One of the mistakes in thinking that I see both theists and some
non-theists making is the assumption time has always existed, but,
logically, that can't be so, since one cannot get from infinitely far away
either in distance or time to here in any trip. Time logically
had a beginning. (See note below).
This is difficult, I know, and caused me a lot of time meditating to
come to understand it. Time itself had a beginning, and not in some
"super-time." To say "before" the beginning of time is a meaningless
statement -- there was no before. Time began and things happen after
that, but not "before." One cannot even meaningfully say there was
"nothing" before -- there was no before. It also follows that the
beginning of time was uncaused, since there could be nothing prior to
time to cause it.
The oft-repeated mantra that "something cannot come from nothing," when I
hear it, merely tells me the speaker lacks intelligence and imagination
and cannot think outside a rather juvenile and naive philosophical box,
usually motivated by a desire to hold onto childhood beliefs (an
interesting psychological issue in itself). I usually avoid exchange
with such people. Religious belief seems to stifle thinking with an
arrogant confidence.
Note: Sometimes people say if time has been traveling forever then in
this infinite time it could have gotten from infinitely far away to
here. That has a certain logic, but think about it -- can something
travel "forever?" No matter how old you might become, assuming you live
forever -- a million, a billion, whatever years -- your age will always
be finite. "Forever" or "infinite" are not numbers, and the constant
fallacy of thinking of them as numbers creates this confusion.
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