Re:Does the Past Still Exist?
by throwaway894345 on Sunday July 24, 2022 @02:26AM
(#32210907)
Pretty sure the Bible talks a bit about God existing outside of time (he sees past, present, and future all at once or some such), so I always figured the model was "God exists outside of our universe much like a programmer who exists outside of his simulation, but can step forwards and backwards through time independently of the passage of time in the program itself". Something like that, anyway.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Does the Past Still Exist?
by Winsaucerer on Sunday July 24, 2022 @02:49AM
(#32211025)
You might be right about such a verse, but I'm not sure off the top of my head. I can assure you though that you can find Christian proponents of both A-theory and B-theory of time. This is an active area of disagreement, particularly among philosophers (although it's true that a lot of question are under active disagreement among philosophers!). Example discussion, which I'm not up to date on myself: https://iep.utm.edu/god-time/
It is a popular notion that God exists outside of time but this is a modern idea with very sketchy biblical support. Certainly there is nothing in the Bible that directly says anything like this.
Traditionally people point to 2 Peter 3:8 and Hebrews 13:8 as implying this idea.
There are a few other passages that seem to hint at it as well.
I'd describe it as a model of God that fits well with the Bible but which the Bible itself does not explicitly present.