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{{Short description|Endless time or timelessness}}{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2015}}{{Other uses}}{{redirect|Sempiternal|the album by Bring Me the Horizon|Sempiternal (album)}}(File:Unnecessarily complicated gears a.gif|thumb|upright=1.5|A neverending animation loop of gears turning){{Time sidebar}}Eternity, in common parlance, is an infinite amount of time that never ends or the quality, condition or fact of being everlasting or eternal.OED, eternity, 64704, Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas sempiternity corresponds to infinite duration.

Philosophy

{{see also|Eternalism (philosophy of time)|Philosophy of space and time}}Classical philosophy defines eternity as what exists outside time, as in describing timeless supernatural beings and forces, distinguished from sempiternity which corresponds to infinite time, as described in requiem prayers for the dead.{{which|date=March 2021}} Some thinkers, such as Aristotle, suggest the eternity of the natural cosmos in regard to both past and future eternal duration. Boethius defined eternity as “simultaneously full and perfect possession of interminable life”.{{sfnp|Boedder|1902|loc=book 2, ch. 2, “The Eternity of God“}}{{efn|{{harvp|Boethius|523|loc=book 5, prose §. 6}}, quote: “”}} Thomas Aquinas believed that God’s eternity does not cease, as it is without either a beginning or an end; the concept of eternity is of divine simplicity, thus incapable of being defined or fully understood by humankind.{{sfnp|Helm|2010|loc=§. 6, “Medieval thinkers“}}Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) and many others in the Age of Enlightenment drew on the classical distinction to put forward metaphysical hypotheses such as “eternity is a permanent now”.{{sfnp|Hobbes|1662|p=50}}

Contemporary philosophy and physics

Today cosmologists, philosophers, and others look towards analyses of the concept from across cultures and history. They debate, among other things, whether an absolute concept of eternity has real application for fundamental laws of physics; compare the issue of the entropy as an arrow of time.

Religion

{{see also|God and eternity|Unto the ages of ages}}Eternity as infinite duration is an important concept in many lives and religions. God or gods are often said to endure eternally, or exist for all time, forever, without beginning or end. Religious views of an afterlife may speak of it in terms of eternity or eternal life.{{efn|For examples: {{harvp|Bassali|2008|p=138}}, quote: “In the next life, there will be two places only - heaven and hell. {{omission}} In heaven, you will spend an eternity of bliss, light, and glory with God. In hell, you will spend an eternity of woe, darkness and torment apart from God. Which of these two places would you prefer to spend your eternity?“}} Christian theologians may regard immutability, like the eternal Platonic forms, as essential to eternity.{{sfnp|Deng|2018|loc=§. 3.1, “The “}}{{efn|{{harvp|Deng|2018}}, quote: “Augustine connects God’s timeless eternity to God’s being the cause of all times and God’s immutability.“}}

Symbolism

{{see also|Alpha and Omega|Armenian eternity sign|Engagement ring|Eternity ring}}Eternity is often symbolized by the endless snake, swallowing its own tail, the ouroboros. The circle, band, or ring is also commonly used as a symbol for eternity, as is the mathematical symbol of infinity, {{math|infty}}. Symbolically these are reminders that eternity has no beginning or end. {{gallery

The ouroboros

The “endless knot,” a symbol of eternity used in Tibetan Buddhism

Infinity symbol variations

Folk art allegorical map “The 3 Roads to Eternity” from Matthew 7:13-14 by the woodcutter Georgin François (1801–1863) in 1825.

An allegorical classical woman {{circa

She holds up an hourglass, her elbow above a human skull and in her lower hand two flowers in maturity, one of which is a dandelion blowball or clock (seed head), reminders of transience. An Ouroboros, snake swallowing its own tail, floats above her head as a halo - symbols of eternity.}}}} See also {hide}Columnslist|colwidth=30em| Aeon Akal (Sikh term) Chronology of the universe Eternal now Eternal return Everlasting life Eviternity Kalpa Philosophical presentism Planck epoch Time perception Temporal finitism Wheel of time {edih} Notes {{Notelist}} References {{Reflist}} Works cited BOOK, Bassali, Maurice, 2008,books.google.com/books?id=aoEha2bAEvgC, Where Will You Spend Eternity?, Xulon Press, 9781606473276, 30 April 2021, BOOK, Boedder, Bernard, 1902,maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/nath.htm, Natural Theology, Longmans, Green, and Co., University of Notre Dame, WIKISOURCE, Boethius, Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus, De philosophiae consolatione Boethius, la, De_philosophiae_consolatione/Liber_QuintusXI, {{harvid, Boethius, 523, |author-link=Boethius}} SEP, Deng, Natalja, eternity, Eternity in Christian Thought, Fall 2018, {{harvid, Deng, 2018, }} SEP, Helm, Paul, eternity, Eternity, Summer 2010, {{harvid, Helm, 2010, }} BOOK, Hobbes, Thomas, Mr. Hobbes considered in his loyalty, religion, reputation, and manners, by way of a letter to Dr. Wallis, 1662, Thomas Hobbes, Further reading BOOK, Yu, Jiyuan,books.google.com/books?id=T5pRlUoAbmIC&pg=PA188, The Structure of Being in Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Springer, 2003, 188–, 9781402015373, External links Entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on Eternity. Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy on the relationship between God and Time. {{Time Topics}}{{Time in religion and mythology}}{{Time in philosophy}}{{Spirituality-related topics}}{{Authority control}}{{sister bar|auto=yes|wikt=eternity}}