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    Garrett DeWeese and William Lane Craig's debate on 'timel... — Carmelics
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    Supports→The view that God has both a timeless phase and a temporal phase is logically incoherent.

    Garrett DeWeese and William Lane Craig's debate on 'timeless-then-temporal' God shows that the transition point itself must be located either in time or outside it, and neither option is coherent.

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    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Any transition requires temporal sequence: before-during-after. A timeless state cannot precede a temporal one without occupying a prior moment.
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    • 2.If the transition point exists in time, it's part of the temporal sequence, leaving timelessness unexplained. If outside time, causation becomes unintelligible.
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    • 3.The concept of 'becoming temporal' implies change, which presupposes time. This makes timelessness-to-temporality logically contradictory.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.The dilemma assumes transitions require the same ontological framework as their relata. A timeless state could relate to temporal states without itself being temporal.
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    • 2.The incoherence claim conflates logical contradiction with epistemic difficulty. We lack concepts for timeless-temporal relations, but absence of explanation ≠ incoherence.
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    • 3.Creation accounts (e.g., God's timeless decree causing temporal effects) offer coherent models where causation doesn't require temporal sequence for both cause and effect.
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    Key Terms

    Garrett DeWeese(as a debate participant on divine nature)
    A contemporary philosopher who specializes in philosophy of religion and metaphysics, particularly questions about God's nature and relationship to time.
    Timeless-then-temporal God(as the core concept being debated)
    The idea that God exists outside of time (timeless) in one phase of existence, then enters into time (becomes temporal) at some point—like stepping into a river that was flowing without you in it.
    Transition point(as the logical problem in the debate)
    The exact moment or location where something changes from one state to another—in this case, where God supposedly goes from being outside time to being inside time.
    William Lane Craig(as a debate participant on divine nature)
    A prominent Christian philosopher and apologist known for arguments about God's existence and nature, particularly regarding how God relates to time.
    coherent(de Finetti's usage in the context of the Dutch Book argument for probabilism)
    A subject is coherent if their unconditional degrees of belief do not permit a Dutch Book (a guaranteed loss through a combination of bets) to be made against them

    Connections

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    Afterlife & Death1 linked

    Related

    Any transition requires temporal sequence: before-during-after. A timeless state...Creation accounts (e.g., God's timeless decree causing temporal effects) offer c...If the transition point exists in time, it's part of the temporal sequence, leav...The concept of 'becoming temporal' implies change, which presupposes time. This ...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    +3 moreShow less
    The dilemma assumes transitions require the same ontological framework as their ...The incoherence claim conflates logical contradiction with epistemic difficulty....The view that God has both a timeless phase and a temporal phase is logically in...