I've always been wary of Western Civilization's perspective on the existence of time. I'm not sure it exists or not. If it does exist, I'm not sure its linear (some people, while looking across their flat fields, figured the Earth was flat, too). But I do have a much surer sense (within myself, mind you; I've got no empirical support to provide) that if something has a beginning, it *must have an ending. The only things eternal, I figure, are things that always have been. Something cannot begin existence and then last forever. If time began, it surely will end. If time is forever, it must have existed forever.
(I feel the same about my own existence; I (my soul) was created at birth and will cease to exist sometime in the future OR I've always been around but, like everyone else, have a lousy memory of my pre-birth existence. As an optimist, I prefer the latter idea.)
