Some theologians and philosophers of religion maintain that, prior to the beginning of the universe, God existed alone in a pre-creation moment. Some friends of a pre-creation moment, such as Richard Swinburne and Alan Padgett, think the pre-creation moment is (1) an interval of time but (2) without a metric. When they say that the … Continue reading Replying to Craig on Metrically Amorphous Time
philosophy
The Malament-Manchak Theorem and Some Objections to Cosmic Skepticism
A creature living on a large enough cylinder wouldn't know whether they live on the cylinder or the plane, and so wouldn't know important facts about the global topology of the space they inhabit. Many physicists and philosophers of physics have the intuition that, in General Relativity, we have access only to local information; from … Continue reading The Malament-Manchak Theorem and Some Objections to Cosmic Skepticism
If Einstein was right, there are no essentially ordered causal series
How we understand cosmology was altered by the development of Special and General Relativity. Here, I want to discuss a less appreciated change I think SR introduced to cosmology. In Aristotelian or Thomistic cosmology, there are two kinds of causal series, i.e., accidentally and essentially ordered causal series, and both Aquinas and Aristotle thought that … Continue reading If Einstein was right, there are no essentially ordered causal series
Reply to Rasmussen on a “new” infinitary paradox
Josh Rasmussen has recently offered a "new" infinitary paradox on his blog. Josh is consistently wonderful to interact with; I deeply admire the patience and charity he extends to his interlocutors and it's something that I work on (but rarely succeed at) emulating myself. Josh doesn't seem to be completely convinced by his new paradox … Continue reading Reply to Rasmussen on a “new” infinitary paradox
Daniel Linford 