Re: HOPE but not faith

Sylvia Else wrote:
> On 10-Apr-23 2:02 am, Skeeter wrote:
> > [email protected] says...
> >> Skeeter wrote:
> >>> [email protected] says...
> >>>> Skeeter wrote:
> >>>>> [email protected] says...
> >>>>>> Skeeter wrote:
> >>>>>>> In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] says...
> >>>>>>>> On 08-Apr-23 2:52 pm, Michael McLean wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Everything is the consequence of something.  No thing can create itself.
> >>>>>>>>>    It needs a cause.  Thus eternal God or nothing would be here. No thing
> >>>>>>>>> can "be" before it is in order to bring itself into "being."
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> So, God can be eternal, but nothing else can, because.....?
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Sylvia.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> He created it?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Could God create an eternal universe if he wanted to?
> >>>>>
> >>>>> It wouldn't be eternal if it was created.
> >>>>
> >>>> So you mean no, God isn't powerful enough to create an
> >>>> eternal universe.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Twist it around as usual.
> >>
> >> You said it, not me.
> >>
> >>>   If it was created it cannot be eternal.
> >>
> >> Of course it can.  Any omnipotent god can create
> >> something that lasts forever.  If he can't, he's not
> >> omnipotent and he needs to go back to god school.
> > 
> > If it was created it had a beginning.
> 
> You mean God cannot create an eternal universe that had no beginning?

An eternal universe can have a beginning.  If it lasts
forever, it's eternal.  If it has existed since infinity
ago and ends now, it's still eternal.

Eternal just means "having infinite duration".
<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eternal>

> In any case, we already know that "omnipotence" contains a built-in 
> contradiction. Can God create something that He cannot destroy? Etc.
> 
> Sylvia.

Or, can God create itself?

It depends on what kind of god the believer chooses to
invent.