Q&A: The Big Bang and God
The Big Bang and God
Question
Rabbi Michael, how are you?
Hawking explained that space-time is finite but without boundaries, and therefore there was no beginning to the universe. That is, there was no moment of creation and no God who created, because there was no beginning from which creation could take place… What do you think about that?
Answer
Hello.
“Space is finite time”? I didn’t understand that sentence. The claim that time is finite and therefore there is no need to posit a Creator is well known, and in my opinion he did not invent it. I do not accept it, because time is not essential to causality. The assumption that everything must have a cause is not necessarily connected to the time axis.
Discussion on Answer
In our terms it is prior in time, but even in a world without time it would still be prior on the causal axis.
Craig addresses Hawking’s no-boundary claim here (recommended to switch to 1.25x or 1.5x speed):
But every cause has an effect that was prior *in time*, so time is essential to causality too, no?