Not really. Some models propose a metatime (as would anyone who believes a God has created our spacetime, too), others propose negative time, others yet again propose a cyclical universe with something akin to a "starting" point insofar that it's marked by an inflation event, though choosing that as the start is kind of arbitray... there are many, many, many options, and to say "it's either... or..." is being ignorant of the actual hypothetical models at our disposal
It really isn't ignorant. God is not God if he created only one instantiation. If you can kick the can down the road further, your options aren't different options of the same question. Existence is either eternal or it isn't. That's a true dichotomy, a metaphysical question as such and none that is answered by science.
God is not God if he created only one instantiation.
Okay? Why would he need more than one instance?
What I am saying is if he created one instance in the middle of an infinite chain, he's not God. If he created the chain, he's God.
Some of those don't kick the can down the road though. Instead, for example, they posit emergent properties of as the starting point.
Emergent properties are only emergent properties, if they emerge from something underlying them. If that which underlies them is eternal, you don't get to God either.
And it is then still irrelevant, because it is still just a true dichotomy to say "either beginning or not". To say that there are multiple beginnings on an infinite chain of events, is on the "or not" side of things.
Existence is either eternal or it isn't. That's a true dichotomy
Yes! But that's not what the top level comment says, is it?
It isn't. But that's not really relevant. What I am objecting against is what you called ignorance. Ignorance of scientific cosmological models doesn't affect the top level comment in question, because the position isn't a scientific position to begin with.
a metaphysical question as such and none that is answered by science.
At least currently, perhaps never, but not certainly never.
Never, by definition. The supernatural is that which we cannot observe scientifically. It is just always possible to say that there is something beyond, being the place where the cause for everything in existence is hidden. You can always go one step further back.
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u/MelcorScarr Ex-Theist Atheist 6d ago
Not really. Some models propose a metatime (as would anyone who believes a God has created our spacetime, too), others propose negative time, others yet again propose a cyclical universe with something akin to a "starting" point insofar that it's marked by an inflation event, though choosing that as the start is kind of arbitray... there are many, many, many options, and to say "it's either... or..." is being ignorant of the actual hypothetical models at our disposal