silly Wrote:So assuming that the potential had to start somewhere

I can't conceive of it any other way. I'm sure that has something to do with the limits of this monkey brain of mine. XD

silly Wrote:why does it have to be God?

It doesn't have to be. Like I said, my general belief is that it was a prime mover. Whether the prime mover was the Christian deity or not, I can't say for certain, but that's what I like to believe. I'm certainly not typical in my concept of God from Christian standpoint though.

silly Wrote:And why is God immune from having to be created?

I didn't mention immunity. Personally, I think God was created at the time the universe(s) was created.

silly Wrote:If we are going to be consistent with the notion "that something cannot come from nothing", God must have also been created (if God exists). But God's creator would have had to be created also, and so on, into infinity.

This is where the concept of omnipotence comes from and such. One would posit that if God is omnipotent, the creation of itself is not beyond it's own ability.

silly Wrote:But there's another possibility, which is that the universe just always existed (at least some parts of it).

I like that idea.

I'm not sure. It's possible though. I think that is something that we can only know for sure through mathematics and observance of natural phenomena. Relativity is a bitch.

silly Wrote:Or if you're interesting in the first mover idea, maybe some things were just always moving.

Since everything in the universe is moving, I'd say that's a safe bet. Movement typically seems to be a repercussion of causality though, which leads me back to something initially causing everything to explode like it has. XD

silly Wrote:

Yes. Yes we will. ;D

I had a response to everyone else, but the fucking forums went down and I lost almost the entire thing cause of it. I spent a good amount of time typing that out too > .

Anyway, I'd like to see references on what you were saying about Constantine so I can read up on that. From what I understand, he was a convert to Christianity.