Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A question ...

Given that God is eternal, which is to say outside of time, and that he creates the world by virtue of his thinking of it, does it not follow that the world and everything in it is in some sense eternal as well? In fact, how could he have begun to think of it, given that the term begun - like every other temporal term - has no meaning in an eternal context?

Any thoughts?

A while back, Andrew Kenneally posted a piece relevant to this: God, Time, Idolatry.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Frank,

    At first glance, your questioning seems to ask for a super thought experiment, something more elegant than what Einstein ever came up with. As if we have to think of God as some superstar of nth-dimensional being and thought containing everything all at once, and that the way it then works is in super relations, with time as a dimension, looking at it geometrically, and spinning in integral calculus and so forth. But not so. Simple algebra will do. God is X. X is love. God is love.

    When you love, wherever and whenever, you are acting out of your eternal God being. Just as I am when I do it. Now we can see that that is always and all at once in the world we live in. That's all there needs to be.

    Love is part of time while being outside it. Oddly enough, it is very much outside scientific measurement too. But it is there. It is there in our thoughts and experiences as well, which is what Carl Jung seems to be getting at, experiences that are eternal, which enter and come from our collective unconsciousness. It is then possible that I can experience experiences that you have had, that have become part of that shared realm, in that they were shareworthy. They don't have to be delightful and lovely.

    Just as we might ask how long a poem will last, we might ask how long might an experience in the collective go on, how many will become meta or holy experiences?

    But back to the easy love stuff. Let's look at falling in love to see how eternity comes into play. Sometimes when two lovers meet, serendipity and synchronicity kick in. The stars really do come out and align as if the heavens are opening up. Different signs come up during the day that make the lovers know they have found the right match, as if their love was written before or outside of time, and is to be there for eternity.

    Yours,
    Rus

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  2. As I said in the comment I just deleted, I think your response is brilliant. But I wanted to add that the precise reason I think that is because it brought me up short by reminding me of love.

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