If religiously minded people believe that "God" is without beginning or end......?

Question

why do they dismiss out of hand the idea that the energy from which this Universe is created from is without beginning or end? The argument that "God" created the world out of nothing but a "God" itself was "always" here strikes me as non-sensical.

Regius Filius Deus: "God lives in the eternal now"? Where is your evidence!!? Yes, astrophysics points towards a point where the "universe" began but the energy that the was used to construct that energy always existed (and I agree with our inabiltity to accurately describe eternity). The disagreements are in what was the catalyst.

sorry, meant "energy that the was used to construct that universe always existed"

Answer 1

God did not create the universe from nothing. He created the universe by organizing existing matter that was unorganized.

Answer 2

Actually, modern astrophysics points to the demonstrable fact of the beginning of the space time continuum and its associated matter and energy. This is what the big bang is all about.

If you can wrap your head around the idea that time has not always existed, then to speak of time before time is, you will agree, non-sensical. To speak of God as "always" existing is an unfortunate limit to our language since it points back to time, which is irrelevant outside of the space time continuum. God lives in an eternal now. Imagine an infinitessimally small point, into which is crammed all matter. Time itself has compressed, and outside of this point, there is no time. Now expand it out like a balloon. All time that ever has existed, or ever will exist, exists only within the confines of that balloon, and outside of that balloon is eternity. It is from this perspective that God lives - He can see all that ever was or ever will be, kind of like a movie: the beginning and end of the film all exist at the same time, and it is only when it is set in motion that "time" is experienced, and only for those on the film - those outside of the film could see what was happening, and if it were possible, the film could be stopped, removed from the projector, turned on edge, and one could see the beginning, middle and end of the film at one time if one could peer through its layers.

For more information on the big bang, here's a link to NASA:
(I intentionally took you to a search page so you can verify that it is in fact NASA)

http://search.nasa.gov/search/search?q=%22big+bang%22&output=xml_no_dtd&sort=dateADALAd1&site=nasa_collection&ie=UTF-8&client=nasa_production&oe=UTF-8&proxystylesheet=nasa_production

Hope this helps!
Tom

Answer 3

I don't believe anyone dismisses out of hand that the energy which this universe is created is without beginning or end. I think the argument is that God is this energy and the Atheist argument is that energy is not God.
There is no debate about energy. Noone says God created anything out of 'nothing' as you say. We simply say that only God knows the reality and that we believe there is a God.
The only debate thesis that is based on 'nothingness' is evolution. We ask, 'from where did we evolve?' and we get answers about goo. We ask, 'from where does this goo come?'. We get, we don't know.
We say, 'God created us.' And we feel hope and security.

Answer 4

can i join ur boat, ur train of thought?

it seems many things that are said by scholars are nonsensical and based upon medieval knowledge. the bible contradicts itself on so many levels. i belive that religious people havent caught up with the modern times, religion tends to make people asleep. we know this energy is without beginning or end, we know that god is the same, but the termanology is different and yet people are not able to put two and two together. this will cause misunderstandings. i do believe many wars are fought because people dont understand anything especially concerning religion and god.

'my god is right', one group says 'no, my god is right', another says, yet nobody has any idea who is right and who is wrong. only that they are taught this and are taught that and it conflicts with another teahcings and the whole world is now a bloody mess.

sorry

Answer 5

your eternally existent energy amounts to the same thing as the personal God of Christianity. Something eternally existed. Even if you believe the big bang - something was there to go bang. The difference is whether you believe in a Creator that has a purpose, or an impersonal force that could care less whether we exist, let alone how we act.

Is life all one big accident?

Answer 6

From my eduction I learned that "In the beginning....
God created the heaven and the Earth etc etc..
Just believe that there is an energy stronger than you out there that is a positive energy, just find your way to tap into it.
Most use prayer or meditation.
I do believe God is the beginning and the end and is our "energy"source, kinda like our battery charger ;)

As long as you have faith, that's all that counts.

Answer 7

That means religion is non-sensical. You just answerred yourself a very large question in life. (or at least accepted something for what it really is)

Answer 8

I think it has to do with the Holy Name YHVH "I Am That I Am" and the difficulty with which persons conceptualize 'the eternity' -- coupled with the concepts of supernatural multidimensional existence.

Matters of faith cannot wholly be substantiated in human terms.

Answer 9

It's the separation that I see between the creator, and creation. They are two separate things. One thing the Bible does is warn us not to get the two mixed up. We are to worship the creator, not what he created. So you see how we can have differences with certain other religions, can't you?

Answer 10

There are far more flaws than that, afterall if we were created in his image and have the capacity for evil so does he.

The list goes on.