient mythology; stories are
still being created which provide role models to emulate. For
example: the rate of people wanting to join the Navy as Naval
Aviators rose 500 percent after the film Top Gun was released. Top
Gun provided the role model of Maverick as an ideal of bravery,
courage and confidence. Because people were presented with those
ideals they changed their course of action in an effort to live up to
those ideals.
The
second way of looking at the need is from the psychological
standpoint, from the perspective of an individual person. We need to
learn how to attain meaning in a life which has an end. Because this
need is part of the human condition we have many stories to show us
comfort and wisdom.
Sometimes
they tell us that our life doesn’t end – these are largely
religious stories. The need can also be satisfied through stories
which show us characters which face the end of time and work to
prevent that end, symbolizing our own secret desire to beat death. Or
stories which show us characters which have somehow lost the
meaningfulness of time and the experience serves to show us just how
valuable time is.
There
is a common thread throughout these sorts of stories. They generally
take what’s first perceived as a weakness – life is futile,
fleeting and meaningless – and turn it on it’s head to produce a
story which tells us that it’s very fleeting nature of time which
makes it so incredibly valuable.
In
the television show Angel, the main character says it thus:
If there is no great glorious end
to all this, if - nothing we do matters, - then all that matters is
what we do. 'cause that's all there is. What we do, now, today. I
fought for so long. For redemption, for a reward - finally just to
beat the other guy, but... I never got it.
The
theme in this excerpt, and in the stories we are
examining generally, is that by accepting the frailty of life we are
able to truly value life.
To
get a better understanding of precisely how stories do this, and how
it relates to the role of stories in our culture, the role of time,
and the role of humanity coping with the human condition, we’re
going to be examining 4 stories. First, it is important to understand
that when stories are referred to as mythological it is not a
pejorative term. A mythological story is one which is spiritually or
psychologically meaningful, the term does not pass judgment on the
truth value of the story. The stories are:
The
mythological stories in the Christian Bible as understood by the
Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS)
The
mythological stories in the Christian Bible as understood by the
Jehovah's Witnesses (JW)
The
fictional story explained in the film Groundhog Day.
The
fictional story explained in the television show Doctor Who,
specifically the two-part episode “The End of Time”
The
first is a religious story. It’s the understanding of the LCMS
based on the Christian Bible. It’s an amillennialist position,
meaning that the portions of the Christian Bible which refer to
Christ having a literal 1,000 year reign on Earth is properly
interpreted as symbolic. The reign is introduced in the Christian
Bible in Revelations 20 (NIV)
They
[martyrs] came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
(The
rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were
ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those
who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power
over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will
reign with him for a thousand years.
They
believe that the reign is a spiritual reign rather than a physical
reign. Thus they embrace the idea of eternal existence in a form
similar to this existence but also different from this existence.
They also do not believe that how we spend our time on Earth (when it
comes to behaving morally) is enough to guarantee an eternal life of
bliss. They teach that while everyone has an eternal existence, not
every eternal existence is desirable.
The
LCMS does adopt the basics of general Christian eschatological (“a
belief concerning death, the end of the world, or the ultimate
destiny of humankind”) beliefs. This is to say that the Christian
God (properly conceived as part of the Trinity) will bring all true
Christian believers into Heaven where they will live in bliss for
eternity. And an adverse fate awaits people who are not true
believers: they will suffer an eternity of conscious torment in Hell.
LCMS
has formed their beliefs on the state of persons after biological
death based closely on the Christian Bible. One of the key verses is
Mark 16:16 (NIV): “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,
but whoever does not believe will be condemned”. The word “saved”
in this context refers to God saving a person from Hell. As Romans
6:23 (NIV) says: “the wages of sin is death”. Death in this
context does not refer to biological death, rather it refers to death
meaning Hell. This is clarified in Revelation 21:8 (NIV):
“But the cowardly, the
unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who
practice magic arts, the idolaters and the liars – they will be
consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second
death.
This idea that the default destination is Hell is
reinforced in Revelation 20:15 (ESV): “And if anyone's name was not
found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of
fire”. So the LCMS believe that persons are inherently deserving
of leaving this reality and entering into one where, according to
Revelation 20:10 (NIV), “They will be tormented day and night for
ever and ever”.
