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Question
Why does proving that something has an end ultimately prove that it has no beginning, and vice verse? Can something not philosophically/hypothetically be born into existence and never cease to exist, or cease to exist but that had been around forever beforehand?
Thank you,
Arieh
Why does proving that something has an
perhaps you meant :"no" here?
end ultimately prove that it has no beginning, and vice verse? Can something not philosophically/hypothetically be born into existence and never cease to exist, or cease to exist but that had been around forever beforehand?
The ancient philosophers thought that something that is composed of parts cannot exist forever and must have a beginning. Our sources of course reject this - G-d can create as He pleases; in particular He can make something that has a beginning but no end.
Thank you for your response. Allow me to rephrase. I have heard people say that since such and such a process clearly ends, it must have at some started and therefore cannot go back infinitely. Can this be proven?
Not without the assumption of the ancients. For example, Plato thought that the universe is infinitely old because god [who also is infinitely old] has always been creating it. It is then possible that god has been creating, say, squirrels, at all times in the past, and then decides to stop creating hem forever.
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If you have no objections, I may post this letter on my blog - minus all identification.
Kol tuv [All the best]
Dovid Gottlieb
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