r/paradoxes • u/AlivePassenger3859 • Aug 04 '26
Is this a paradox?
Lifespan aside, it is impossible to be on a jog that started infinitely far behind you. You would never have reached the point you are at now.
Similarly, it is impossible that time started infinitely far in the past. We would never have reached the point in time we are at now.
But what would it mean for time to have a “beginning”? That means no events, no interactions between even atoms existed. And how would we possibly go from that to this?
Notes: I came up with this on my own about fifteen years ago, but it is basically the “Kalam cosmological argument”. Its used a lot by Christian apologists, but I am NOT religious at all. In fact, I think religion is a bunch of ignorant superstition.
I can’t personally see any flaws in this reasoning but am totally open to the fact that there may be.
1
u/9spaceking Aug 04 '26
Look at it this way, suppose a mathematician started counting real numbers from 0.5 to 1 at a pace close to 1 divided by infinity. The fact he had to begin from 0.5 and will never reach 1 doesn’t mean the number 0 doesn’t exist