How Can God Make a Decision Without Time?

Alex J. O'Connor, aka. (The) Cosmic Skeptic, presses Dr. Craig on sufficiency, language, and philosophy of time.

We welcome your comments in the Reasonable Faith forums:

[somebodysomewhere]

You posted this video just as I am wondering this EXACT question and locked in a debate about it. Thanks Dr.Craig

[jaaaaysselam]

Alex is so respectable. Love that he's always willing to engage in these conversations.

[whitestone]

When we are with him I believe all this intricate dialogue will fade away and we will essentially be aware of other deeper truths.

Namely:

Our corruption and His holiness.

Our lack and His sufficiency.

Our guilt and His mercy.

Our desperate need and His all consuming love.

Who knows, Christ may indulge (as a loving parent might) what we think are cleaver questions…but I suspect and hope we are more likely to be overwhelmed by His glorious presence than ask Him to explain Himself.

[MorganFreemansFavoriteFreckle]

Considering our very essence is temporal, I think this is one of those realms where our minds can only delve into the shallowest aspects of the concept.

[HeathenThrone]

WLC - the GOAT- at 70+ years old now bringing it to the newest of school atheists.

[rickintexas]

It is practically impossible to describe an infinite being based on words of finite beings. Dr. Craig does as good a job as anyone.

I can’t perfectly describe God. That is due to my limitations, not God’s. Thank God that men like Dr. Craig can do a better job than me 😀🎚

[blakejohnson]

Wow Craig… EXTREMELY well done! Your videos are quite literally fountains of wisdom! I’ve sent these videos to so many atheists and learned so much and changed certain views I used to hold because of your amazing arguments. Keep doing the Lord’s work and God bless!

[japexican]

It’s interesting that space, time, and matter are not absolute qualities of Gods perfect being but rather merely shadows or snippets of Gods perfection they merely portray an imperfect conception of his being, an imitation or substitute which is rather odd going from perfection to imperfection almost as if reverting backwards rather than forwards

[briemuss]

This is the one question I’ve always wondered!

[peterbassey]

We are the ones trapped within time. We have always been; as such thinking or conceptualising anything outside of time is so brain-twisting it could send anyone round the bend. Let’s be content that when we step out of this realm, everything will become crystal clear.

[jacobw]

Why do people waste time discussing this stuff? The answer is nobody knows. We simply can’t comprehend what is happening at the level God operates. So it’s futile to even try to address it. But I am glad to see Cosmic Skeptic engaging with Dr. Craig.

[bryanboone]

I don't know what the hold up on these concepts are for people? Sure, these concepts about God do not make common sense and are difficult to understand. But this happens in mathematics all the time and everyone has no problem accepting those things.

There are 4 dimensional shapes like the Tesseract, and there are n-dimensional shapes and structures like a Karnaugh Map. It is said that there are something like 11 dimensions in the physicals Universe for quantum physics to work. Then there are things like Fourier Transforms and Series that kinda use "hand waving" to reduce to a more simple problem. Even Pi is something we cannot cannot fully understand. How can the decimal place be infinitely long? It just doesn't make sense.

All of these concepts don't really make sense, but we kinda just accept them to be true, even though they don't and can't ever really be understood by us. So what's the problem with doing the same thing with God?

[EasternOrthodoxChristian]

Because he is God, almighty omnipotent all powerful and eternal

[JohnDoe-dpsk]

According to Gerald schroeder time started something like .00001 sec AFTER the big Bang when there was matter which is slower than light because time doesn't tick at light speed.

So there were events before that weren't experiencing time.

So if you can do actions at light speed and infinite gravity there would be no time for these events....but an external viewer could experience time like us watching a photon that doesn't experience time.

[brando]

I suppose semantically the answer from Dr. Craig does “work”, however for me it opens up more questions. For example, what exactly reins in the capabilities of free will? If there is no time sans the universe, how do we define the limits of free will? Did God have the ability to choose something other than to create a universe, or was his free will limited to “create a universe or not create a universe”?

[savedbymylovegodthelordjes]

praise the only true living LORD and GOD bless you all glory be to the HOLY TRINITY forever and ever amen 💖✝️✝️✝️

[VenusFeuerFalle]

I wished we would have so well articulated and intelligent people in contemporary Muslim philosophy.

[jackalsgate]

If your god is a being, making decisions, or choosing to make decisions: he is not infinite.

[japexican]

God is spirit: space, time and matter do not equate with spirit

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”
‭‭John‬ ‭4:24‬

[Birdbussa]

I don’t think bill is answering the question here. He is saying the “instant” that the being made the decision. It implies time. Are there instants in timelessness ?