THE CREATOR IS OUTSIDE THE CREATION
Posted on July 28, 2010 with 0 comments
I am writing a novel. It is well constructed, logical and coherent. Now, in my novel no one gets killed. But let’s suppose that I have one of my characters cause the death of another character. Would I be prosecuted as an accessory to a crime?
Of course not! I am the creator and stand outside the story. I am not a part of the story. If I showed up in the story you would ask, “Who is this author fellow? What is he doing in here?” I do not exist in the same time frame as the story. This seems so obvious. Yet let’s look at another story and how some people view that story. This is the story of the creation of the universe and time.
Before today, we knew there was a yesterday. And there was a day before that day. Does this chain of day-before-yesterday go back infinitely? I suppose so, since I can’t imagine what a day without a day before would look like. But if there were such a day, then we would call that day the beginning.
If there were a beginning, there had to be cause. But “causes” are the same as days. If there is an event, it has to have had a cause. But a cause must have had a cause of that event and so on. If there is a cause that had no previous cause, I would call it God, the beginning.
Now some atheists have argued that if there is a cause, God, there must have been something which caused God. What they don’t understand is the story of the universe is just like my novel. The creator stands outside the series of events. That is the meaning of eternal. Not that God will live forever, but that God stands outside of time itself.
Interestingly, this line of reasoning was put forward many centuries ago by St. Thomas Aquinas. More recently, physicist have determined that time is a part of the universe and was created when the material world was created. This is exactly what Aquinas reasoned centuries ago, and which modern atheists have never refuted because they do not understand his argument.
Of course not! I am the creator and stand outside the story. I am not a part of the story. If I showed up in the story you would ask, “Who is this author fellow? What is he doing in here?” I do not exist in the same time frame as the story. This seems so obvious. Yet let’s look at another story and how some people view that story. This is the story of the creation of the universe and time.
Before today, we knew there was a yesterday. And there was a day before that day. Does this chain of day-before-yesterday go back infinitely? I suppose so, since I can’t imagine what a day without a day before would look like. But if there were such a day, then we would call that day the beginning.
If there were a beginning, there had to be cause. But “causes” are the same as days. If there is an event, it has to have had a cause. But a cause must have had a cause of that event and so on. If there is a cause that had no previous cause, I would call it God, the beginning.
Now some atheists have argued that if there is a cause, God, there must have been something which caused God. What they don’t understand is the story of the universe is just like my novel. The creator stands outside the series of events. That is the meaning of eternal. Not that God will live forever, but that God stands outside of time itself.
Interestingly, this line of reasoning was put forward many centuries ago by St. Thomas Aquinas. More recently, physicist have determined that time is a part of the universe and was created when the material world was created. This is exactly what Aquinas reasoned centuries ago, and which modern atheists have never refuted because they do not understand his argument.