  Although these considerations favor metaphorically describing the eternal as present, they are not decisive. McTaggart argues that there is some reason to favor instead metaphorically describing the eternal as future. Suppose that time is unreal, but there is a real ordering corresponding to the apparent temporal ordering. In other words, suppose that there is a C-series. One theory of the C-series is that it is an adequacy series. The things ordered by the C-series are representations of how reality actually is, and the relation that generates the C-series is x is less adequate than y. On this view, states that appear to be present more accurately represent reality than states that appear to be past, but both in turn are less accurate representations than states that appear to be future. The terminal end of the C-series consists in maximally adequate, i.e., true representations of how reality is. Reality is timeless. So the final stage of a series of representations that gives rise to the appearance of a temporal order is a stage that represents reality as being timeless. For this reason, McTaggart holds that it is appropriate to describe the eternal as being future.