The
other side of this belief is that those who follow the necessary
steps are destined for Heaven. The idea is clarified in Psalm
16:10-11 (NIV):
because you will not abandon me to
the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in
your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Keeping
in mind that death in the following context refers to a second death
(i.e., existing in Hell), the idea is further clarified in 1
Corinthians 15:26 (NIV): “The last enemy to be destroyed is death”.
Interpreting
the Christian Bible in this way leads to an overarching story that
the best way for humans to cope with experiencing time is to realize
that this existence is only temporary. That the moral rules of
nature, given to us by the moral law-maker (the Christian God), are
set up in such a way that persons deserve eternal punishment without
the law-maker intervening on their behalf. This means that the common
notion that biological death means an end to experiencing time is
false. We can escape the second death (Hell) but only through
following the proper steps. This leads to an interpretation of John
3:16 (NIV) that when it says “whoever believes in [God] shall not
perish but have eternal life” that while not everyone will have
eternal life (i.e., not everyone will experience time in Heaven for
eternity) that everyone will have eternal life (i.e., continue to
experience time for all of eternity).
By
contrast, the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW) consider themselves to be
millennialists. They base their beliefs on the Christian Bible, but
they interpret it very differently from how the LCMS interprets it.
JW believes that Christ returned in October 1914, but that Christ
returned invisibly. They chose that date based on Christian Biblical
chronology, specifically Daniel 4.
Because
JW and LCMS are based on the same book they’ll share many
characteristics. For example, both believe in the Christian God. They
have different perceptions of God, however. LCMS theology teaches
that God is properly understood as part of the Trinity (that is: God
is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) while JW theology
teaches that God is properly understood as one being. LCMS teaches
that God is omnipresent (present everywhere) and omniscient
(all-knowing) while JW theology teaches that God is one being who is
not omnipresent and not omniscient.
They also differ in their eschatological beliefs. JW theology teaches
that 144,000 people will ascend to Heaven to live in bliss for
eternity, that practicing JW believers who aren’t chosen to be
among those 144,000 will spend eternity on a Paradise Earth, while
people who haven’t been chosen to ascend to Heaven or experience a
Paradise Earth will simply cease to exist. By contrast, LCMS teaches
that all who have accepted Christ will be saved. They clarify by
saying in the Doctrinal
Issues – Salvation portion
of their website:
Paul is not contradicting his
continual emphasis in all his writings, including Romans, that a
person is saved not by what he does, but by faith in what Christ does
for him. Rather, he is discussing the principle of judgment according
to deeds. Judgment will be rendered according to one's deeds in the
sense that the good works of thebeliever give evidence that he
has faith. Good works, which are seen, give evidence of faith, which
isunseen.
So
religious stories, at least the ones this paper will be addressing,
tend to meet the psychological need by believing that the end of time
– whether viewed through the perspective of an individual as a
coherent biological being or through the perspective of ongoing human
experience – is not necessarily the genuine end of an individual
experiencing time. The individual suffers biological death and yet
the soul persists. Ongoing human experience now takes place in a
place of bliss rather than strife, but it still continues in a
different sort of way.
The
idea that we as persons persist after our biological death stands in
sharp contrast with a materialist perspective. The materialist
perspective is that “Everything
that actually exists is material, or physical”
which means that souls do not exist, God does not exist, the phrase
“life after death” is self-contradictory, and so on. While the
term religion can be notoriously difficult to precisely define, most
religions reject a materialist worldview. They usually accept that
material physical objects exist, but also that the spiritual exists.
As an extension of this, they treat a materialist conception of time,
and understanding time, as being being a less-than-full accounting of
the nature of time in relation to persons experiencing time.
Religious
stories about vary in their details but they overwhelmingly have a
theme of accepting that our biological bodies and their existence are
real but that something like a soul exists in addition. By inserting
the concept of something in addition to the physical body they are
opening the door to an individual experiencing biological death
without experiencing true death of the self. They introduce a new
twist: time doesn’t end; whether that’s desirable for you as an
individual depends on how closely you’re following the rules.
They
also help people learn how to behave. By codifying a set of laws and
adding an addendum that the reward for following the rules is eternal
life, and that the punishment for not following the rules is eternal
punishment, they become very powerful tools when shaping people's
behavior.
