For the purpose of this argument we will focus on what I believe ‘time’ essentially is at the level of experience an unbroken sequence of moments linked by cause and effects, or the moment before it. To discuss all the various arguments would take far too long, and for the purpose of this argument unnecessary. This is something that philosophers, theologians, and scientists have studied and argued for a very long time. If the claim is that God exists outside of all time, then what exactly does that mean? We can infinitely ask what God was doing before creating the universe. If the claim is simply that God exists in a timeline separate to ours then we are left with the problem of ‘infinite regress’ once again. What does it mean exactly for God to exist ‘outside of time’? However, to me this feels like something of a non-answer, nothing more than a meaningless brush off. To overcome this there are those that claim that God ‘exists outside of time’. If a moment is decided arbitrarily that God could have begun from then we are left with the question of ‘What created that creator?’. We are simply caught in infinite regress. The moment before that the same thing and so on, ad infinitum. Which means that the moment before that God was deciding not to create the universe. We can ascertain that simply because the event could not happen before God performed it. If we consider it like this, the moment before creation God would have been creating the universe. We are left with an infinite amount of time existing before God actively chose to create the universe. We are left with an ‘infinite regress’ of God actively choosing not to create the universe. If we work backwards from the beginning of our universe we are left with the same problem as the soldier waiting to fire. Well the first problem comes with the claim that God is ‘infinite’, or has no beginning. The problem comes from some of the attributes assigned to God by creationists, especially those assigned to God by Christians and Muslims. ![]() For when we raise the question of what God was doing before creation we are led into an ‘infinite regress’. We immediately come to a problem when we consider what God was doing before creation. However, upon closer examination of the claim we are drawn back to some of the same questions and problems that cause creationists to posit God as the answer. If we simply say ‘God is the first cause’ then we have overcome ‘infinite regress’. Well if we simply declare God as the answer, then yes it does overcome these problems. Does positing a God ultimately solve the problem of ‘infinite regress’ though? That there cannot be a creator to the creator, otherwise we are forced into another ‘infinite regress’. The argument is also used when addressing the question of ‘Who created the creator’. The claim is that we cannot have an infinite amount of preceding events that led to ‘The Big Bang’, otherwise ‘The Big Bang’ would never have happened as we would be caught in ‘infinite regress’. This argument is then transferred to the beginning of our universe by creationists. There must be a soldier who is the ‘first cause’, the one that gives permission to fire. Eventually we must come to a soldier that gives permission to fire, otherwise the soldier at the front of line would never be able to fire. That soldier then asks the soldier behind them, then that soldier repeats the same process. The soldier at the front asks the soldier behind if they have permission to fire. ![]() If we imagine a soldier waiting for orders from the soldier before to fire at the enemy. An example that has been used to explain the problem is that of the soldier waiting for orders to fire. For if we have an infinite amount of preceding events then we can never get to where we are now, that there must ultimately be a ‘first cause’ or ‘prime mover’. The ‘infinite regress’ argument posits that we cannot have an infinite amount of preceding events or causes. So what is the ‘infinite regress’ problem? The problem of ‘infinite regress’ is one such problem for which God is posited in order to overcome. ![]() That God must necessarily exist in order to explain and overcome certain questions and problems regarding existence. One of the many arguments put forward as evidence for the existence of God is that of necessity.
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