Archive for January, 2007
God and Time Part V: The Argument From Divine Personhood
Tuesday, January 30th, 200711:45 am
There are many who would say that there is good reason to think that divine timelessness is false. One argument attempts to show that divine timelessness is incompatible with divine personhood.[i] Robert Coburn has argued that there are certain intellectual capacities which are required for personhood but which God could not have were he not […]
God and Time Part IV: The Argument From The Incompleteness of Temporal Life
Wednesday, January 24th, 20074:18 pm
Perhaps the best argument for divine timelessness is that God’s life would not be complete if God were in time. Paul Helm makes this argument in “Divine Timeless Eternity:”
Let us grant that a God in time may perfectly recall every detail of the past, as (we may suppose) we on occasion recall details of our […]
God and Time Part III: The Argument from Simplicity
Sunday, January 21st, 20073:15 pm
Similar to the argument from immutability is the argument from simplicity. Divine simplicity is the doctrine that God is not a composite being, but exists as one whole. Anselm formulates an argument for timelessness from simplicity in the Monologion:
Suppose, on the other hand that [the supreme nature] exists as a whole in times severally […]
God and Time Part II: The Argument From Immutability
Saturday, January 20th, 20071:25 am
Among early Christian philosophers, a common argument for divine timelessness is that timelessness follows from immutability. Thomas Aquinas makes a brief argument for this in the Summa Theologica:
I answer that, As we attain to the knowledge of simple things by way of compound things, so must we reach to the knowledge of eternity by means […]
God and Time Part I: The Open Theists and The Greeks (who we will ignore from now on)
Thursday, January 18th, 20074:21 pm
Most of the early Christian philosophers have said that God does not exist in time. Recently, many have rejected this notion and view God as a temporal being. These are not merely the “open theist” types who also deny God’s knowledge of future events. I do not feel the need to discuss how the idea […]