Does a beginning of time imply a beginning of the physical universe?

Question

In William Lane Craig's "Kalam Cosmological Argument" he gives two philosophical arguments to show that time has a beginning. Then he argues that since time has a beginning, the physical universe must also have a beginning. And since whatever brought time into existence must've existed without time, then it must be immaterial.

All of this reasoning depends on the notion that nothing tangible/physical/material can exist without time, and that anything that exists without time must therefore be immaterial/non-physical/non-tangible.

I'm not interesting at this point in whether Craig's philosophical arguments for a beginning of time are sound. I'm just curious to know whether you think time is necessary for physical existence and whether a beginning of time (if there is such a thing) implies a beginning of the physical universe.

Thank you.

Answer 1

Does a falling tree make a sound if no hearing being is there to hear it?

Time is simply when an event occurs. If no one is there to record the time, the event still occurs, yet [independent of time], it goes unrecorded.

The beginning of time starts with the present and ends with the present. An immeasurable time indeed.

So the answer is yes. The physical universe [now (at the present)] begins with time.  

Answer 2

Hmm, way i see it for something to be "created" time must elapse u know.  and yes, time must have a begining i think cause everything has to start somewhere, but the real question is whether time has an end or not, and whether the end of time means the end of the universe, of if the universe simply stands still.  also, can time start again, and if it does does the universe start again or does it continue from where it left off.  if the latter, well then time may end and begin countless times, i mean its not like anyone would know if time stood still for thousands of years and then resumed again, we would just go about our lives without missing a beat right!  but if the end of time does mean an end of the universe, then the begining of time should also mean the begining of a universe.

Answer 3

We are time bound. In order for us to understand we must have a beginning and an end.

Our world, Urantia,(Earth) is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon. This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa, the source of this information hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection--the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God.

Only by ubiquity could Deity unify time-space manifestations to the finite conception, for time is a succession of instants while space is a system of associated points. You do, after all, perceive time by analysis and space by synthesis. You co-ordinate and associate these two dissimilar conceptions by the integrating insight of personality. Of all the animal world only man possesses this time-space perceptibility. To an animal, motion has a meaning, but motion exhibits value only to a creature of personality status.

Answer 4

I prefer to default to physics on this, which has pretty solidly demonstrated that time and space are two sides of the same coin.  Time is a dimension just like the 3 spacial dimensions.

Time would appear to be necessary for events to happen.  Without the dimension of time, you are left with a static field where matter could exist, but nothing meaningful could ever happen because nothing ever changed; everything would be frozen in place until (if ever) time started.

The big bang was the beginning of time (and space) for our universe, but it need not have been the beginning of time for whatever process started it.  In such a scenario, events become binary:  either they happen or they don't.  There are no odds of an event happening or not except for 0% or 100%.  This is because before time starts in _our_ universe, you could have any amount of time occurring before it/outside it, up to and including an eternity.  Thus any event with even the remotest possibility of happening will happen eventually, given enough time.  So even if the quantum fluctuation that began our universe was a one in a quintillion possibility, it _would_ happen...eventually.  And since _our_ time only began with that event, we would have no means of judging how likely that event was, only that it was at least infinitesimally greater than zero.

So here we are in a universe with 3 spacial dimensions and 1 time dimension...that we know of.  But what if there were more spacial dimensions, or even more time dimensions?  Below is a link to a video I came across some time ago exploring that possibility.  See if you can wrap your head around that, it's some pretty wicked stuff.

Oh, and would you believe I occasionally dream in 4 spacial dimensions?