God's free time

[Mattu]

What do you fellow God believing people think God did before He created the earth and everything we know in this life. He is outside of time, so grasping exactly how much time took place before we ever came about, and how much time there will be after the earth is completely unable to be processed by my brain besides the fact that time does not exist and things do not age like we know them.

But anyways, what do you think He was up to?

[bernee51]

But anyways, what do you think He was up to?

omphaloskepsis...

and it was through this that the universe came about.

Either that, or as god is an anthropmorphic response to simple human wishes, fears etc the question is meaningless.

[Mattu]

If God is a response to my fears and wishes, it would be everything I want it to be and more. It is not. I don't want to hear that some people burn in Hell for eternity, and this scares me. How does that justify as a response to my wishes and fears?

[bernee51]

If God is a response to my fears and wishes, it would be everything I want it to be and more. It is not. I don't want to hear that some people burn in Hell for eternity, and this scares me. How does that justify as a response to my wishes and fears?

I think it is perfectly understandable to WISH that yourself or other people did not burn in hell and that you would FEAR eternal damnation enough to believe in god and what you are told are his rules for salvation.

Whether or not such a mindset is justifiable is another issue. For me it is not, for you it perhaps is - only you can judge that.

[mrmufin]

He is outside of time

Just outta curiousity, what the heck does "outside of time" mean?

But anyways, what do you think He was up to?

He was probably reading The Feynman Lectures and taking piano lessons. What do you think God was doing half an hour ago? How could we tell? (What did Francisco d'Anconia do prior to being a copper industry magnate? Anything other than try an' get into the groove with Slug? )

Regards,
mrmufin

[Quemtal]

Mattu

[God] is outside of time...

You are right in saying that God is outside time. But then this statement:

...so grasping exactly how much time took place before we ever came about...

It is fair to assume that there was no such thing as time before Genesis 1:1. That is, there was no 'time' before we "came about". Einstein postulated that time was subject to the laws of physics, that it was a fourth dimension. This has subsequently been proven, in that time is affected by gravity &c. (This is notghing new. Scholars of the Bible centuries ago concluded that the universe was composed of ten dimensions, four directly knowable, and six inderectly inferred--something modern science is just realising.) Time was created with the rest of the universe.
The Bibles says:

For a thousand years in Your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night. Ps. 90:4

And this is echoed in the New Testament:

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. II Peter 3:8

We're brought up thinking of time like a line accross the blackboard at school. Events are points on the line. And so it is only natural that when it comes to eternity, we consider it to be line longer than we can comprehend. But actually, it's the absence of the line altogether.

[Curious]

But anyways, what do you think He was up to?

omphaloskepsis...

and it was through this that the universe came about.

Either that, or as god is an anthropmorphic response to simple human wishes, fears etc the question is meaningless.

And what exactly would God be doing with a navel?(apart from contemplating it of course)

[QED]

And it took almost five months for someone to point out the brilliance of bernee51's retort! Well spotted Curious Well done bernee51 and my runner-up prize goes to mrmufin with the Feynman lectures, which I was recently delighted to find available as Streaming Video on the internet.

[mrmufin]

and my runner-up prize goes to mrmufin with the Feynman lectures, which I was recently delighted to find available as Streaming Video on the internet.

Thanks for the runner-up prize, QED! And the link to the Feynman lectures is phenomonal!

I'm still curious about what (if anything) "outside of time" means.

Regards,
mrmufin

[Nathan]

well, according to general relativity, there can't be any time without matter. That's a difficult concept to grasp, but I guess it just means that God created the Earth at the beginning of time.