God is timeless

[Medi]

"God is timeless" is something Christians spout all the time. Along with "God is both inside and outside time"

What does it even mean? Whenever I've asked for clarification none is given, they just expect you to accept this with no explanation. I'm coming at this with a background in physics.

Time is very difficult to understand and as far as I'm aware no one really does, though plenty of work is being done to establish it. It could well be that time is just an illusion.

I just don't understand what they can possibly mean. Anyone clear it up, or am I thinking about it in too much depth and it's just pseudo-scientific garbage with no meaning at all?

Obviously, on the physics of it, you'll be better informed than me. But the way that I understand 'time', as applicable to humans, is that inherently it confines us to the present moment. The past is already gone, so it can't be changed, the future is in front, so it can't be grasped, all we have, literally, is the present moment to work with.

Presumably, God isn't confined by this restriction. That's all time is really, a restriction of physics that means that one moment leads on to the next. Now, I know that in two seconds I'll write 'this'. You know what I mean? But my power of foretelling isn't exactly long-reaching.

I presume that God's ability to see possibility isn't limited to short distances.

Though, really, it's hard to answer your question with scientific logic. From a spiritual point of view, though, I think this 'eternal' concept of God explains that there is this perpetual existence about the universe. That even when we're dead, things continue. Perhaps it's just a way of rationalizing that, or perhaps there is an element of God being 'never made, never created, never formed, with no 'beginning' or 'end' that can be conceptualized in the context of time.

I mean, if 'time' weren't to exist, what would take it's place?

I suppose I'm throwing up more questions than answers. Honestly, as a person who very much believes that there is 'God' (the who, what and when, I think is subjective to the world we live in), I can't entirely answer your question. It is fascinating to think about though.