Interestingly,
they can shape people's behavior even if the person is not a believer
but merely has been exposed to these stories. For example, one study
suggests that when voters are near churches that they are more likely
to profess a belief in God and more likely to give conservative
opinions (ABC News). The link between stories and human psychology
appears to be a fundamental link that significantly affects us. More
importantly, these stories change the concept of time in order to
change how people view time and consequently how to use time.
The
third story is the film Groundhog Day. This story is different in
that rather than a divine intervention warning of a future event, the
key revelation in our comprehension of time comes without warning and
without any description. Humanity doesn’t ascend to another level
of reality, nor does time reach an end. The story describes the
protagonist as a shallow person who isn’t appreciative of the gift
of time. Perhaps the best way to illustrate this quickly is to say
that the protagonist holds the opposite of the perspective advocated
by the character Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek: Generations:
Someone once told me that time was
a predator that stalked us all our lives, but I rather believe that
time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to
cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave
behind is not as important as how we've lived. After all, Number One,
we're only mortal.
The
protagonist of Groundhog Day rather views time as a background in
which one operates egotistically.
Groundhog
Day eliminates the invisible privilege that we, and the protagonist,
experience. The film forces the character to relive the same day
constantly, some estimates have put the time experienced as long as
10,000 years! So it takes away the meaningfulness of time for the
main character.
Instead
of presenting time in the traditional linear fashion, it presents
time in a very cyclical fashion. It highlights the mundane uses of
time which we take for granted and makes it so that the very
mundaneness becomes the most significant thing in the world. It is a
way of demonstrating meaningfulness in life by changing how we
perceive time.
This
is different from the religious stories in that they essentially say
“this life is meaningless
The
End of Time is a two part episode from the television show Doctor
Who. It is epic and expansive, but I want to focus on one episode. In
the Doctor Who universe there are alien races. One of those races
are called the Time Lords. They are very similar to humans (i.e.,
they are persons, they appear in a human body, they eat and drink,
etc) but also different (i.e., they are near immortal, they have two
hearts, etc). The show exploits those differences to shine new light
on human experiences. For example, the Time Lords can regenerate
under most circumstances. This is an incredibly helpful device for
the mechanics of producing a show about one person which first aired
in 1963. More than that, it is helpful because it presents death in a
similar light as many of the religious stories. Which is to say that
death occurs but that the common notion of death as ending life is
incorrect.
When
a Time Lord is set on the course of events that would traditionally
result in death (i.e., fatal but with the clarification that it is
not necessarily going to be fatal) they engage in a process of
rebirth or regeneration. Their physical body is transformed into a
new adult physical body and yet the Time Lord retains his or her
essence. The Time Lord, for example, retains memories and yet adopts
a new personality. One of the recurring lines in the show
demonstrates that they have no control about choosing their new body
when the Doctor announces “I'm still not ginger!”.
This
is similar to the religious stories because the person (not human,
but person) experiences the end of his or her biological death –
what traditionally means the end of experiencing time – and yet his
or her essence exists after biological death. It is different in that
the religious stories rest on the idea of humans moving to a new
reality, while the Time Lords stay in their reality. There are small
comparisons to changing reality since one's reality is largely
determined by how one perceives reality (i.e., a person with a happy
personality will perceive reality in a more positive light, a tall
person will perceive reality from a slightly higher position, and so
on) but the essential notion of transitioning to a new reality is
lost.
There
is also a comparison between Ecclesiastes 1 and one of the general
themes of Doctor Who. The exact age of The Doctor is unclear but he
has said that he has lived several thousands years and on another
occasion 953 years. His experiences during those years –
specifically his losses – have given him a wise and often tragic
perspective. This is mirrored in Ecclesiastes 1:16-18 (NIV):
I said to myself, “Look, I have
increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem
before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” Then I
applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness
and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.
For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more
grief
There
is a parallel between the two stories in that they both include
figures who have experienced time – and not merely passively
experienced it, but rather fully lived it – and accordingly have
wise perspectives on the meaningfulness or meaningless of this
existence. The religious stories conclude that the wise perspective
is that this life is without meaning, or at least that this life
derives meaning from another life. Doctor Who concludes that while
life can be tragic, and existence absurd, that striving to make life
better for others is the most meaningful way of using one's time.
In
the episode we are focusing on, almost the entire Time Lord race is
trapped inside a “time bubble”. They are unable to come out of it
and into the world except through ending time. They exist, but in a
different dimension where they are unable to interact with the rest
of reality outside their bubble. They are “time-locked” into
their own existence.
