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    God did not abstain from working before creating heaven a... — Carmelics
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    Home/Afterlife & Death
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    God did not abstain from working before creating heaven and earth, because there was no time before God's creation.

    Afterlife & Death
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.God is the cause of all times.
      ?

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    • 2.No time existed that was not brought into being by God.
      ?

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    • 3.If no time existed before God made heaven and earth, then one cannot say God abstained from working during that period.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The concept of 'before creation' may be coherent even without physical time, if God exists in a logical or metaphysical order that precedes temporal order.
      ?

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    • 2.Leibniz and Clarke's debate establishes that relational time and absolute time are distinct, allowing meaningful reference to pre-creation states without presupposing physical duration.
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    • 3.If logical priority constitutes a meaningful 'before,' then God's non-action prior to creation remains a coherent object of inquiry regardless of the absence of physical time.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Boethius's model of divine eternity as 'nunc stans' entails that God encompasses all moments simultaneously, meaning divine agency is not temporally indexed to creation.
      ?

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    • 2.If God's eternal nature exists outside temporal sequence altogether, then the claim that 'no time existed before creation' does not resolve the question of why God acted when God did rather than otherwise.
      ?

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    • 3.The Principle of Sufficient Reason, as Leibniz invoked it against Newton, demands an explanation for the specific moment of creation that mere temporal eliminativism cannot supply.
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    Afterlife & Death

    Related

    Boethius's model of divine eternity as 'nunc stans' entails that God encompasses...God is the cause of all times.If God's eternal nature exists outside temporal sequence altogether, then the cl...If logical priority constitutes a meaningful 'before,' then God's non-action pri...
    +5 moreShow less
    If no time existed before God made heaven and earth, then one cannot say God abs...Leibniz and Clarke's debate establishes that relational time and absolute time a...No time existed that was not brought into being by God.The Principle of Sufficient Reason, as Leibniz invoked it against Newton, demand...The concept of 'before creation' may be coherent even without physical time, if ...

    Similar

    If no time existed before God made heaven and earth, then one cannot s...90%God is temporal after creation, even if God was timeless before creati...80%God exists timelessly 'without' creation rather than before creation, ...77%If God preceded times by being in time, God would not precede all time...74%

    Source

    AI-extracted2/3 agreementValid
    SEP: eternity
    View source passageHide passage
    What times existed which were not brought into being by you? Or how could they pass if they never had existence? Since, therefore, you are the cause of all times, if any time existed before you made heaven and earth, how can anyone say that you abstained from working? (Augustine, Confessions, XI. xiii (15)).
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The premises logically support the conclusion—if God is the cause of all times and no time existed before creation, then there was no temporal period during which God could have abstained from working—and this argument is clearly present in the source passage.

    Confidence: The argument is clearly present in Augustine's rhetorical questions, which function as premises leading to the conclusion that the objection ('God abstained from working before creation') is incoherent.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit