The Proof of Time
"C.S. Lewis in his second letter to me at Oxford, asked how it was that
I, as a product of a materialistic universe, was not at home there. 'Do
fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact
itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not
always be, purely aquatic creatures? Then, if we complain of time and
take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest?
It suggests that we have not always been or will not always be purely
temporal creatures. It suggests that we were created for eternity. Not
only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand
generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed by it--how
fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we
cry, has the time gone? We aren't adapted to it, not at home in it. If
that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful
suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home.â€