Well pause is a rather misleading term, its not really pause, its more like a comforting feedback to the player. I personally like to think there is no pause and then i don't make any mistakes like flying into suns and such...... not that i have ever done silly things like this. Nor have I paused while in combat with an NPC, gone for brew and come back to an `accident` honest...
Best example is when docking using the docking computer, you will see clearly the docking continues, which means it is not pause.