How would you explain eternity?

As opposed to comparing it to the time we know, imagine we are outside of time itself.

Eternity is the unending present or separation from the constraints of temporal existance.

Meaning that we only understand our selves and our existance from our own perspective.

The limits of time create erosion, decay and aging.

Events are linear in our time. Like a string each event attached to the next and lead by the previous event.

Over time we experience changes and movement.

Like a time line, we think in this fashion, one thought after another. That is why we should write down our goals. We can focus on one thought at a time. Then when our goal think is changed to action think we are distracted from our goal think.

With a written goal statement, we can realign ourself with the goal thought and recommit.

Time works the same, in that the material plane is temporal or of time. Absence of time required separation from the temporal. Hence it really is out of our frame of reference.

Imagine time as a 3 dimensional instead of one dimensional.

The string of time transforms into a solid 3D. We have no concept of such a time reference. Geometry cannot cover it, even advanced calculus isn't adequate to challenge it.

But for God it is his time reference.

As the string of time we understand or try to understand, it goes in all directions for infinity. This is the real question.

Infinity is like going into a nuclear reactor to work. You can go in and work, but not for long. The infinite nature of eternity expires our ability to function within it. We end, time goes on.

So separation from time is eternity.

Eternity? It seems to me that this question is better dealt with under the Religion category: but today is Sunday so:

We have an intuitive understanding that as our lives on this Earth have a beginning (our birth) and an end (our death), the whole world and universe must likewise have a beginning and an end, the precise nature of which is contentious. Eternity is the word we use to describe the Time that lies beyond such beginnings and ends, α and ω. So Eternity is a parameter of Time, more specifically our own lifetimes and the lifetime of the whole Universe. As applied to our lifetimes, we think of ourselves cheating death by living on for eternity. As applied to the Universe, God is sometimes called the α and the ω; what was there "before" the World existed, and what will remain "after" the World's demise.

Infinity is a related concept that is more appropriate to this category of "Astronomy and Space". It is a mathematical number that can apply to any parameter in our universe. It comes up often in cosmological discussions and calculations, as well as in quantum mechanical and relativistic measurements. The Theory of Relativity predicts that the singularities of black holes have infinite density and zero volume, for example.

We cannot measure, calculate or discuss Eternity like Infinity. Eternity describes infinite Time before the Beginning of Something or beyond The End of Something, wheras Infinity is a mathematical value that can be attributed to anything, at least on paper.

A major paradox arises when trying to bring Eternity into a scientific discussion; and that is the idea of the nature of Time itself. We intuitively think of Time as a parameter that is completely divorced from 3 Dimensional Space, but the General Theory Relativity tells us otherwise: Time is just another dimension, and the universe, the world, and we ourselves do not just occupy Space, but rather, Spacetime. Through the Science and Mathematics of Relativity, we understand that Time is plastic: under certain circumstances, it speeds up and slows down, and in certain situations the rate at which Time passes falls to zero: This suggests that Time stops, nothing changes, everything remains the same... Eternity !

It's complicated.

Eternity is relative (for example a man can wait an eternity for a relative, his wife, to get dressed for an important engagement leading to his next promotion). Throughout Germany, graveyards are recycled when there are no (close) relatives left to visit them anymore, while the bones still rest in eternal peace. Eternity can be like playing a motion picture film with an infinite supply of reels and a perfect projector bulb. Eternity will last no longer than when the Big Bang reverses, contracts and disappears into a Gib Gnab singularity!

Never heard it explained, but here is what I think. We have a limit till where we can perceive reality. For example, we can think 3D and imagine multiple D's, but cannot visualize it. In that terms, we can think of eternity as never ending, but we (our senses) visualize whatever we know with a boundary of limits, and so we cannot understand what eternity is. But we know it is there, there is something outside of everything, and there is still something outside of that outside... and so on.

Eternal means it always was and always will be! It has no beginning and no ending! This is what eternity is! Can you wrap your mind around that? There's only one GOD but we really need two or three!

forever never-ending

As a christian I believe that you can live for eternity but I can't really grasp that concept either.

It's the magical feeling of good times that never end. It's sacred time vs temporal time. See St Augustine

Imagine yourself in complete nothingness. You don't feel yourself floating, or falling or drifting, you are just there. You have no thoughts, no action no feeling. Nor is there any around you. you don't see or hear anything and yet you are completely aware. That, would be my eternity.

Eternity... That's how long it takes for my wife to get over me making her mad...

It's like the Duracell bunny, It keeps going and going and going.