God's eternal-ness

[JoeFreedom]

I suppose I’m not really sure I have a question, so-to-speak. However, I guess maybe I’m wondering how everyone else, (or if anyone else) thinks about this concept.

Every time I start to think about how God has always (that being the key word), existed, meaning, He has no beginning and no end, how that is even possible? He created us, and so with all things visible and invisible, there is a Creator. And every time I start to think about how immensely incredible and impossibly foreign that concept is to grasp, my brain begins to hurt. If there was nothing, then nothing couldn’t even exist. And God is surely something. And because nothing is something, it is the lack thereof, thus containing emptiness, then nothing could not have ever existed. God had to always exist, meaning that the concept of nothing couldn’t have ever existed, and that God always existed. How did God exist? And as you can see, I begin going in circles. I know this is one of the great mysteries, but welcome your thoughts.

 

[oldcelt]

I suppose I’m not really sure I have a question, so-to-speak. However, I guess maybe I’m wondering how everyone else, (or if anyone else) thinks about this concept.

Every time I start to think about how God has always (that being the key word), existed, meaning, He has no beginning and no end, how that is even possible? He created us, and so with all things visible and invisible, there is a Creator. And every time I start to think about how immensely incredible and impossibly foreign that concept is to grasp, my brain begins to hurt. If there was nothing, then nothing couldn’t even exist. And God is surely something. And because nothing is something, it is the lack thereof, thus containing emptiness, then nothing could not have ever existed. God had to always exist, meaning that the concept of nothing couldn’t have ever existed, and that God always existed. How did God exist? And as you can see, I begin going in circles. I know this is one of the great mysteries, but welcome your thoughts.

Wish I could help, but I think that humans will struggle with the notion of eternity for a very long time to come. Time is one of the fascinating subjects for me, but I have no great insight to offer. We’re in the same boat with our brains spinning over this great unknown.

 

[GEddie]

Wish I could help, but I think that humans will struggle with the notion of eternity for a very long time to come. Time is one of the fascinating subjects for me, but I have no great insight to offer. We’re in the same boat with our brains spinning over this great unknown.

We have to, because our mind is dependent upon a timebound head. Like Peter Kreeft said, feeling and thinking, like moving and breathing, require time.

The wonder is that our mind, with its temporal limitations, can envision timelessness at all.

ICXC NIKA

 

[dmftx]

I think that we’ve all puzzled over this at one time or another as well as, at least for me, why the bible didn’t finish every “story” (example: I would like to know about what happened with Mary Magdelan or St. Joseph). I’d also really have liked Revelations to be clearer.

This is another one of those things that get easier with age…it really is all about FAITH. I’ve come to embrace that there isn’t a promise of tomorrow and that I will know EVERYTHiNG (I think) when I meet our Lord. And if I don’t know or understand everything then who cares…because what will matter is how I spent my time on Earth and worrying about the unknown isn’t very fruitful.

We humans are so inquisitive, aren’t we!

 

[oldcelt]

We have to, because our mind is dependent upon a timebound head. Like Peter Kreeft said, feeling and thinking, like moving and breathing, require time.

The wonder is that our mind, with its temporal limitations, can envision timelessness at all.

ICXC NIKA

I agree on all points.

 

[Micosil]

I suppose I’m not really sure I have a question, so-to-speak. However, I guess maybe I’m wondering how everyone else, (or if anyone else) thinks about this concept.

Every time I start to think about how God has always (that being the key word), existed, meaning, He has no beginning and no end, how that is even possible? He created us, and so with all things visible and invisible, there is a Creator. And every time I start to think about how immensely incredible and impossibly foreign that concept is to grasp, my brain begins to hurt. If there was nothing, then nothing couldn’t even exist. And God is surely something. And because nothing is something, it is the lack thereof, thus containing emptiness, then nothing could not have ever existed. God had to always exist, meaning that the concept of nothing couldn’t have ever existed, and that God always existed. How did God exist? And as you can see, I begin going in circles. I know this is one of the great mysteries, but welcome your thoughts.

Think of God as something whose very nature it is to be. He just … is.

 

[Katholish]

If there was nothing, then nothing couldn’t even exist. And God is surely something. And because nothing is something, it is the lack thereof, thus containing emptiness, then nothing could not have ever existed. God had to always exist, meaning that the concept of nothing couldn’t have ever existed, and that God always existed.

A couple of things might help.

1. There was never a time when there was nothing.

• When we say that God created ex nihilo (from nothing) we do not imply that there was a state of nothingness before creation, but rather that when He created, He did not use some kind of pre-existing material.

1. Time began with creation.

There was no before creation. The concepts of before and after are concepts of time. Time, however, is only a measure of change. There was no change “before” creation, and hence there was no time.

1. Nothing is not a “thing” and hence does not exist.

Nothing is a negative concept. It can only be spoken of in relation to something existing. Nothing cannot “contain” emptiness (emptiness also does not exist).

1. When we use the term eternal, we can speak about it in two different ways. On the one hand, we can mean existing for all time. That is, existing for an infinitely long period on the future and/or in the past. However, when we speak for God, we use the term eternal in a slightly different (and technically more proper) sense. We mean that God is completely and totally outside of time. There is no “before” and no “after” with God. There is no change in God (one of His attributes is immutability), and hence there is no measure of change (the definition of time).