Hi Moorad;
Moorad Alexanian wrote:
> Dear Burgy,
>
> The sense in which I say that God is not embedded in time, is in the same
> sense that Gauguin is not "embedded" in his paintings. Time is a creation
> and God cannot be constrained by His creation, e.g., time. The incarnation
> of God is hard for humans to understand. God sustains the creation, time
> included, and that we also do not understand. Some topics are hard for
> humans to comprehend. The interplay of God's omniscience and human free will
> is another such puzzle.
>
> Take care,
>
> Moorad
>
I agree with you that time is a part of creation but it really is a result or
an epiphnomena of the created universe in that time is a functional of physical
change; no physical change implies no time. If we take this view of tme, than
God is outside of time (as we define it!) if s(h)e doesn't change but can be
thought of as in time if s(h)e does. Just what is time let alone immutability?
To say time is another dimension, a la general relativity, to the physical
universe is not fully correct for time must be multiplied by speed to get the
right relativistic metric making up the fourth dimension in four-space. But
this latter point has more to do with invariant transformations (math) than
with common notions of time (i.e. thing get old).
Burgy is clear and - in my opinion correct - in his insistence on being
Biblical; God did in fact express surprised and even "repented" thereby for
some of his earlier actions. It is also recorded in scripture that God also
changed his(er) mind based upon the supplication of the righteous. I believe
classical theology deals with these scriptural reference by distinguishing
between God's person and his relationship to humanity in what changes. This may
or may not actually satisfy the intents of scripture but that is another
question. The point here is these scriptures are the "data points" that
Judia/Christian/Islamic theism must fit, and I perceive Burgy attempting to do
just that.
Sincerely;
George A.
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