Hypothetical Question: Time Travel and Confession

[Number 81]

Ok, say it was Thursday, December 7th, and Jerry goes to confession. He skips mass the next Sunday, the 10th, and the next Monday (11th) he is, for some reason, teleported back to Wednesday, the 6th.

So, just because I'm a dork and I lay at bed at night pondering random things.
1) Would Jerry need to confess the things that he confessed tomorrow?
2) Would Jerry need to confess missing mass in a few days.
3) Would Jerry say "Bless me father, for I have sinned. It will be one day until my last confession?"

What? This is important stuff! It boggles my mind that modern English is so unprepared, what with having only 6 tenses. When we develop time travel all the English teachers will be in a mad panic about what tense to use to describe something you have not yet done in the past.

 

[SaintGeorge]

Yes, because the future for the rest of us, relative to Jerry, would be the past.

 

[japhy]

Ok, say it was Thursday, December 7th, and Jerry goes to confession. He skips mass the next Sunday, the 10th, and the next Monday (11th) he is, for some reason, teleported back to Wednesday, the 6th.

So, just because I'm a dork and I lay at bed at night pondering random things.
1) Would Jerry need to confess the things that he confessed tomorrow?
2) Would Jerry need to confess missing mass in a few days.
3) Would Jerry say "Bless me father, for I have sinned. It will be one day until my last confession?"

What? This is important stuff! It boggles my mind that modern English is so unprepared, what with having only 6 tenses. When we develop time travel all the English teachers will be in a mad panic about what tense to use to describe something you have not yet done in the past.

Why are you hurting my head on a Friday afternoon?

Are you looking for a verb tense like "I will have had sinned."? The guy should confess to skipping Mass "a few days ago" or something to that effect, if he doesn't want to scare the priest.

 

[Skripper]

Sounds like somebody has a weeeee little bit too much time on his hands.

 

[Number 81]

Christmas Vacation, plus I really didn't want to work on my homework.
I always said there is no end to what you can do when you do it so that you don't have to do something you really don't want to do.

 

[D'Ann]

Nope... he wouldn't and couldn't confess about tomorrow's sins. LOL

Don't worry young one... your vacation will end soon enough.

 

[Davidnic]

Ah the Dr. Who moral theology dilemma

Let's say I'm Jerry. I would go to mass on the 10th since I know I would not be there I would not cause a time paradox by meeting me. But until then I would hide until the so I don't meet myself. Since Jerry prime (let's call him) will be going to confession anyway He will confess everything he should. And current Jerry will make up the mass he missed.

But after going to mass on the 10th I would hide again until Jerry prime was transported back on the 11th. Then I would breathe easy knowing that I would not blow up everything by meeting myself (I assume this would happen because all my years of Dr. Who says it would.)

I would then begin to worry about how the second law of thermodynamics was broken and entropy in a closed system increased when I moved back in time taking my heat energy to a point it had not been before. I would drink alot of coffee and watch alot of Sci-fi for the answer.

This would only be possible if Jerry prime had been booted out of time at the exact moment when I went back (likely into a different time line). That means he never did confess, or for that matter go to work. I would not know if that were true because I took pains to never meet him when I was in the past...was he even there? So maybe I never did go to confession. But if he never confessed...then how can I remember confessing.

The universe must have created a parallel version of itself to protect the original time line...that I returned to since I remember an event that happened in it. So now three time lines exist, The original I returned to. The one where I never went back. And the damaged one that now does not have a Jerry past the 11th.

So the question is...do I confess missing a mass that I both missed and went to?

A possible side benefit is that if no other time lines were made and since the universe did not explode when jerry goes back in time. That means that it is not a closed system and must actually be infinite by nature and must be something other than what science thinks...so by jerry going back it opens the door to direct scientific proof of God since God (and things that He makes in His image or decrees so.) is the only true infinite or can contain the true nature of infinity. Good for Jerry. If that is the case he got to mass and confession and proved God to science. Full days work

This is some good Sci-fi physics on a Friday.

 

[Number 81]

Ah the Dr. Who moral theology dilemma

Let's say I'm Jerry. I would go to mass on the 10th since I know I would not be there I would not cause a time paradox by meeting me. But until then I would hide until the so I don't meet myself. Since Jerry prime (let's call him) will be going to confession anyway He will confess everything he should. And current Jerry will make up the mass he missed.

But after going to mass on the 10th I would hide again until Jerry prime was transported back on the 11th. Then I would breathe easy knowing that I would not blow up everything by meeting myself (I assume this would happen because all my years of Dr. Who says it would.)

