I haven’t seen any refutations of Draygomb’s paradox and I was wondering if someone here could provide one or shed some light on the argument.
It goes something like this:
Without Time God didn’t have enough Time to decide to create Time.
God is defined as The Conscious First Cause.
The First Cause is That which caused Time.
Consciousness is that which lets one make a decision.
A Decision is the action of changing ones mind from undecided to decided.
Time is the measure of change.
Premises:
Something which is caused can’t be required by that which causes it.
Conclusions:
- Time is required for Change.
- A Decision is a Change.
- Decisions require Time.
- Consciousness can’t let one make a decision without Time.
- Consciousness requires Time.
- God is Conscious.
- God requires Time.
- God can’t be the cause of Time if God requires Time.
- God isn’t the cause of Time.
- God isn’t The First Cause.
- If God isn’t The Conscious First Cause then God doesn’t exist.
- God doesn’t exist.
(Are conclusions 4-5 based on false premises?)
Welcome, Jon:
Besides the obvious conflation of God’s
ways with our
ways, which is unsound scripturally, if God does not exist as First Cause and Prime Mover, then the
causal series, of which we are a part, must be without beginning. If it is without beginning, then it must be
infinite or
finite. If it is
infinite, then it is impossible for the universe to be here now (or, at least, within the 16.7 billion year duration of it) as it would still be transpiring as it would take an
infinity (of time) to get here. Infinity is not made up of a set of finite parts. Infinity does not consist of a set of finite being(s). Yet it is required if there is no First AND uncaused Cause, i.e., First AND un-moved Mover. To postulate that it can be otherwise is to postulate nonsense as such a conclusion can only emanate from an imperfect understanding of
infinity, i.e., the
infinite.
Even if one concedes that perhaps this is all part of not an absolute (actual) infinity, rather, perhaps it is all part of what is alternately meant by
potential infinity. But, I would argue that even a potential infinity that is here and now existing, had to have a beginning at some time in our trans-finite past. If not, then we would, by necessity, be merely a part of an infinity, which is impossible.
Time is the measure of motion/change. Moreover, it is the measure of motion/change for finite being, i.e., mobile being. It cannot be be a measure of anything that has anything to do with an infinite (timeless), completely simple (not consisting of parts), everlasting being. Consciousness does not belong to God, as it does with humans, instead, God is Consciousness. It cannot be a
part of God. Finite being exists as
parts outside of parts. So, consciousness is a part-outside-of-parts of the
complexity we call “man.” Thus, we say in our languages, ‘man has consciousness’, rather than ‘man is consciousness’.
Being consciousness furthermore, is being the pinnacle of the order of conscious being. We know that all of the categories do not start, i.e., derive their meaning, their
sense, from within the order in question but below it. Otherwise, sense would be nonsense. Do we know all of what ‘consciousness’ entails? No, we do not. We were made in our triune God’s
image, which includes consciousness, but to a lesser degree. God requires no sleep, no re-setting, as it were, of the apparatus of consciousness, as ever-more complex creatures do. Injury to the apparatus of consciousness, or sleep deprivation, cause malfunctioning of consciousness at our level of being.
And, finally, God’s so-called decision-making ‘process’ is a function of an Infinite and Eternal Will. It occurs within a being that does not consist of parts outside of parts, in an Eternal Now. The Now, for lesser creatures is not a part of ‘time’,
per se, instead it separates the two continuums, the past and the future. It is that
place, that is, that which is surrounded by the immobile surface of a surrounding body. Therefore, it is ‘outside’ of time. Analogically, it travels along on the front side of the past continuum, but on the back side of the future continuum. Decisions are made, even by humans, within a Now. The dialectic, i.e., that leading up to the conclusion which is the act of the intellect resulting in a decision, is a separate activity, transpiring itself in segments, “Nows.” Our thoughts appear to us to be continuous and in the sense that each part is a piece of a related whole, they are. But, that is how finite being functions. That is proper to and a property of finite being. God, on the other hand, is manifest in an Eternal Now. Therefore, there are no past segments of a dialectic that relates to our segmented dialectics. For God, the dialectic and the decision are concomitant and correlative, all taking place at the same moment. Otherwise, God’s Omniscience would be an imperfect omniscience: an omniscience not of God, but of something else. And, like the finite universe, it, too, would be in need of a beginning, a creator. So, it is not a question of how it works within an Infinite Being, but rather , it is question of a defect in our ability to reify it from the standpoint of God.
God bless,
jd
Thanks.
