Maybe God is Time

[Resha Caner]

A simple thought, but, IMO, useful.

 

[Gracchus]

Maybe God is time
A simple thought, but, IMO, useful.

Maybe Goldilocks is Cinderella's glass slipper. Just as simple a thought, and just as useful!

 

[Resha Caner]

Maybe Goldilocks is Cinderella's glass slipper. Just as simple a thought, and just as useful!

I thought you had blocked me because you thought I was a troll(*). If you're actually interested in a conversation, let me know.

*P.S. Too bad, too. Had you just hung on for about 1 or 2 more posts in our last conversation, you would have heard me concede that you had won our argument.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Sorry, I don't get the relationship between God and Time. You may want to develop that idea.

And are you suggesting that God is some purely natural entity or aspect of entities? That would be like suggesting that God is (the Law of) Gravity.

I'm not necessarily opposed to that if you are just saying that God is human-created Symbol for some element of a human experience of Nature, but that would mean that there is no personal God, just an impersonal "force".


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[JazzTrance]

Maybe Goldilocks is Cinderella's glass slipper. Just as simple a thought, and just as useful!

Indeed - or maybe one of the other three dimensions of the space-time continuum. I think probably height, but depth and width have a divine ring to them also!

 

[Lord Emsworth]

A simple thought, but, IMO, useful.

Is that fundamental enough? ETA: I meant, is time fundamental enough?

 

[OneWithTime]

Yes god is time and this is something I have known for years and I am honestly shocked it is mentioned.
The Greek titan Chronos for example literally meant time. He was the creator of the Olympians themselves and the origin of time itself.
The Bible says quote.......
Revelation 22:13 "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
The emphasis on Beginning and End is placed because it signifies god being time itself.
Time and consciousness are always linked together because of their nature. Without one there is without the other and thus creates a philosophical symbiosis of sorts so to speak.
But god is the origin of everything and everything sprouts forth from the origin of god which is timeless. According to all theories of god in almost all religions states that god is time itself.
And I have realized this years ago as if it was a vision that was implanted because of understanding.

 

[Danyc]

What useful information does this give us? How can we put this into practice?

 

[quatona]

Maybe God is Time

Ok, then why not keep calling it "time", for simplicity´s sake?

A simple thought, but, IMO, useful.

Useful in regards to which purpose?

 

[quatona]

Indeed - or maybe one of the other three dimensions of the space-time continuum. I think probably height, but depth and width have a divine ring to them also!

..only when you capitalize them.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

What? Primitivism and pragmatism together as one?

 

[Eudaimonist]

In some theoretical physics, there are two arrows of time.

Would this have theological significance? Are these two deities?


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Dave Ellis]

If all you define God as is time, then to be honest it's a pretty useless definition. We already have a word for time, and the general concept of a God has nothing to do with equating it to time.

It's kind of similar to the people that say God is Nature, etc.... I consider those people Atheists in denial.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

Pray and wait and your luck will change. That seems to be neglecting ones practical will and intelligence. So maybe there are different responses to time, either embrace change proactively or sit on you fat posterior and count on good luck. But who cannot take inspiration from the chaos of a storm? ( eta where I live storms can be exciting but rarely dangerous. The analogy is there are both moments of energy and calm in right living). Iirc more passive accepttance might be "quietism". Although it may lead to mystical experince but if your luck is out the stresses involved may well be the cause. On the other hand a work ethic helps produce riches if we have the skill. But can man worship 2 masters? The answer is yes and many more.

 

[boywithdog]

It's kind of similar to the people that say God is Nature, etc.... I consider those people Atheists in denial.

I think most would say "Nature is god" ... pretty much the same thing of course except for the emphasis. I doubt many would say "Time is god".

However in the first case the deity concept is much less relevant than in most major religions ... and is replaced with more of a spiritual experience concept.

Not sure how one would gain that sort of experience with time as the deity concept.

 

[Eight Foot Manchild]

We have a word for time already. It's called 'time'.

The purpose of language is communication, remember. 'God' and 'time' are both words that carry a lot of baggage to begin with. When you start criss-crossing them, all you're ever going to do is create confusion.

 

[Resha Caner]

Sorry, I don't get the relationship between God and Time. You may want to develop that idea.

It is more developed, but one has to start the conversation somewhere. The opening sentence is more a title or an abstract than the whole thing. I've written a short essay as well as a full length paper on the idea. I could share them, but I didn't want to bore people. They're more to make sure I've got my own thoughts straight than anything else.

I appreciate you indulging me. Hopefully it will be an enjoyable conversation.

One little preamble. I used the word "maybe" for a reason. As a trivial example, God has never revealed whether he prefers the color green to that of brown. So, we don't know his preference. However, in some cases, unbelievers insist that "I don't know," is not an acceptable answer. With respect to a claim of God's perfect knowledge vs. our free will, some unbelievers would claim the apparent conflict must be answered - that "I don't know" is not acceptable. I think my idea can answer some of these difficulties. Only one solution to a problem is needed to show that the problem can be dismissed. That does not mean only one solution exists. So, while I think my idea solves some of these problems, it may not be the only solution ... it may not be the true solution because, IMO, God simply doesn't speak to some of these questions and so we don't know. At the same time, I don't want to leave the impression that I've dismissed these problems without giving them some thought.

And are you suggesting that God is some purely natural entity or aspect of entities?

No. I use the phrase "maybe God is time" in the same way that the Bible says "God is love." It does not mean God is merely love - that he is only love. It means that by his nature he is the perfect expression of love. So, I am saying God fully embodies time and we do not - quite a different position from those who say God is outside time and created it.

Ok, then why not keep calling it "time", for simplicity´s sake?

I appreciate all the replies, but many of them were similar and so my answer to them would be similar. That is understandable. I was brief on purpose. Hopefully we can fill out the idea as the conversation moves along.

Anyway, as I said above, I do not mean God is only time, but that he possesses the full embodiment of time. One question that comes up in the philosophy of time is whether time is continuous or discrete. Recently I read a paper that gave me a new perspective on Zeno's paradoxes (Achilles & the tortise, etc.) as well as how God might possibly relate to time differently than we do.

Useful in regards to which purpose?

It is useful for answering questions such as how God's perfect knowledge can admit our free will. Others have tried to answer that in other ways: the eternalism of Stump & Kretzmann, compatibilism, Molinism, open theism, etc. I agree with unbelievers that those answers have problems, but I hope I've got an answer. Just to be fully open, the position I'm taking is very similar to Padgett's "relative timelessness," so I don't claim this sprang fully formed from my own mind, but I have tweaked it a bit.

 

[Gottservant]

They tell you they think it's irrelevant, that you're not smart enough, that you should have thought something else...

...but what a great #$%$# idea!

I'm interested to know your thinking, as to how you came up with this idea?

The way I thought of it was "God is a metaphor for the next moment". My thinking was "what happens to you, if you believe the only thing you get from believing God, is more of God?" See the connection between that and time?

Anyway, your thoughts?

 

[TravisD]

Maybe God CREATED time. Maybe time is a constraint on the world we know. Maybe God is outside of time since he created it....

 

[jpcedotal]

Time is kind of a by-product of Creation. God set things in motion "in the beginning", hence time began.

Time is just the tape measure, God is the Carpenter.