溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
What Was There Before the World Was?
If time came to be with the world, does asking about a time "before the world" even make sense?
God was not doing nothing before — for no time could be without a creature.
Augustine's answer — "there is no time before the world" — was a decisive turn that changed the frame of the question of time's beginning. By seeing time not as eternal like God but as a creature, he broke with Aristotle's view that "time is eternal, without beginning." Remarkably, this insight of sixteen centuries ago resonates with modern cosmology — if the universe has a starting point and time began then, asking about "before" may be, as Augustine said, a meaningless question. Whether we can ask about before the beginning of time still vibrates at the farthest edge of thought, shifting its seat from theology to physics.
To the question "and before that?" that returns whenever science tells of the universe's beginning, Augustine's insight — that the question itself is caught within time — still throws light.
Someone asks mischievously: what was God doing before making the world?
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Someone asks mischievously: what was God doing before making the world? Augustine reports the jesting answer — "preparing hell for those who pry" — and dismisses it. His serious answer is this: time itself was created together with the world, so there is no time "before the world." The question is thus mistaken, presupposing that time already was. I sense this answer is a deep insight that turns back on the very frame of the question. That my asking after "before the beginning" is already caught within time, I too realize here.
✍️Your Answer
The lineage of the ancients ends here. Now it is your turn before the question. There is no right answer — only how you, today, would answer.
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