The Science of God, page 8

I originally U2U'd some material to DaMod concerning some thoughts that have occupied men for centuries if not millennia. This material is from a work compiled in 1739 and I have to admit, I frequently reference it in posts as I am always surprised how prescient it is when compared to our modern understand:

Now, all good men are tasked to exhalt God the Almighty as The Undifferentiated Power before all things. In that place without age or location, nor substance or measure, neither wet nor dry, neither earth, nor air, nor fire, nor light, nor darkness, God being before all things, in entirety as existence without definition may be described in absolute terms Omnia et Nihil. God was in essence and presence as The All without further discretion, or context, or comparison, that no constraint of measure, or age, or any other quality or quantity known to man may be applied and said to be relevant. For the understanding of man, we may term the nature of this state of being as ignorabimus as it is beyond all knowledge of the created.

OK, so the thought is that "God" exists as an entity and that here is, literally, nothing else. In this context, no dimensional measurements are applicable and it acknowledges that humans may not have a concept of this as mankind is firmly rooted in a dimensional sense.

We may conjecture The All as one of sublime paradox for the understanding of man, that each part may be termed the whole, that each moment may be termed as the ever, that light was as dark and dark as light, that high was as low, wide was as narrow, deep was as shallow. We may define no aspect in this existence as pertinent to the state of being but as nihilation without contradiction. So as each moment may be said to be the ever, so came the ordination de novo that we may now know as creation which may be shewn to have always been for that event without ante hoc or post hoc within the state of being of The All existed as a happening at coincidence with all other happenings that may be said to be, as everything and so as nothing and this may be known as The Idea. That the moment of creation did occur is only as known to man but as God may ever be described as omnipotent so creation has always occurred and was ever to occur. Now in action so did God perform the Greatest Sacrifice as issue of The Idea and in so doing did create one Substance from the very being of that most holy presence, Hyle, which may be called the First Matter. This conversion to a physical dimension may be ascribed to a single undefined moment excepting our understanding as the beginning of all things that are known, now and as yet.

So, the concept of being everything without any form of differentiation is iterated and specific mention of "each moment" being the same as "all time" since it promotes the idea that time does not exist. It also indicates the paradox of God being everything and nothing. However, it indicates that an undefined moment occurs when God initiates the creation of the universe. However, it is interesting that although constrained by language, it attempts to reconcile the perception of a moment by indicating that the moment "always" occurs - because it has no context within time since time is not applicable.

Now, understand that Chaos is the first beginning of the first created from an Uncreated Being, that God omnipotent created in the beginning, but before the work of ages it was without shape and also confused. But afterwards all the most sound Philosophers nominated that Essence, the Mother and the first matter of the world and indeed the Universe as it may be known, in whose bosom innumerable forms lay hid, which the Omnipotent Builder, that great Spagirus, appointed in time to break forth, for God was as spirit in that Undigested Matter, Chaos, who some have affirmed ought to be called the Soul of the World, some the Form of Forms, others the Proximate Instrument of the Creator. Nevertheless, God’s design was of change and in that first moment all things that may only be known to man as post hoc, by The Lord’s Will, that The Divine Presence did in entirety become as substance and in doing so rendered all manner of artefact known to man. From the immeasurable divine essence did The Lord’s sacrifice spring forth the primordial matter and ordain the ages that man but measure as the passing of seasons and of the longevity of Sol and Luna.

The author has borrowed from alchemical thought (and text!) and shown how matter is created for the conceptual first time - although not really the first time since it consistently occurs. However, this suggests that the created of matter exists within a repeating framework of the created universe - newborn each time. So, not only matter but the universe (space and time) is created anew each time.

We may also understand that the moment itself was created as may be a measurable quality of the new being, that each day and night and the division of either as we have come to understand may be accorded a name and a comparative relation with another and therefore determined and recorded as so. That man may assign futile measurement to the passing of each moment is not to equate understanding with knowledge. In the Infinite Wisdom of God and in accord with the Great Work so was the moment of age created to support the Holiest Sacrifice that we in turn may come to wonder at the same. That passage has no name or continuity excepting that which man may experience by design, so may all the sides of a dice be known but man may not predict with certainty the happening of each unless by the Grace of God who in All Knowing Wisdom has bequeathed all the ages of man in full knowledge of their destiny but with keen aspiration as to their making as with all things ordained so that some measure of unknowing may become again.

In the previous passage, it is explicitly indicated that "time is created", also suggesting that a paradox of free will against predetermination. The ultimate destiny of this newly created universe is not clear, however, it indicates a possible purpose in the last sentence, "that some measure of unknowing may become again"; Now this may pertain to God or to the universe itself (i.e. a destruction) but it is difficult to interpret even in context.

I have posted this rather long entry simply because I find it comforting to think that people considered this 250+ years ago.