{"id":39923,"date":"2018-01-29T08:01:25","date_gmt":"2018-01-29T13:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=39923"},"modified":"2018-01-29T08:01:25","modified_gmt":"2018-01-29T13:01:25","slug":"podcast-212-some-thoughts-about-god-and-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/podcast-212-some-thoughts-about-god-and-time\/","title":{"rendered":"podcast 212 &#8211; Some Thoughts about God and Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_8094\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-39923-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/trinities\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/podcast\/trinities212.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/trinities\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/podcast\/trinities212.mp3\">http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/trinities\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/podcast\/trinities212.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_links_mp3\" style=\"margin-bottom: 1px !important;\">Podcast: <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/trinities\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/podcast\/trinities212.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_pinw\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Play in new window\" onclick=\"return powerpress_pinw('https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?powerpress_pinw=39923-podcast');\" rel=\"nofollow\">Play in new window<\/a> | <a href=\"http:\/\/media.blubrry.com\/trinities\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/podcast\/trinities212.mp3\" class=\"powerpress_link_d\" title=\"Download\" rel=\"nofollow\" download=\"trinities212.mp3\">Download<\/a><\/p><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/7FuUF9DZM3zhtN41n6RJ6l\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_spotify\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Spotify\" rel=\"nofollow\">Spotify<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/subscribebyemail.com\/trinities.org\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe by Email\" rel=\"nofollow\">Email<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-39925\" src=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/William_de_Brailes_-_The_Israelites_Worship_the_Golden_Calf_and_Moses_Breaks_the_Tablets_Exodus_32_-1-19_-_Walters_W10613R_-_Full_Page-1-398x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"398\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/William_de_Brailes_-_The_Israelites_Worship_the_Golden_Calf_and_Moses_Breaks_the_Tablets_Exodus_32_-1-19_-_Walters_W10613R_-_Full_Page-1-398x450.jpg 398w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/William_de_Brailes_-_The_Israelites_Worship_the_Golden_Calf_and_Moses_Breaks_the_Tablets_Exodus_32_-1-19_-_Walters_W10613R_-_Full_Page-1-768x869.jpg 768w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/William_de_Brailes_-_The_Israelites_Worship_the_Golden_Calf_and_Moses_Breaks_the_Tablets_Exodus_32_-1-19_-_Walters_W10613R_-_Full_Page-1-905x1024.jpg 905w, https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/William_de_Brailes_-_The_Israelites_Worship_the_Golden_Calf_and_Moses_Breaks_the_Tablets_Exodus_32_-1-19_-_Walters_W10613R_-_Full_Page-1.jpg 945w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px\" \/>In this episode, goaded by several listeners, I give some of <strong>my own thoughts about God and time<\/strong>. For the most part I don&#8217;t take the time to explain the various competing views.<\/p>\n<p>Without giving a big lecture of philosophies of time, a make a few basic distinctions, and focus on our knowledge of <strong>real change<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m on the side of those philosophers who advocate <strong>Presentism<\/strong> and an &#8220;A-theory&#8221; approach to time, and on the side of those who believe we have <strong>&#8220;libertarian&#8221; freedom<\/strong> &#8211; that <em>sometimes<\/em>, 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) <strong>ability to do otherwise<\/strong> 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 &#8211; you might well, in those very circumstances, have chosen Pepsi. And maybe the soda fountain was low on syrup &#8211; so the Coke doesn&#8217;t taste right, and you regret the choice &#8211; you wish you had chosen Pepsi, and of course you <em>know<\/em> that you <em>could<\/em> have, back when you were standing in front of both nozzles.<\/p>\n<p>In the last twenty minutes or so, I focus on <strong>an interesting incident in Exodus 32<\/strong>, in the aftermath of the Hebrews&#8217; 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 &#8211; or at least, he was thinking about it &#8211; but after a conversation with Moses, he no longer had that in mind.<\/p>\n<p>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, <strong>then he is &#8220;in time,&#8221; temporal. <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n<p>These subjects of human freedom, time, divine providence, divine foreknowledge, prayer, predestination, and fatalism are <em>huge,<\/em> and the discussions go back to the 4th c. BCE. <em>Perhaps<\/em> some time I&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Podcast listeners &#8211; are you interested in these topics?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Links for this episode:<\/strong><a title=\"podcast 80 \u2013 Foreknowledge, Freedom, and Randomness\" href=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/podcast-80-foreknowledge-freedom-and-randomness\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-39927\" src=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/people-2604831_640.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"351\" height=\"427\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"podcast 80 \u2013 Foreknowledge, Freedom, and Randomness\" href=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/podcast-80-foreknowledge-freedom-and-randomness\/\">podcast 80 \u2013 Foreknowledge, Freedom, and Randomness<\/a><\/li>\n<li>1 Samuel 18; <strong>Exodus 32<\/strong>, Exodus 32:14; Isaiah 38; Genesis 18:22-33.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/drjohnsanders.com\/open-theism\/\">Dr. John Sanders&#8217;s open theism site<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/drjohnsanders.com\/summary-of-open-theism\/\"><strong>Sanders&#8217;s summary of open theism<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"podcast 141 \u2013 Dr. R.T. Mullins \u2013 Is God timeless?\" href=\"http:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/podcast-141-dr-r-t-mullins-is-god-timeless\/\">podcast 141 \u2013 Dr. R.T. Mullins \u2013 Is God timeless?<\/a><\/li>\n<li>This week&#8217;s thinking music is <strong>&#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/freemusicarchive.org\/music\/Jesse_Spillane\/Sky_Ship\/Jesse_Spillane_-_Sky_Ship_-_09_Strength_of_Knowing\">Strength of Knowing<\/a>&#8220;<\/strong> by <a href=\"http:\/\/freemusicarchive.org\/music\/Jesse_Spillane\/\">Jesse Spillane<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the face of it, the God of scripture changes, so is temporal. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,75,9,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-divine-attributes","category-philosophy","category-podcast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39923"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39931,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39923\/revisions\/39931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}