khanpadawan | trinities 212 - Some Thoughts about God and Time @khanpadawan | Uploaded January 2018 | Updated October 2024, 5 hours ago.
trinities.org/blog/podcast-212-some-thoughts-about-god-and-time
In this episode, goaded by several listeners, I give some of my own thoughts about God and time. For the most part I don’t take the time to explain the various competing views.
Without giving a big lecture of philosophies of time, a make a few basic distinctions, and focus on our knowledge of real change.
I’m on the side of those philosophers who advocate Presentism and an “A-theory” approach to time, and on the side of those who believe we have “libertarian” freedom – that sometimes, given all the influences on us and our whole surroundings, there is more than one choice that we can make. This is sometimes called an absolute (as opposed to a merely hypothetical or conditional) ability to do otherwise than we in fact did. For example, you love Coke and Pepsi equally well, but on this occasion you chose Coke. But nothing whatever forced you to chose Coke – you might well, in those very circumstances, have chosen Pepsi. And maybe the soda fountain was low on syrup – so the Coke doesn’t taste right, and you regret the choice – you wish you had chosen Pepsi, and of course you know that you could have, back when you were standing in front of both nozzles.
In the last twenty minutes or so, I focus on an interesting incident in Exodus 32, in the aftermath of the Hebrews’ fall into idolatry (the Golden Calf incident). On the face of it, this text presents God as literally changing his mind; he was on track to wipe out the Israelites and start over – or at least, he was thinking about it – but after a conversation with Moses, he no longer had that in mind.
Really? How could that happen? I reflect a bit on what it means for their to be a kind of friendship between God and humans, and how this relates to the subject of prayer. But note that clearly, if God even could change his mind, then he is “in time,” temporal. In my view, scriptures plainly assume that at various times God is doing X, that he has just done Y, that he is about to do Z, etc.
These subjects of human freedom, time, divine providence, divine foreknowledge, prayer, predestination, and fatalism are huge, and the discussions go back to the 4th c. BCE. Perhaps some time I’ll spend couple of months on a series on these themes, going through the long history of Christian discussions of these topics, and doing more justice to the alternatives to my views.
Podcast listeners – are you interested in these topics?
Links for this episode @ trinities.org/blog/podcast-212-some-thoughts-about-god-and-time
podcast 80 – Foreknowledge, Freedom, and Randomness
1 Samuel 18; Exodus 32, Exodus 32:14; Isaiah 38; Genesis 18:22-33.
Dr. John Sanders’s open theism site
Sanders’s summary of open theism
podcast 141 – Dr. R.T. Mullins – Is God timeless?
This week’s thinking music is “Strength of Knowing“ by Jesse Spillane.
Weekly podcast exploring views about the Trinity, and more generally about God and Jesus in Christian theology and philosophy. Debates, interviews, and historical and contemporary perspectives. Hosted by philosopher of religion / analytic theologian Dr. Dale Tuggy.
This week's thinking music is "Strength of Knowing" by Jesse Spillane.
freemusicarchive.org/music/Jesse_Spillane/Sky_Ship/Jesse_Spillane_-_Sky_Ship_-_09_Strength_of_Knowing
trinities.org/blog/podcast-212-some-thoughts-about-god-and-time
In this episode, goaded by several listeners, I give some of my own thoughts about God and time. For the most part I don’t take the time to explain the various competing views.
Without giving a big lecture of philosophies of time, a make a few basic distinctions, and focus on our knowledge of real change.
I’m on the side of those philosophers who advocate Presentism and an “A-theory” approach to time, and on the side of those who believe we have “libertarian” freedom – that sometimes, given all the influences on us and our whole surroundings, there is more than one choice that we can make. This is sometimes called an absolute (as opposed to a merely hypothetical or conditional) ability to do otherwise than we in fact did. For example, you love Coke and Pepsi equally well, but on this occasion you chose Coke. But nothing whatever forced you to chose Coke – you might well, in those very circumstances, have chosen Pepsi. And maybe the soda fountain was low on syrup – so the Coke doesn’t taste right, and you regret the choice – you wish you had chosen Pepsi, and of course you know that you could have, back when you were standing in front of both nozzles.
In the last twenty minutes or so, I focus on an interesting incident in Exodus 32, in the aftermath of the Hebrews’ fall into idolatry (the Golden Calf incident). On the face of it, this text presents God as literally changing his mind; he was on track to wipe out the Israelites and start over – or at least, he was thinking about it – but after a conversation with Moses, he no longer had that in mind.
Really? How could that happen? I reflect a bit on what it means for their to be a kind of friendship between God and humans, and how this relates to the subject of prayer. But note that clearly, if God even could change his mind, then he is “in time,” temporal. In my view, scriptures plainly assume that at various times God is doing X, that he has just done Y, that he is about to do Z, etc.
These subjects of human freedom, time, divine providence, divine foreknowledge, prayer, predestination, and fatalism are huge, and the discussions go back to the 4th c. BCE. Perhaps some time I’ll spend couple of months on a series on these themes, going through the long history of Christian discussions of these topics, and doing more justice to the alternatives to my views.
Podcast listeners – are you interested in these topics?
Links for this episode @ trinities.org/blog/podcast-212-some-thoughts-about-god-and-time
podcast 80 – Foreknowledge, Freedom, and Randomness
1 Samuel 18; Exodus 32, Exodus 32:14; Isaiah 38; Genesis 18:22-33.
Dr. John Sanders’s open theism site
Sanders’s summary of open theism
podcast 141 – Dr. R.T. Mullins – Is God timeless?
This week’s thinking music is “Strength of Knowing“ by Jesse Spillane.
Weekly podcast exploring views about the Trinity, and more generally about God and Jesus in Christian theology and philosophy. Debates, interviews, and historical and contemporary perspectives. Hosted by philosopher of religion / analytic theologian Dr. Dale Tuggy.
This week's thinking music is "Strength of Knowing" by Jesse Spillane.
freemusicarchive.org/music/Jesse_Spillane/Sky_Ship/Jesse_Spillane_-_Sky_Ship_-_09_Strength_of_Knowing
