Does Inkscape have animation? This probably sounds really dumb, and I apologize. Where is the timeline? Keep in mind that I have never used animation software in my life. Thank you.

Hello there,

inkscape doesn't have a basic solution for animation, no timeline screen -like in blender for example-.
To animate your svg work, you can try to use an extension,
use tupi for frame by frame animations (also related),
or try exporting each frame and render it as a video some way.
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=15847
Synfig can make a good use too.

To create animated svg-s, you can add native animation in the svg codes, or use somekind of scripting (ecmascript/javascript).
http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=13686

Personally I didn't try to animate my svg-s with luck yet.
There is a hopefully still going project to incorporate animating options into inkscape, though that topic didn't got answered yet.

Timeline/Milestones: https://launchpad.net/inkscape/+series