Dear Peers,
I have been an atheist for some time, as I (obviously) do not believe in a God. However, I suddenly came across this idea whilst pondering about the universe and all things. Therefore, I’d like to ask you what could be the reasons for, and against, believing that ‘Time is God’, as it is afterall what has created things. Also, if there is such a ‘religion’ which believes in this. I’d be glad if you answered my question, as it has been on my mind for some time.
Matthew
It does not follow that, even if time did indeed “create things,” that it would be useful to think of it as God.
In fact, despite the modern philosophical concept of God as omnipresent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent, I find that the God most people reference when they talk about God has more in common with limited deities such as Thor than with modern philosophical abstract concepts.
For instance, if it were proved that there were another plane of existence that you went to when you died, controlled by a very powerful sapient being, but who did not actually create that plane nor all of humanity, I would feel more comfortable calling that being God than I would if it were proved that time itself was indeed responsible for creating all of the universe (with no other laws or other dimensions behind it.)
Time doesn’t create anything. It was a by product of the early universe.
If anything, time allows for entropy to take place. In other words, time destroys.
I dunno. The idea is too vague to answer anyway (though I’m sure there are people who’ll try).
Some remarks:
Time and space are interlinked AFAIK, so why couldn’t space be God?
All of this smells like the generic spiritual feeling of “God is the universe”, which to my mind is just sloppy, wishful thinking, and doesn’t make any sense when you try to consolidate it with the kind of gods people actually believe in and even less with the kind of gods that are reported to do anything useful for their believers.
Or even ancient philosophical concepts. Aristotle, for instance, posited a God so perfect-and-complete-in-Himself that, so far from being omniscient, He is completely unaware of anything outside Himself. Spinoza agreed with Aristotle that, while men must love God, it is impossible for God to love men. This implies there is no point in prayer.
It’s amazing how pervasive the concept of God is after millennia of brainwashing. Why call time, the universe, space, or the Force God? Something with no thought, no cognition, which does not provide purpose is not God by any useful definition of the term. So, why bother?
I suppose if you do want to call Time God you are a relativist by definition.
God is the color red. Trust me on this.
I thought the Devil was red.
No, the Devil is six.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean, but it may be worth noting that different cultures have treated the concept of time differently throughout history, in regards to the language they use (or lack thereof) for the past, present and future.
Time, according to Stephen Hawking and the Dalai Lama, doesn’t always move forward.
I’ll explain the rest yesterday.
I find that some (many) will do, say, or accept anything for there to be a god. There isn’t. You can do anything you want and not be cast into a Lake of Fire. Anything. So that evil dude in Antioch, CA is eventually gonna skate. The sooner we put evil doers to death, the sooner they skate.
Anyway, how is this thread a debate?
And if the Devil is six, then GOD is seven!
[/Frank Black mode]
This only demonstrates the uselessness of arbitrary labeling.
Time keeps everything from happening at once.
Time does not exist. Einstein proved that time is not separate from space. The two together are space-time. So do you want to do this thread for space-time?
Possible outcomes:
or
God existing as space-time has interesting implications: the qualities of God are all relative to your location and velocity.
Mainstream Christian culture separates God from the universe, which includes space-time.
You concept is not contradicted by Hinduism as far as I know.
If you are referring to Phillip Garrido, he did not live in Antioch, CA, but rather an an unincorporated part of the county entirely surrounded by the incorporated City of Antioch, in the County of Contra Costa. The screw up was by the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Dept, not the City of Antioch (which is right fucked up all on its own, but not responsible for the fuck up you are referring to.)
Garrido now lives in Placerville, CA in Placer County and is a resident of the Gray Bar Hotel. Placerville proudly boasts the nickname “Hangtown” and has for as long as I have been alive.
The Second Stone. Law-abiding in Antioch, CA
If God were time, people would ask each other whether or not they believe in time. And there would be all sorts of religions based on different definitions of time. That’s silly.
This thread explored the notion that time, like the notional eternal God, has never not existed. It also touched on the IMO unhelpful and confusing suggestion that God could be physical.
As others here have said, you can call whatever you like ‘God’ and reveal - hey presto! - that God exists (St Anselm effectively did precisely that by equating God with existence itself in his famous ‘ontological proof’). But an eternal God with some kind of agenda, personality or capacity to love? That is a pretty unlikely set of properties to be shared by a physical entity like time, which is why I’ve always considered Deism, Panentheism and any other position in which God and the universe were somehow made equivalent to be mere linguistic legerdemain.
Indeed, time itself may even be something of an illusion. Mere atheism is for pussies - I’m an atemporist!
How serendipitous - I’m an atheist and I’ve been thinking a lot about the nature of time recently as well.
Ironically enough, I don’t really believe in time - I accept the B-Theory of time, which is a static universe.
I don’t think that A Theorists could be categorized as believing that time created everything though…