They
find a loophole and find that they are able to interact with the
outside reality through a subconscious message with one of the only
two Time Lords who are not trapped in the time bubble. The problem is
that by breaking out of the time bubble they will be destroying
Earth and its inhabitants thereby ending time from the perspective of
humanity.
The
protagonist of the show, known simply as “The Doctor”, is faced
with the choice of bringing his race back into existence from the
time bubble and ending the ability of humans to experience time, or
allowing his race to be sentenced to an eternity of being trapped.
One of the common themes throughout the show is the loneliness of The
Doctor so the idea of having his race back is very attractive. But,
in the end, he chooses to send his race back into the time bubble and
thus preserving the ability of humans to experience time.
All
of the stories take different approaches to highlighting the
necessity of humans spending their time wisely. The religious stories
call attention to the fleeting nature of time (as experienced by an
individual) by contrasting it with the idea of eternity. Groundhog
Day accomplishes the same thing by taking away what is significant
about time: our ignorance of future events and ability to make
choices changing the future. The End of Time does it by presenting
The Doctor with something he deeply needs but can only achieve at the
expense of the ability of humans to experience time.
The
stories have a recurring theme of demonstrating some sort of
impending doom: being sentenced on Judgment Day, brought about by
biological death; being forced to relive the same day eternally; the
end of humanity brought about by inaction on behalf of The Doctor.
And then they demonstrate how this doom can be averted: following the
proper steps; becoming a better person; sending the Time Lords back
into their time bubble. It is a combination of first demonstrating
some need and then providing a way for individuals to meet that need.
What
allows an individual to use a story to meet that need is the ability
to draw a correlation from the story into a need that is already
present. This requires a slight qualification in that the religious
stories present themselves as literally true while the other two
stories present themselves as fiction. But what gives meaning to a
mythological story is that it is meaningful to humans sharing this
existence not whether its claims are ultimately true. So in one sense
mythological stories are meaningful because they provide instructions
relevant for the next life, but in the sense I am using the word they
are meaningful because they give meaning to humans in this life.
Religious
stories provide insight into the nature of the cosmos, ethics, the
meaning of the concept death and generally providing guidance and
comfort – or fear, but that is just as consequential – to humans.
We have an innate need to understand what causes things to happen.
This specific need manifests itself both in the how and the why. For
example: how do tornadoes work (i.e., what is the description of the
natural process) as well as why a tornado struck one house and not
the other (i.e., why did the natural process behave that way instead
of another?). So while humans do not have an innate need for, say,
the name of God, they do have an innate need which is satisfied by
religious stories which include details like the name of God. They
create a need to satisfy in the sense that they create the proper
steps one needs to take to avoid Hell. But in the course of
satisfying the need they have created, they satisfy other needs
inherent in the human condition.
The
same applies to the fictional stories. In Groundhog Day they create
the need for the protagonist to break out of the cycle of repeating
the same day, and they satisfy that need by having the protagonist
become a better person. This is meaningful because humans already
have an inherent need to deal with repeating days (that is:
existence) and an innate need to understand how one should behave
towards others. The film makes a comparison between the need created
and the need inherent, and then provides the solution to both needs:
existence isn't futile, and we should treat people with kindness.
In
Doctor Who they create the need of saving humanity at great cost to
The Doctor. It presents the choice of fulfilling the ultimate desire
at great cost to other persons, or to act selflessly and deny one's
own desires in order to benefit other persons. This ties into the
human need to understand selfishness and whether time is best spent
helping others or fulfilling our own selfish desires. In addition to
the general theme of the episode, a portion of dialogue between The
Doctor and a human named Wilfred. Wilfred chose to enter into a small
radiation chamber which is about to be filled with radiation. The
only way out is if The Doctor enters the adjoining radiation chamber
and locks himself inside. The Doctor has a choice of allowing Wilfred
to be killed by the imminent flood of radiation or absorb it himself,
but if he absorbs it himself then he will have to regenerate. While
he won't lose his essence, he will lose his personality which is a
large part of his identity.
WILFRED:
Look, just leave me.DOCTOR:
Okay, right then, I will. Because you had to go in there, didn't you?
