Hi CS,
CS writes:
A gradual emergence with no discernible beginning.
A gradual beginning just means that it had a beginning but just took a long time to complete. Which agrees with what I have presented in the past, as far as the universe and earth that we see today. But I do believe the energy and matter that they were created out of has existed eternally in the past.
CS writes:
Two half-verses, with their own existence, combining to make a whole universe.
But those two verses existed already just not in the form it was after they combined. Would those two verses you are talking about have had a beginning to exist or would they have existed eternally in the past?
My first claim is the universe has existed eternally in some form just not the form we see today. In other words the materials it is made of existed eternally.
CS writes:
Or, you know, something like the Big Bang model where time is a component of the universe, itself, and thus the question of a beginning is meaningless.
Did the universe exist at T=0? No
Did it exist 1 billionth of a second later? Yes
That constitutes a beginning to exist.
So the BBT requires a beginning to exist.
CS writes:
But we've been over this before. You never acknowledge that there's other options and then some time goes by and you just repeat your tired old refuted claim again.
You haven't ever presented another option.
You presented two universes combining into one which is a beginning to exist from previous material which has existed from their beginning or eternally.
You presented the BBT which requires a beginning to exist as the expansion the universe is experiencing now had it always existed it would be dead.
CS writes:
You just can't budge on your position, despite any explanation or evidence, and then you go on holding the position regardless.
Once you have presented evidence I will consider it. If it is true then I will change what I believe.
Until you are some one else presents evidence that the universe has not always existed in some form or had a beginning to exist I will keep that position.
God Bless,
"John 5:39 (KJS) Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me."