Cosmologic philosophy: what is time (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, January 21, 2017, 13:28 (2863 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: Yes, we disagree. God is eternal, unchanging. Time involves sequences of change. He creates change in producing this universe and the time within it as it evolves and changes. He may well have created other events at points in eternity. Note I used the word 'points'. I view eternity as outside of time as humans construct it.

dhw: You have agreed that time exists independently of humans, and so it is not a human “construct”. I have no idea what authority enables you to state that your eternal God is unchanging. Is it impossible for him to learn anything? But even if he knows absolutely everything in advance, do you think he is unaware that all the changes he makes entail a before and after, and do you think he thinks the before and after have no reality? You may believe he himself is not changed by the sequence of before and after (you can impose any characteristic you like on him), but that does not mean he is “outside time”, even if you think he twiddles his immaterial thumbs for a few billion chunks of eternity between his befores and afters.

DAVID: So you have an anthropomorphic God who watches his wristwatch? Did He make a series of universes and count time that way? What if He did nothing in eternity? Does time pass for Him? Only an evolutionary process has before and after as in our universe.

I have already agreed that the divisions of time are man-made. You don’t have to “count” time! You have agreed that time is a sequence of before and after. You can sit and do nothing for an hour, but before still changes into after. God can sit and do nothing for a billion chunks of eternity, but before still changes into after, and every time your God does or even thinks anything at all, there is a before and an after the deed or the thought. Unless you come up with a different definition, the only way your God can be “outside time” is if he is non-existent.