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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The view that God has both a timeless phase and a temporal phase is logically incoherent.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.On such a view, there seem to be two phases of God's life: a timeless phase and a temporal phase.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.The timeless phase seems to have existed earlier than the temporal phase.
      ?

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    • 3.To stand in a relation of 'earlier than' is by all accounts to be temporal.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Any coherent description of God requires a single unified mode of existence, since a being with ontologically distinct phases is composed and therefore not absolutely simple.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Divine simplicity, defended by Aquinas in Summa Theologiae I.3, entails that God has no real internal distinctions between phases, properties, or temporal stages.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.A being with both a timeless phase and a temporal phase violates divine simplicity by introducing real composition into God's nature, generating incoherence on classical theism's own terms.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Transition between any two modes of existence—timeless to temporal—requires a cause or mechanism, but for God no external cause exists and no internal cause is possible without prior temporality.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.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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    • 3.If the transition is in time, God was already temporal before creation; if outside time, the transition is causally unintelligible, so either way the two-phase model is logically unstable.
      ?

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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.