Cosmologic philosophy: Egnor on Big Bang, etc. (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, August 10, 2021, 15:47 (987 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: You cannot apply our sequential view of time in our time to a series of BB's where time only exists within the BB's.

dhw: Firstly, if time exists within an eternal sequence of BBs, it is absurd to support the view that time did not exist before our BB. Secondly, how can you possibly say that the period between BBs is not an AFTER one BB and BEFORE another?

Time existed in each BB before ours, an obvious point. And yes we humans view each BB as sequential, but that does not create time between BB's. It is our concept only.

DAVID: I also accept this religious version from Aquinas:
QUOTE: "For Aquinas, God's timeless eternity is unending, lacking both beginning and end….

dhw: We agree.

DAVID:…. and an instantaneous whole lacking succession.

dhw: You and I disagree. Any event in eternity entails a succession or sequence, as above.

DAVID: In our human view in our spacetime, nothing more.

dhw: If you agree that time is a sequence of befores and afters, and there may have been sequences of befores and afters before our own human view of spacetime, how can you say “nothing more”? You don’t know. Nobody knows. But you believe that there may well have been such sequences because you believe in God as the maker of Big Bangs.

dhw: Timeless eternity is a tautology if by timeless you mean eternal! But eternal (without beginning or end) does not mean devoid of any sequences, and so whether you believe in an eternal God or an eternal and impersonal universe makes not the slightest difference: nobody can possibly know that there were no sequences prior to our BB (if it happened).

DAVID: Those sequences are not in time.

dhw: Those sequences ARE time, if you define time as a sequence!

Yes, we are discussing our time concept in our spacetime. Between each BB there is no time.