# Can the god you believe in time travel? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 7, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001 "2017-04-07T18:57:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/21 "2017-04-07T19:58:11Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > If I screwed up baking a cake, and decided to throw it in the trash and bake another one, did I travel back in time? If you baked the first cake at 2pm, decided that it was screwed up and decided to rebake it _at that very same 2pm_, then it would be considered time travel for the purpose of this conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/22 "2017-04-07T19:59:56Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > If there are infinite universes, which I think is likely, then any change God could make has already happened in another universe anyway (e.g., there’s no need for God to go back in time and stop **Czarcasm** from starting this thread, because there’s already a universe in which **Czarcasm** didn’t start this thread). For the purpose of this conversation, can we not play the “infinite universe” cheatcode? ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/23 "2017-04-07T20:02:18Z")
I don’t believe he or anything else could ever go anywhere in time besides the present. No matter how powerful he was. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/24 "2017-04-07T20:04:08Z")
Ability? Sure. However, I am certain that this would break the arch of time and render whatever experiment The Creator was attempting useless. He/She/It needs to let this universe run its course. Whether there are parallel universes also running, or if The Creator perceives duration the same way we do, is left as an exercise for the reader. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/25 "2017-04-07T20:04:24Z")
In fact, I’ll cut y’all a break. “It is my belief that the god I worship _can_ change what has already happened, but would not do so for (insert reason here)” would be an acceptable answer. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/26 "2017-04-07T20:08:54Z")
If He had changed what already happened, how could you tell? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/27 "2017-04-07T20:09:19Z")
My understanding of many believers I’ve talked to is that God is “outside time”, but also “everywhere”. So it’s not so much that God can time travel, but that he is present in _all_ times at once, and so has no need of “traveling” there. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/28 "2017-04-07T20:11:50Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > If He had changed what already happened, how could you tell? > > Regards, > Shodan Maybe I’ll ask that question next time, since I didn’t ask it this time. If you wish to start your own thread on that, I’d love to see the responses. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/29 "2017-04-07T20:17:20Z")
"“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.” This quote from Omar Khayyám is what got me interested in this topic, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/30 "2017-04-07T20:22:31Z")
> [@HoneyBadgerDC](#): > > I don’t believe he or anything else could ever go anywhere in time besides the present. No matter how powerful he was. In our post-Einstein understanding of space-time, I don’t think it would make sense for God to be confined to one specific location in time without also being confined to one specific location in space. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/31 "2017-04-07T20:25:07Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > If He had changed what already happened, how could you tell? > > Regards, > Shodan He’d send an A2C to show you how the universe looks now, instead of how your personal memories tell you it should look. Not Clarence, though. He got his wings, and he doesn’t have to take those assignments any more. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/32 "2017-04-07T20:27:05Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > In our post-Einstein understanding of space-time, I don’t think it would make sense for God to be confined to one specific location in time without also being confined to one specific location in space. If God was all powerful and all knowing then evolution or creating anything beyond a final goal would be pointless. If he has a purpose I think he just has to wait it out to see if it works or not. A billion years to us might be a split second to him, so time in our terms may be irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/33 "2017-04-07T20:28:28Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > If you baked the first cake at 2pm, decided that it was screwed up and decided to rebake it _at that very same 2pm_, then it would be considered time travel for the purpose of this conversation. From God’s POV (If we are to assume he exists outside the time continuum) he hasn’t rewritten anything. He’s just created another reality. From our POV, nothing has been rewritten as we are only aware of the reality we exist in. So yes, God can make a cake with chocolate frosting, AND he can make a cake with Vanilla frosting. But those two cakes are not one in the same. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/34 "2017-04-07T20:32:41Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > From God’s POV (If we are to assume he exists outside the time continuum) he hasn’t rewritten anything. He’s just created another reality. > > From our POV, nothing has been rewritten as we are only aware of the reality we exist in. > > So yes, God can make a cake with chocolate frosting, AND he can make a cake with Vanilla frosting. But those two cakes are not one in the same. But can he actually unmake the first cake? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/35 "2017-04-07T20:49:58Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > But can he actually unmake the first cake? Can one “unbuild” a house? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/36 "2017-04-07T20:54:05Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Can one “unbuild” a house? Nope. There is a vast difference between “deconstructing” and “unconstructing”- you cannot return all materials to their original states, and you cannot put the dirt back in the same way and order you dug it up in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/37 "2017-04-07T20:56:08Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Nope. There is a vast difference between “deconstructing” and “unconstructing”- you cannot return all materials to their original states, and you cannot put the dirt back in the same way and order you dug it up in the first place. Well, there’s your answer right there. ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/38 "2017-04-07T21:12:01Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > "“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, > Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit > Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, > Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.” > > This quote from Omar Khayyám is what got me interested in this topic, by the way. If God is eternal, s/he does not travel through time because s/he exists everywhere and everywhen. If God is perfect and can do what s/he pleases, there’s no reason ever to change anything. Only people who believe in a literal biblical deluge think God can, or ever needs to, erase past mistakes, and even then s/he didn’t go back in time, s/he just scoured the Earth with a flood. If God could time-travel, whatever s/he wanted to do would occur in real time for those experiencing it, wouldn’t have happened yet for those further back on the time line, and be the only history anybody else ever knew. I like the Khayyam quote, but I saw a more personally applicable version on a glurgy dentist’s office sign: “Life is drawing without an eraser.” Every smudge or mistake is going to be part of the finished picture, so make it as pretty as you can. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/39 "2017-04-07T21:13:29Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Well, there’s your answer right there. Nope-that’s an analogy tied to, well…I don’t know what. Could you try a direct answer to a direct question, instead of dancing around the point? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001/40 "2017-04-07T21:16:28Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Nope-that’s an analogy tied to, well…I don’t know what. Could you try a direct answer to a direct question, instead of dancing around the point? I gave you a direct answer. You just weren’t happy with it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-the-god-you-believe-in-time-travel/784001.md?page=3)