You said "Just because it may have taken an infinite amount of time to get here, does not mean that we are not here"

Yes we are here, but if the past was infinite then would would never reach this point in time, or any point for that matter. If it ded take an INFINITE, OR NEVER ENDING, amount of time to reach the present, then the present would never be reached.

Think of it this way. Let's say you have a never ending rope(time). Somewhere on the rope you tied a knot(the knot represents the present, or even man's presence on earth), and you decide to pull on the rope until you reach the knot. If the rope had a beginning to it, like a cut in the rope, eventually you would run into the knot. But this rope has no beginning and no end, it just goes on forever. So you try to find the begining of the rope but you never do. You can't find a beginning to start, so you never start to pull on the rope.

You realize that when the rope has no beginning, you will never be able to reach the knot. You can also envision the rope as starting somewhere, but the knot keeps moving away every time you pull, preventing you from ever getting there.

It's easy to say the universe can go for infinite from this point in time, because we have a reference even(our lives) to relate it to. But imagine the past of infinite duration. If the past was infinite, then the time it takes for the past to become the present would be infinite(never ending), so the past would be on a never ending stream of time to become the present.

In my opinion, either time had a beginning, or it's a loop hole that reverses itself, then goes forward, in a never ending loop.

• Mistaken - yanniru - July 3, 2001 - 13:23 UTC