Yes
My claim has always been God did.
And that's a stumper. I don't know where to go from here.
Imagine this conversation:
=== begin conversation Joe and Sara's conversation ===
Joe: "County Road 7 runs just one mile. It starts at mile zero, and runs to mile one. The county ran out of money, so the road just stops.
Sara: "CR7 stops at mile one?"
Joe: "Yes, it does. I have always said it does."
Sara: "Then why do you say you came from mile 73?"
Joe: "I have always said I'm from mile 73."
Sara: "If the road stops at mile one, there is no mile 73."
Joe: "You're saying I don't exist. Don't dismiss my religion. My religion is the topic of discussion, so you shouldn't dismiss it out of hand."
Sara: No, I'm not dismissing your existence. I see you right here. You definitely exist. Please quit saying that I'm dismissing your existence. I just want to know how you square your claim to be from mile 73 when you yourself say that there is no mile 73."
Joe: "There is no mile 73 for hamburgers. What part of this are you not understanding? Why do you keep bringing pantheism into this?"
Sara: "What is pantheism? No, don't answer that; I don't want to change the subject. Our subject is this: How can there be a mile 73 if the road stops at mile one?"
Joe: "Now you are denying my existence again."
=== end Joe and Sara's conversation ===
I hope you can see why Sara is confused, and that you can relate her confusion to my own.
If time only goes back as far as time zero, how can it go back further?
If time zero is the first moment, how can god exist
before that?
If there is no time before time zero, how can god exist at times before time zero?
Do you see why I'm confused?
I've been discussing this on the internet for as long as the internet existed, and you are the first person I've run across to take the position that time began
and that god existed
before time began.
I can't make sense of that claim.
Could you make sense of the claim that I've been on the internet since before the internet existed?
I'm not arguing pantheism. I'm not denying that theists exist. I'm just asking you to make sense of your claim that god existed before time began.
It doesn't
seem to make sense. It seems impossible on the face of it. I could just declare you to be obviously wrong, and then wash my hands of this discussion.
But what I'm trying to do, in as many ways as I can, is encourage you to explain what you're really thinking. Try to rephrase, or come at it from a different angle. Anything.
Because you cannot live on mile 73 of a highway that stops at mile one.