Expansion of Premise 4

In expanded form:

4a. Imagine that the amount of past time was infinite; that is, suppose that the whole of history was of infinite duration, as illustrated (diagram from Thomas' Christian Philosophy Page):

4b. It is impossible that an infinite duration come to an end. For "infinite" means "unending," or "without end," literally.
4c. Now the past is in this way over: it ends in the present. This is not to say that present events will not become history; it is to say that the present is the end of the past, now. And that is all it means, but it makes the difference.
4d. So if the past was of infinite duration, then the present moment (while you read this) could not have come to be.
4e. Therefore, what we supposed in 4a was false; it led us to the absurdity of 4d. The conclusion follows in premise 5.

Note: If this seems hard to understand, think of it in this way: From the point of view of (supposed) time infinitely long ago, whence history proceeds, it would literally take forever (infinite time) to get to 1996. With history progressing day by day, moment by moment toward 1996, infinitely far into that past's future, well, this year would never have been reached.

If you have further objections, they are probably answered in the next section, Objections to Premises 4 and 5, with replies.

If not, feel free to email me from there.

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