(May 11, 2016 at 7:01 am)SteveII Wrote:(May 11, 2016 at 6:36 am)ApeNotKillApe Wrote: You already have all your work still ahead of you before you try to make the leap toward the Christian god.
What does it mean for a conscious mind to exist timelessly? What does it mean to be immaterial? What does it mean to have power without the existence of time, space and energy? What is this "power"? What is creation if not a temporal activity? How does one create time without time with which to create time? What did this being exist within prior to existence? Assuming this entity does exist, what suggests that it's "personal"? What does personal even mean in this context? What implies that it must be a singular god that made the universe? How does a non-physical being act upon a physical world without taking on physical properties?
Those are questions off the top of my head, and there are many more I could present.
Okay, those are fair questions.
Let's start with why I said personal. God created the universe instead of not creating the universe (which seems to be the only two choices). The creation act seems to be a free act of the will rather than something determined by some prior condition.
The quote I posted a page or two ago might help with the timeless question:
Quote:One must maintain that "prior " to creation there literally are no intervals of time at all. There would be no earlier and later, no enduring through successive intervals and, hence, no waiting, no temporal becoming. This state would pass away, not successively, but as a whole, at the moment of creation, when time begins.
But such a changeless, undifferentiated state looks suspiciously like a state of timelessness! It seems to me, therefore, that it is not only coherent but also plausible that God existing changelessly alone without creation is timeless and that He enters time at the moment of creation in virtue of His real relation to the temporal universe. The image of God existing idly before creation is just that: a figment of the imagination. Given that time began to exist, the most plausible view of God's relationship to time is that He is timeless without creation and temporal subsequent to creation.
If God is omniscient, he would know all truths simultaneously in his timeless state. An entity who knows all truths does not have to think about things, reason things out, etc. (and therefore mark time with mental events). As the quote above says, that timeless state ended when the universe was created. Time started at that point. God was extrinsically changed by his creation. The creative act was simultaneous with its effect.
:: Bold mine ::
How does God "know" anything without a mind? Without the ability to think? By what other mechanism does he process information? You seem to want God to perform like a sentient, conscious being without any of the necessary constituents of such a being. You don't get to have your cake and eat it too; not without evidence.
P.S. "God-Magic" is a non-answer.
Nay_Sayer: “Nothing is impossible if you dream big enough, or in this case, nothing is impossible if you use a barrel of KY Jelly and a miniature horse.”
Wiser words were never spoken.
Wiser words were never spoken.