Have you ever noticed how time-conscious we are?

We sing about the passing of time (Yesterday, The Beatles; A Hazy Shade of Winter, Simon & Garfunkel), the consistency of time (Time After Time, Cyndi Lauper), the changes brought about by time (The Times they are A-Changin’, Bob Dylan), etc.

Authors write about time travel (The Time Machine, H.G. Wells; Time and Again, Jack Finney), explore the depths of time (A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking), postulate the very nature of time (Time as a Geometric Property of Space, J.M. Hartnett, et. al.), etc.

And those of us who aren’t singing about time, or writing about time, are usually thinking about time in some form or fashion. It doesn’t seem to matter if we are in the developed world (where clocks control us) or the less developed world (where we pay special attention to the position of the sun and other heavenly bodies); mankind seems to be preoccupied with time.

We attribute amazing powers to time: we claim that it HEALS; we equate it with MONEY; we say it is the wisest COUNSELOR; we claim that it can’t be STOPPED. On and on. We talk about time . . . all the . . . time.

And it’s not just the artsy, right-brained folks who are enamored with time; the technical, left-brained, scientific folks are the truest believers when it comes to describing the omnipotence of time. In fact, many scientists believe (if you ask them they say they know, but . . .) that every living thing now in existence finds its origin in, well . . . ultimately . . . nothing.

How could that be, you ask? How could something so complex and multifarious as human beings and the universe surrounding us come from nothing? Ex nihilo?

That’s easy to answer!

TIME. Yes, the passage of time with its omnipotent power.

If you give time enough . . . time, . . . ANYTHING is possible. Life from non-life. Matter from non-matter. Complexity from . . . well . . . nothing.

Congratulations! You have deified time.

In the wake of the enormous wave of modern thought many have discarded the old, worn-out, outmoded, anachronistic concept of God. Many think they are “going it alone” now, no longer tethered to an antiquated moral compass; rather, informed by the latest advances in scientific and philosophical thought, they are blazing their own trail. But the truth is –

They have just made TIME their deity.

Nothing is impossible with billions of years, right? Now, it might be tough to go from simple to complex in a thousand years. But what about a million? Not to mention a billion! Imagine the possibilities. And in fact, this IS the only explanation if you’ve already erased alternative explanations.

Just think of it: we worship TIME, the beneficent yet effacing, unstoppable yet limited, all-powerful yet impersonal. I think we may have found the real life Wizard of Oz, amplified voice, smoke machine and all.

If you can find the time, while in COVID-19 quarantine, think about it. One thing’s for certain: we are, all of us, devoted to our chosen deity.