Hey guys,
I haven't read the entire thread, but the nature and existence of time is a discussion I am relatively familiar with (relative to what I won't say ).
I would be of the inclination that time is an illusion; I'm not sure there is any evidence to support the existence that time is real or physical, that doesn't require us to assume the conclusion.
The most basic way of looking at it, I think, is to consider how we "measure time"; what we tend to use are regularly recurring processes; but if we examine these processes we can see that at no point is there a physical property of the universe, called "time", ever measured; instead, what is actually measured is the recurring process. In an atomic clock, the periodic oscillations of the Caesium-133 atom are measured, not a physical property called "time". Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that time has to exist, otherwise there would be no cylces, but that appears to be an unjustified assumption. The cycles occur, or exist if you want, and we use them as standard units of comparison. That is, we measure a process by comparing it to the number of oscillations of the Caesium-133 atom to give us the "time" the process takes. We then measure other processes using the same standard unit so that we can compare the different processes in meaningful terms. At no point in the process is something physical called "time" measured. From this perspective time is simply a system of measurement, not a physical property to be measured.
Another aspect of time is the idea of "past" and "future", but thse, I believe, arise from the human capacity for memory and projection; that is, we experience the present moment, which subsequently changes and we form a memory of it; we also imagine experiences which have not yet happened, which we label "the future"; this creates the impression of a linear progression through time. But, every observer can only ever experience the present moment; if we arrive at the conclusion that past and future co-exist with the present, then it requires and assumption on behalf of every observer; that is, it requires every observer to assume the conclusion that past and future co-exist with the present.