You had to go and get stuck, oh yes. Because that's who you are,
Wilfred. You were always this. Waiting for me all this time.WILFRED:
No really, just leave me. I'm an old man, Doctor. I've had my
time.DOCTOR:
Well, exactly. Look at you. Not remotely important. But me? I could
do so much more. So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And
it's not fair! Oh. Oh. I've lived too long.WILFRED:
No. No, no, please, please don't. No, don't! Please don't!
Please!DOCTOR:
Wilfred, it's my honour. Better be quick. Three, two, one.
The
Doctor has faced the larger issue of sacrifice and now is presented
with a smaller scale reward. Wilfred is old, he chose to enter the
chamber, he is a human. The Doctor just saved the human race; he
deserves a reward not death.
So
while Doctor Who has created a need in the sense of impending doom of
humanity and then the death of Wilfred, that need is mirrored in the
pre-existing human need of learning about selflessness. In both
instances The Doctor freely chooses to sacrifice – both the return
of his race and then his identity – on behalf of others. The
ultimate desire is shown not to be fulfilling a selfish desire,
rather the ultimate desire is to freely sacrifice on behalf of
others. It is only through sacrifice that we can achieve meaning in
life. This satisfies the inherent need of humans to learn how to
achieve meaning in life.
There
is also a more general need innate in humanity: the need for life
having significance. Religious stories tell us that this life is
significant because how behavior and beliefs will influence ourselves
after we undergo biological death. The details vary, to be sure, but
that is the gist. This is particularly present in the theology of the
JW. They emphasize evangelizing based on Matthew 28:19-20, when Jesus
of Nazareth said:
“Therefore
go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I
am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
They
emphasize that using time meaningfully means, to a large degree,
spreading their religion.
Groundhog
Day satisfies this need pointing out that being able to experience
time is a privilege. By taking away that privilege it uses contrast
to demonstrate the significance of experiencing time. We see the
transformation of the character from egotistical and unable to
appreciate life, to egotistical and still unable to appreciate life
(once he is in the loop), to selfless and finally able to appreciate
the gift of time's apparent flow. It directly addresses the
difficulty of finding meaning in a finite life by showing how
undesirable an infinite life is.
The
End of Time illustrates the same need by setting up a scenario in
which a powerful moral person is forced to choose between humans
experiencing time and something he needs. It is a bit different in
that the protagonist is not strictly speaking human, but it is fairly
obvious that The Doctor is meant to represent humans. By making his
choice and sacrificing so much he is able to help others appreciate
the gift of time.
The
other common thread is that these stories generally rely on
privileged information. This takes the form of privileged
experiences. In the religious stories the privileged experiences are
caused by the divine, and the authors of the Bible are privy to the
information. By sharing that information with people who lacked the
experience, they are able to help them learn what is important about
life and how we spend it.
The
fictional stories also rely on privileged information. In The End of
Time, The Doctor is the one who has access to special information.
The sort of privileged experience is a bit different in form,
however. Rather than being told something from an outside source the
privileged experience comes from a combination of his wisdom from
living for such a long time as well as his capability. He is not told
some sort of information per se, he is able to form an informed
judgment based on his uniqueness as compared to humans. In Groundhog
day the main character clearly has access to information that the
other characters lack. Specifically, he is able to know what will
happen during the day that he is reliving as a loop.
The
stories differ in their methodology and intention. But they all
highlight something intrinsic to humanity – we experience time as
flowing, filtered through our ignorant mammalian brains – and use
it as a way question how we should view time in the context of
experiencing time. Although we only examined this phenomenon through
4 stories, it is present in many stories. It is a unique way in which
humans produce material to help ourselves deal with the absurdity of
the human condition: deficiencies and the need to address those
deficiencies. To quote Christopher Hitchens:
"I know what's coming, I know
no one beats these odds. It's a matter of getting used to that,
growing up and realising that you're expelled from your mother's
uterus as if shot from a cannon, towards a barn door studded with old
nail files and rusty hooks. It's a matter of how you use up the
intervening time in an intelligent and ironic way. And try not to do
anything dastardly to your fellow creatures."
Even
though everyone can not be right simultaneously on precisely how we
should appreciate the gift of experiencing time – or if the “barn
door studded with old nail files and rusty hooks” even exists! -
it appears to be a timeless fact that every thinking person will
spend time struggling to find an answer if not The Answer.
