Evaluate the Philosophical Problems Raised by the Belief That God Is Eternal

Many people of religion believe that God is eternal; these views can be put into two different perspectives- timelessness and and being everlasting. Both of these ideas have their own weaknesses.

The first belief is atemporality. This is the idea that God exists outside the realm of time and therefore remains unchanged and unaffected by it. Overall, it means that he is not limited by a time frame and therefore has access to the past, present and future all at once.

The first problem is that the idea of a timeless God can possibly contradict his omnibenevolent nature. In order for God to be omnibenevolent it is accepted that he must change and therefore not be immutable, respond and interact, love humans and be with them and be outside our timeline. If God needs these qualities in order to be omnibenevolent then a timeless but omnibenevolent God does not seem feasible.

Secondly, a timeless God seems to render prayer useless. According to Plato, a timeless God is also immutable and can therefore not be changed over the course of existence. It is also assumed that God is omniscient and has perfect knowledge. People pray with the intent of God bringing about favoured circumstances or events, but if God is unable to change then this makes prayer redundant. Not only this, but if God is omniscient and has perfect knowledge then logically speaking the prayers of humans should not be able to change this.

Thirdly,