I would then begin to worry about how the second law of thermodynamics was broken and entropy in a closed system increased when I moved back in time taking my heat energy to a point it had not been before. I would drink alot of coffee and watch alot of Sci-fi for the answer.

This would only be possible if Jerry prime had been booted out of time at the exact moment when I went back (likely into a different time line). That means he never did confess, or for that matter go to work. I would not know if that were true because I took pains to never meet him when I was in the past...was he even there? So maybe I never did go to confession. But if he never confessed...then how can I remember confessing.

The universe must have created a parallel version of itself to protect the original time line...that I returned to since I remember an event that happened in it. So now three time lines exist, The original I returned to. The one where I never went back. And the damaged one that now does not have a Jerry past the 11th.

So the question is...do I confess missing a mass that I both missed and went to?

A possible side benefit is that if no other time lines were made and since the universe did not explode when jerry goes back in time. That means that it is not a closed system and must actually be infinite by nature and must be something other than what science thinks...so by jerry going back it opens the door to direct scientific proof of God since God (and things that He makes in His image or decrees so.) is the only true infinite or can contain the true nature of infinity. Good for Jerry. If that is the case he got to mass and confession and proved God to science. Full days work

This is some good Sci-fi physics on a Friday.

I believe this proves my point that English needs more than 6 verb tenses.

 

[Davidnic]

I believe this proves my point that English needs more than 6 verb tenses.

Yep

I have been will be having to tense. The potential past imperfect tense or future hypothetical imperative tense.

 

[Forest]

Ok, say it was Thursday, December 7th, and Jerry goes to confession. He skips mass the next Sunday, the 10th, and the next Monday (11th) he is, for some reason, teleported back to Wednesday, the 6th.

So, just because I'm a dork and I lay at bed at night pondering random things.
1) Would Jerry need to confess the things that he confessed tomorrow?
2) Would Jerry need to confess missing mass in a few days.
3) Would Jerry say "Bless me father, for I have sinned. It will be one day until my last confession?"

What? This is important stuff! It boggles my mind that modern English is so unprepared, what with having only 6 tenses. When we develop time travel all the English teachers will be in a mad panic about what tense to use to describe something you have not yet done in the past.

Interesting !!!, I love time travel paradoxes...

since he technically has been given a second chance to re-live Sunday the 10th, I would expect his fear from being teleported back in time to be so great (God gave him a second chance) that he would not miss mass a second time. So, therefore, he would not miss mass on Sunday and would have no need to confess it. He could repent beforehand, now knowing of a future sin he had been given a second chance at not committing. I think we would all like a second chance for things we regret !!!...

But that brings up another question...

Say Jerry was given the ability to see into the future one week ahead and realizes that he misses mass on the coming Sunday, would he need to confess the sin he is going to commit ahead of time?, since he now knows he will commit a mortal sin in the future?

Ok, now I need an aspirin.

 

[cairaiii]

I bet the priest hearing Jerry's confession would call for the Exorcist.

 

[japhy]

How about this: going to the Mass he missed in the past is his penance?

 

[helenofbritain]

What I want to know is: how Jerry can manage any of this without the use of a sonic screwdriver (which has so far yet to be mentioned)?

 

[japhy]

TARDIS: Tradition, Authority, Resting Doctrinally in Scripture?

 

[helenofbritain]

TARDIS: Tradition, Authority, Resting Doctrinally in Scripture?

CLEVER.

(And for those who can't remember the original acronym... I don't want you to be up half the night trying to remember... it's Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. Phew.)

 

[BillH]

How about this: going to the Mass he missed in the past is his penance?

I was thinking that maybe the correct penance would be to convince himself in the past that he should go to mass. But then again, doing so might cause a rupture in the space-time continuum, causing potentially cataclysmic consequences for the entire universe. So maybe as a prudential judgement thing, that wouldn't be so good.

 

[NewMan99]

Thanks - I needed this thread. It's just what the Dr. Who ordered!

 

[boughtwithaprice]

True time travel is impossible. If your current self was able to travel back in time, it would be a bending of the future into the past, not a true reliving of the past. Time travel in that sense would not be really time travel, but dimensional travel in that the space time continum has fold back on itself, and what was once smooth is now wrinkled, so it is no longer the past, but days of future past.

To answer your question, he need not go to confession, unless he misses mass on purpose again, as he has already confessed in his days of future past.

 

[NewMan99]

Days of Future Past -

That was a great Moody Blues album.

 

[boughtwithaprice]

Days of Future Past -

That was a great Moody Blues album.

that was how I came up with the idea