If nature is about circles and cycles then why do humans think in straight lines and in an orderly, managed fashion? Nature is not tidy or orderly such as when we look at a natural forest or a wild garden. It is, in fact, higgledy piggledy with lots of different species chucked in together, all dependent on each other. But when man plants a forest it is all in straight lines and devoid of anything that might add to the atmosphere. So why doesn't man think in the same way as nature? This is a puzzle that comes to mind when one looks at time.
Does it have a beginning and an end?
If it does then when was the beginning? Or is that too big a puzzle for the brain to work out? Is it the same as the term 'always'. That implies something that has no beginning or end and yet we use it in a light-hearted way to infer the length of time something has existed. But few things in the modern world have been around for always. Some tress perhaps measure a few thousand years, maybe even some rocks that might have formed billions of years ago. But they had a beginning and will supposedly have an end?
What of the world? When did it begin and will it have an end? Or will it just change and hang around in space for always. A recent documentary on the Grand Canyon posits that the ground from which it was formed came about some billions of years ago. The deposited sediments from the river meandering through it formed into the hard sedentary rocks that now form its outline and that weathered and eroded into the beautiful landscape of today.
But man's creations are not for always. Most of them hardly last a lifetime and even then they are subject to falling down or collapsing. So man is not a creator of worth but the Great Creator of the Universe has made something that not a single mind can comprehend. Man tries and then he fails to imitate what appears to him a simple thing. But he is wrong.
From the basic building blocks of life, that is the gene, the DNA and the cell, a continuous chain of progress has sent it forward throughout an evolving time frame. Nature has used them to create all of the life forms and more. It has created a planet of ultimate beauty and perfection and man in his stupidity is quickly destroying it.
So does time have a beginning or an end? Not likely but man has certainly brought it upon himself to change that scenario. He will want the world to end because the destruction, pollution, climate change and overpopulation plus other stupidity he engages in is definitely the key to bringing it about.
This type of philosophical puzzle led to a Monkey Brains quest to see what others think. It fits together with Complxity of Thinking which is another challenge.