Swami said:

Do you think he is dead or that his death is an illusion?

A body ages in time.
Einstein was born and died.
Therefore time must exist.

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Swami said:

"The distinction between past, present, and future
is only a stubbornly persistent illusion."

Albert Einstein

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Instead of taking an absolutely literal and face value interpetation of this quote, as I personally do not condone doing so as the only method of analyzing other's words, I would venture to consider that Einstein was speaking in the context of a human being's experience of the distinction between past, present, and future, on the level of one's in the moment state of being.

The passage of mechanical, universal time, as I see it, will ever continue to lead itself through our physical universe, the constant state of change in all objects flowing along with this. However, time as we experience it is relative to no objective thing. It is always in relation to actions, other objects, states of change... doesn't this seem to be a pillar in Einstein's thought? With no "outside" variable with which we can compare our motion to, no motion exists, to us. The same principle applies equally well to the passage of time.

But this isn't the direct point, merely an intriuging, related sidenote. The direct point is the thought of our own experience of each moment. The point is our state of being. The illusion of past and future seperate us from and create a further illusion out of our present. This does not exclude the importance of the past and what will come to be in the future, this involves how the memories from the past and the imaginations of the future effect our here and now experience.

After all, what point in time are we not living in the present? There isn't one. What point in time are we living in the present, completely conscious and spaciously aware of our living in the present? That depends on ourselves and how strong and present the stubbornly persistent illusion of past, present, and future that Einstein spoke of is.

I feel relatively () comfortable in at least considering that Einstein could have had this meaning in mind when he spoke the quoted text, noting his speciality in the theory of relatively and his fondness of what he so beautifully called cosmic religions, such as Buddhism, that have these ideas present in their teachings. Einstein rules!


Peace.

Swami said:

It's not like you to be obtuse.

"There is no distinction..."

Sequential events are temporally displaced and hence, distinct.

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Heh, well I guess that depends on the observer.

Anyways, I think "quantum physics" is a very strange science and I will admit that I am no expert although I use quantum theories everyday in my work.  The best way to describe quantum physics is that it is where we are at scientifically and this is the current level at which we can conduct physical experiments.  It's name is misleading because it is nowhere near a universal or "true" theory of the universe.