ABSTRACT
The Newtonian universe has a beginning in time for matter, but not for time itself. God is supposed to have created the material world, probably in stages, starting at some definite point in the past. Before matter appeared, there was a material void: an empty and eternal spatial arena. We might ask the Newtonian: what happened before creation? For the creation is a moment in a temporal framework which stretches infinitely to the past and to the future. God’s eternal character is typically related to this infinite span for time. Space, time, and God all existed before the creation. God chose a particular moment to create the material universe; and God, like time and space, will presumably continue to exist after the end of the material universe. Without God, the appearance of matter at a given time might seem somewhat mysterious. But, of course, any reference to God as creator simply replaces one mystery by another.
