Thomyum2 wrote: ↑March 8th, 2021, 2:15 pm
I agree with what the author is saying here, but I think both of you make important points. From the human perspective, we think of the act of 'creating' as something that takes place within a framework of time and it is difficult for us to imagine it as something outside of that. But to conceive of God as a being that is confined within time and bound by time and space is contradictory to the very notion of a supreme being. If God created the universe, then God must have created time also, and God's very existence cannot be temporal in nature.
Yes, you can proceed to deny the supreme being's temporality, but this comes with consequences to the other attributes of this god. One is that it cannot be a personal being with agency, thought, will, etc., because time is intrinsic to all of these things. Secondly, somehow associated with the first one: the supreme being could not act, and there can't be a state of potentiality in its acts, nor a consequence for any of its acts, as all of these imply temporality. Creation as the result of the wilful act of a supreme personal being is then not possible. That includes, of course, the creation of time itself. An instance of creation of time is a contradiction, because time is implied in the concept of creation. So, we are only left with the notion that time is not created either.
At the end, when you combine all the logical consequences, we end up having at least three independent realities (a non-personal god + the universe + time), none of which has a creator, nor a beginning, nor an end. One still wonders why the need for the existence of this god.