Reasonable Faith Podcast God, How Do I Know You're There?
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Mar 9, 2026 A thoughtful defense for a finite past and a tensed view of time. Reflections on learning from secular philosophers and the phrase all truth is God's truth. Personal counsel about assurance, perseverance, and seeking spiritual confirmation. Sensitive advice for a teen struggling with gender questions and notes on philosophical ideas like transworld depravity.
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Past Cannot Be Merely Potentially Infinite
- The past cannot coherently be a merely potential infinite because events occur from earlier to later rather than being generated from the present backward.
- William Lane Craig argues that only a tenseless B-theory avoids the problem, but he defends a tensed A-theory where the past must be finite if time is real becoming.
Tensed Time Makes An Actually Infinite Past Problematic
- If time is tensed, a beginningless past would require successive enumeration of an actual infinity ending in the present, which Craig finds problematic.
- He acknowledges B-theory (tenseless time) would evade the successive-addition problem but rejects it as false.
Learn From Atheist Philosophers Where Appropriate
- Read and learn from atheist philosophers and secular work where Christians are underrepresented, since truth can be found across perspectives.
- Craig names philosophy of time and abstract objects as fields where secular scholarship taught him valuable insights.