God and Time

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Achilles6129 said:
So you basically believe that God is in metaphysical time which has an infinite past. This is my proposition as well, but I would add one more thing: I think that this metaphysical time actually has to be a part of God’s being or else God is somehow subject to time.
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Ontological time is a manifestation of God’s Being. Hence I prefer “ontological” as in ontology, the branch of metaphysics that deals with the nature of being.

Thank you for the response.
Yppop
 
I have an interesting question about the first way in the Can God decide? thread if anyone wants to check it out. Or discuss on this thread instead. I don’t mean to interrupt
 
STT said:
Because it is only one act. Time is required if there are two acts and more, when one act follows another one etc.
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Can you explain the reason why? Wouldn’t time be required for any act?
 
thinkandmull said:
I have an interesting question about the first way in the Can God decide? thread if anyone wants to check it out. Or discuss on this thread instead. I don’t mean to interrupt
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No problem - I’ll check it out.
 
Here’s another question for you STT: the second member of the Trinity obviously became temporal in order to come into this world. Do you believe that he’s back to being timeless now? Or is he still temporal?
 
Achilles6129 said:
Here’s another question for you STT: the second member of the Trinity obviously became temporal in order to come into this world. Do you believe that he’s back to being timeless now? Or is he still temporal?
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These are very good questions. There is a lot of discussion regarding this. Perhaps a Catholic who is expert in the topic can enlighten you better. To me the concept of incarnation is problematic if we accept the fact that human nature is temporal.
 
Would God’s act have any duration? He doesn’t need to change how He is extended in space. He does not need to change His will. He does not need to move from one thought to another. All of our common references to action have to do with us creatures who need so.e type of duration to change. But God does not change. Things outside him do. God has one act directed towards all things in the present they exist. For us they are past, present, and future. In God’s knowledge they are all NOW.
 
STT said:
Time is needed when you have an ordered sequence of states/things and want to move from one member of the sequence to another member in order.

No, if there is only one act.
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So why wouldn’t time be needed for any act - even if it is only one act?
 
STT said:
That I have already answered. You need time when there is a sequence of acts.
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OK…so if I only engage in one act, are you saying I didn’t need any time to complete it?
 
Achilles6129 said:
Because without time it seems that you would be totally frozen and able to do nothing. Why wouldn’t an act require time?
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Time is about past, present and future or in another word before, now and after. There is no before and after but only now when there is one act hence we don’t have time.
 
There is a difference between ACT and ACTION
Act is a short way of saying what in modern English we call “Actuality”.

An egg sitting on a table is an Act, an actuality, and requires no time.
An egg incubating, growing inside, and hatching, is an Action, with duration from the egg to the fully developed chicken (one being, with multiple “stages” of actuality, and in each moment of time, more fully approaching the Act(uality) of “chicken” to match its form).
There is action in moving toward Act. But Act itself is completion, and timeless.

God is IN ACT, complete; he is not becoming God, like the chicken moves from egg to hatchling to chicken. An fertilized egg is a chicken moving toward completion, but not fully in Act, not fully matching its form.
 
STT said:
Time is about past, present and future or in another word before, now and after. There is no before and after but only now when there is one act hence we don’t have time.
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I see. So you’re saying that we don’t need time for “now”?
 
John_Martin said:
There is a difference between ACT and ACTION
Act is a short way of saying what in modern English we call “Actuality”.

An egg sitting on a table is an Act, an actuality, and requires no time.
An egg incubating, growing inside, and hatching, is an Action, with duration from the egg to the fully developed chicken (one being, with multiple “stages” of actuality, and in each moment of time, more fully approaching the Act(uality) of “chicken” to match its form).
There is action in moving toward Act. But Act itself is completion, and timeless.

God is IN ACT, complete; he is not becoming God, like the chicken moves from egg to hatchling to chicken. An fertilized egg is a chicken moving toward completion, but not fully in Act, not fully matching its form.
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Right, ok, so how could God do anything if God only experiences “now”?
 
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