A question as to the eternal existence of the Abrahamic God?

Question

I can't quite wrap my mind around the concept of having existed forever past, based on the mathematical principles of infinity.

If this God has existed for an infinite amount of time, then there would therefore have to be an infinite amount of time before an event would occur, and would thereby never happen.

Here's a visual aid for my question
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l233/zurahn/inf_diagram.gif


Without a start before what something had not existed (i.e. the God then being created, after which he could do things), how could anything happen, for there would be infinity before something could happen.

Do any of the religions worshipping the Abrahamic God have a explanation for how this works? I'm a little lost.

I should clarify that I don't want to get hung up on the semantics of the word "time."

In terms of a Biblical example, it's list God's actions in a linear sense, "On the first day...on the second day".

Suggesting things work outside the bounds of time only suggests that everything outside those "bounds" all happens at the same single instance.

Oh, and saying "We as mortals can't understand" isn't exactly convincing or helpful.

Oh, and I should also clarify that I'm not arguing the existence of a god here, I want to know if there are any actual religious answers to this, preferrably beyond "we're human, our brains suck."

Answer 1

To everyone saying that God does not behave in linear ways..

What about in the Bible when God creates the Earth. "On the first day..." "On the second day..." HE DOES THINGS IN A LINEAR SEQUENCE.

If God is not bound by time, why did it take him 6 days to create everything, and why did he specifically take one day to rest?

Answer 2

God existed in the time just before infinity...hence, infinity's past. Our universe is finite. It has a beginning and eventually an end (once gravity regains it's control on the powers thrust out by the Big Bang/Creation). Since our universe is finite, our laws are finite. You cannot prove or disprove an infinite being using finite equations.
Take Genesis 1:1...In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This is the main reference (that I know of, but I'm not a scholar) to God exsisting before the universe (the heavens). This is solely from the Bible of the Christian God of Abraham. Islam and Judism also claim rights to Abraham (Abram), so they'll have to answer.

Answer 3

Actually, God is SUPERnatural, and operates OUTSIDE of spacetime. Which means, where He is, there is no time. Outside of spacetime there is no past, no present, and no future. This is a question of theoretical physics, and not of the mathematical concept of infinity. You should read some books on theoretical physics about the dimensions, spatial and temporal. Here's a good one that comes to mind: Hyperspace, by Michio Kaku. Another one is Faster Than the Speed of Light, by Joao Magueijo. Both come in paperback.


By the way, saying that things could happen outside the bounds of time, is not necessarily suggesting that things happen all at the same time. What it suggests is that events could occur infinitely close to one another. (This actually brings the concept of infinity back to your question, which I thought you might like. Not infinitely large like you said, but rather infinitely small, making time non-existent.)

Answer 4

you cannot think of God in human, earthly terms, nor reduce Him to a mathematical formula. God is outside of time. Time has no bearing on the existence of God. God created time, for us. He is not bound by it, nor controlled by it. With God, all is now, there is no past nor future. Maybe I can explain it this way, imagine you are in a helicopter, hovering over a large forest. You see the entry and exit points and all that is occurring in said forest. Now, you see people walking through the forest, they can only see what is directly in front of them, and what was behind them. They cannot see further in then their eyes allow. That is kind of what it is like, God sees the beginning and the end as now, we simply see things directly in front of us, the future we are experiencing as the present. The big difference would be, God already knows what we will do, where we will go, and our death day.
I know it is hard to understand this concept, but that is why He is God, and we are not. We can never hope to fully understand God, He is that much higher than us.

Answer 5

To me that seems a rather weak argument for the non-existence of God (that is to say, there are plenty of arguments that are much better).

I mean, if you think about it, you can divide up the time between any two given events into infinite little parcels, can't you? And if there are an infinite number of little parcels of time in between two different events, nothing would ever happen, right? Motion and time as we know it wouldn't make sense. Yet, with a god or without, there they are.

Answer 6

No. We are mortal creatures and I think there are so many things in the universe we will never be able to wrap our minds around. But you can also apply this to another question: Where did the matter come from that caused the Big Bank, the beginning of the universe? If there were matter before the Big Bang, then it wouldn't be the beginning of the universe now would it?

Answer 7

The God and the Abrahamic God are actually not the comparable. they are the two aspects of the comparable Divine One, yet no longer the comparable aspects. it rather is often considered using fact distinctive strategies wherein they are worshipped, specifically Abrahamic religions vs. Wicca and different varieties of Paganism. using fact the gods are mankind's branch of the Divine One to greater effective comprehend it, the gods are what they signify to us. The God is a god of nature and symbolizes unity with nature. he's the sunlight and the hunter and the perfect masculine, yet ultimately only 1 one million/2 of duality. The Abrahamic God is a god of advent and symbolizes guy's dominance of nature. he's a jealous and vengeful god yet on the comparable time a loving and forgiving god. He represents no duality, considered as a god finished unto himself. No 2 gods are the comparable, yet they are all a element of the finished of the Divine One.

Answer 8

Because God is not bound by time. Our concept of time is based on the sun, the rotation of the earth, etc. God is not built into the material universe, but exists outside time, so it would be more accurate to say he is timeless. No beginning, no end. The universe was created and has a beginning and an end, but God was not created and has no beginning and no end.

Answer 9

I am an atheist, but the Abrahamic God is supposed to be outside of time all together, not existing for an infinite amount of time. Everything would be "now". Your question only fits a time bound entity.

Answer 10

If you start with the premise that God created this MEST universe (MEST = Matter, Energy, Space, Time), then you must conclude that God transcends Space and Time, and consists of something OTHER THAN Matter or Energy. The Bible calls this "spirit" (Jesus said "God is a Spirit, and he who worships God must worship Him in spirit and in truth, for of such is God seeking for.")

If God transcends space and time, that means He doesn't live in a finite duration of time.

We can only understand things from a temporal, finite perspective, because that is the framework in which we live.

This makes understanding an infinite, eternal God impossible, because God lives OUTside our framework, like a 2-dimensional person living in "flat-land" trying to understand one of us, living in this 3-dimensional universe.

When you describe your confusion, it is looking at things from this temporal, finite framework, and somehow, if it's at all possible, you need to "think outside the box."