Thursday, May 28, 2009

Why is God not outside of Time?

What are some reasons God might be in time? If God was outside time, He wouldn't know everything. What wouldn't He know? He wouldn't know what's going on 'now'. Why not? Because that is a tensed fact. What is a tensed fact? A tensed fact is a fact that is true at one time, but not at other times. For example, "Matt graduates from Coastal." is true in 2007, but false every other year. Why can't God know this if He's timeless? Because in order to know tensed facts, you have to be related to time, and therefore temporal. Why do you have to be related to time to know tensed facts? Because if you're not related to time, all you know is tenseless facts. What are tenseless facts? Tenseless facts are true at all times. For example, "The Allied Forces invade Normandy in 1944.' has always been true, was true in 1944, and will always be true. If God only knows this tensless fact, then He wouldn't know that this fact is 'now' happening, even if He does know that it will happen in 1944. He just does not know when 1944 is 'now'. So, in order to preserve God's omniscience, we must say God is temporal, even though He might have been timeless before Creation. Here's an analogy. Suppose I knew every part of a movie by heart. Let's say that in the next room, a friend puts the DVD in and presses play. Now that the movie is playing, there are parts that are 'now' happening. Even if I knew every part of the movie, I wouldn't know what was 'now' happening unless I came into the room to see what part that was. My being in the room is analogous to God being related to time in order to know what's now happening.

To be continued . . .

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