Time without Creation?

Faith and Philosophy 31 (4):401-411 (2014)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

We introduce three arguments for the thesis that time cannot exist prior to an original creation event. In the first argument, we seek to show that if time doesn’t depend upon creation, then time is infinite in the backwards direction, which is incompatible with arguments for a finite past. In the second and third arguments, we allow for the possibility of backwards-infinite time but argue that God could not have a sufficiently good reason to refrain from creating for infinitely many moments—either in a world void of created things or in the actual world prior to creation. Our end goal is to help clarify connections between time and divine action.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 101,139

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Creation and Eternity in Medieval Philosophy.Jon McGinnis - 2013 - In Adrian Bardon & Heather Dyke (eds.), A Companion to the Philosophy of Time. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 73–86.
Empty Time and the Eternality of God.Don Lodzinski - 1995 - Religious Studies 31 (2):187 - 195.
An infinite temporal regress is compatible with the Doctrine of Creatio Originans.Paul Kabay - 2005 - International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 57 (2):123-138.
The Infinite Nature of Quantum Cosmology.Ardeshir Irani - 2023 - Open Journal of Philosophy 13 (4):759-763.
Divine Eternity and the Nature of Time.Alan Gregory Padgett - 1989 - Dissertation, University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
Divine Simplicity and Creation of Man.Miguel Brugarolas - 2017 - American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 91 (1):29-51.

Analytics

Added to PP
2014-12-11

Downloads
173 (#137,556)

6 months
23 (#132,893)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Joshua Rasmussen
Azusa Pacific University
Alexander R. Pruss
Baylor University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Belief and the Will.Bas C. van Fraassen - 1984 - Journal of Philosophy 81 (5):235–256.
Belief and the will.Bas C. van Fraassen - 2010 - In Antony Eagle (ed.), Philosophy of Probability: Contemporary Readings. New York: Routledge. pp. 235-256.
Eternity.Eleonore Stump & Norman Kretzmann - 1981 - Journal of Philosophy 78 (8):429-458.
The Pseudo-Problem of Creation in Physical Cosmology.Adolf Grünbaum - 1989 - Philosophy of Science 56 (3):373 - 394.

View all 7 references / Add more references