(May 13, 2016 at 8:02 am)The Reality Salesman Wrote:(May 13, 2016 at 7:53 am)SteveI Wrote: God's decision to create was a timeless one in that there was no period of indecision preceding it. God could not have created the universe sooner. It simply is that God was timeless and changeless sans the universe and temporal and changing with the universe.
Do you see that there is a counter intuitive quality in making statements such as this? When you say that God decided to create "x", you imply a state in which God existed, but "x" did not, and then an event occurs that leads to a state where both God and "x" exist. If something is "timeless", there is no timeline or series of events. You have to reconcile this or revise...
Actually, my understanding is; that is part of the argument for a personal cause or one capable of intention. And if time is relational to the physical world, and not separate, then also for a non-physical cause.
The questions, and I don't think we have any point of reference to answer them, is can a non-physical entity act outside of time. However, if the evidence points to a beginning of time, then I think that the answer has to be yes. Otherwise we wouldn't be asking the question "why is there something; rather than nothing".
