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What was God doing before creation?

Nothing. Since the world was created out of nothing (ex nihilo), nothingness prevailed. Therefore God was idling, just existing, perhaps contemplating creation.

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To quote from St Augustine's Confessions (4th Century): "See, I answer him that asketh, 'What did God before He made heaven and earth?' I answer not as one is said to have done merrily (eluding the question), 'He was preparing hell for those that pry into mysteries'." John Webb, Lane Cove I don't know. He wasn't in when I rang. Beverley Kay, Sandy Bay, Tasmania Every architect knows that God was hunched over a blank tablet of polished granite on his drawing board. Stone chisel poised in hand and beard tucked into his white gown, trying to use His intelligence to design Adam, Eve, and the Garden of Eden.

Henry Clarke, Mullumbimby

Buuger all, and He was bored witless! When he finally realised that the solution to the boredom lay soley with Him, He had a flash of brilliance and seven days later He was a changed man. Patricia Devine, Burleigh Waters, Qld While He was thinking about creating the world God spent eons tossing up between various options: the big bang, the flat earth or the intelligent design theories ... In the meantime He was amazed to watch life emerge from the swamp and by His grace he gave us the world 'evolution'.

Ian Gibbs, Port Macquarie

He (or She) was probably spending time at the local Council trying to get the approval stamped. Grahame Marr, Kingscliff God was doing nothing. NO-THING existed. IT just IS. This is called the Void by Buddhists and Hindus, who, like Christians and Muslims, accept God as the Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient, Oneness. Advaita says with Oneness there can only be an appearance or reflection of One, called phenomenality. In order for God to know Itself, IT manifested as everything. The light of Oneness/God appears as human organisms. These organisms split Oneness into mind thoughts and at this level it is impossible to understand this paradox. This can only be 'seen' by God/One reflected to Itself. God when still (not creating) is the Oneness and there can be no duality. God in Action or creating is God appearing as phenomenality. God in action and still is ONENESS.

John Mamutil, Baulkham Hills

Having second thoughts.

Jim George, Woolgoolga What He always does: answering the question, where He comes from

Fausto Mino, Schofields

She was contemplating how long it would take for Her creatures to stuff it up! Gary Whale, Yamba He was conducting telephone and internet surveys to find out just what kind of world was wanted. Sandy Parkinson, Hilton, WA As all gods are human inventions, the question is redundant.

Brian Wilder, Mosman

Absolutely zero.

Gary Frances, Bexley Cleaning up the mess from previous attempts.

David Burton, New Farm, Qld

He was adjusting the television so that Joseph and Mary could watch re-runs of I Love Lucy.

Paul Fenton-Smith, Lane Cove Looking for His blasted spectacles.

Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie Having experienced the Big Bang at a relatively young age, He spent some billions of angst-ridden years in deep contemplation over the question 'Is that all there is?'

John Gray, Bondi Junction

Negotiating contracts for land use with the NSW Government before He got work underway. Nathan Smith, North Bondi Waiting for His development application to go through council.

Paul Sharman, Coogee

Some words from great mystics on the nature of God before creation: From the Upanishads: In the beginning was only Being, One without a second. 'The deathless Self meditated upon Himself and projected the universe As evolutionary energy.' From Meister Eckhardt: '...until creatures came into existence, God was not "God", but was rather what He was.' Ren Lexander, Epping He was working on concepts like air, water, gravity, sex, etc, when He decided to create the world so that there would be a place where those concepts could be put to good use. George Hayes, Castle Hill He was looking for backers, or He was trying to push it through Council.

Michael Whaley, Victoria

He was on top of the world, formulating God's Own Country, or He was contemplating what would happen if Men were from Mars, and Women were from Venus, or He was very cool, drafting Mother Earth. Steve Barrett, Glenbrook He was considering how much intelligence to give the humans he planned to create - sufficient to ask silly questions! Or He was teaching Jesus to play marbles.

John O'Reilly, Bathurst

Waiting for the plans to go through council.

David Dixon, Canada Bay He was just hanging around asking for trouble.

Hilary Sheaves, West Wollongong

He was busy trying to work out who set off the Big Bang billions of years earlier.

Darral Ashton, Batlow He was working out an intelligent design.

George Quinn, Canberra

He was probably wondering: 'What on Earth?'

Mary Carde, Cherrybrook Waiting for council to approve His DA.

Jackie Blackledge, Willoughby He was getting the plans approved by local Council.

Peter Davidson, Merriwa

Conducting an EIS. Unfortunately, He employed consultants - hence the resulting mess.

Murray Hutton, Mt Colah This answer to this question is unable to be fully understood from a human perspective. As humans we process life as a time line, one day/week/month/year after another, and we can only exist in the present. BUT God invented time itself. He exists in a whole other dimension that is not bound by time. He sees and interacts in the past, present and future concurrently. So to ask 'What was God doing before creation?' is asking what was God doing before He invented time itself? But how can you measure 'before' without the concept of time?

Michelle Burns, Girraween

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Experimenting with his chemistry set. Unfortunately the unexpected Big Bang which fired the Universe finished God too, but not before He lamented 'Good heavens above! What on Earth is happening? Whoever did this deserves Hell. For such sinners Purgatory is too good for them and they can go to Hades.'

Jack Bacchus, Bathurst Nothing.

Andrew Barry, Vaucluse Nothing. Since the world was created out of nothing (ex nihilo), nothingness prevailed. Therefore God was idling, just existing, perhaps contemplating creation. Or, God was enjoying His own perfection and self-completeness. The real question is: Why then did He feel a need to create anything at all, especially something imperfect and external to Himself? Or, God is eternal, so He exists outside of time. For this reason, He couldn't have been doing anything before the universe (and hence time) began, because doing something takes time.

Michael Allen Fox, Armidale

They say that practice makes perfect so I suppose that God created a world before this one and given the state of this one I suppose He'll be working on another one after this. Scott Newham, Chatswood St Augustine replied: 'He was creating a Hell for people who ask such questions'.

Dexter Hoyos, Sydney

We have a tendency to apply the laws of this reality to the entity who created it. Our minds can only process a limited amount of information at any given time; we perceive reality in a linear progression, hence the concept of time. We cannot assume that God is physically or mentally limited as we are; God may perceive all of existence simultaneously, and therefore be free from such limitations. If this is so, there would be no beginning or end, nor before or after, in the state of being in which God exists. Perhaps such an existence is what we refer to as eternity; an absence of time. Who can truly know? Perhaps well just have to wait until we transcend the veil between this life and the next. Peter Rolfe, Bathurst He was in the kitchen cooking, or cleaning the bathroom.

Ashley Dunn, Wareemba The answer is blinking obvious ... Deep in Thought.

Mary Small, Sylvania Heights

The Creator (God, Allah, Rainbow Serpent, Giant Turtle, etc) is assumed to have created time as well as the universe. Such a thing would be beyond time. Therefore the term 'before' in the question is meaningless. The Creator just is (or isn't).

Steve Collins, Warrawee Intelligently desiging evolution.

Girvan McCune, Clontarf

God was predetermining the only thing that science, religion and philosophy all agree upon: He inspired St Augustine to write in the fourth century 'there was no "then" when time was not'. He provoked Stephen Hawking to wonder whether time itself started at the Big Bang along with the material universe. And He created philosophers to speculate, if God did create the world in time, why did He create it when He did, and not five minutes earlier? This arbitrariness demonstrating that God wasn't in time. With this authoritative triumvirate, we can conclude that there was no time at all for God to do anything before the creation of the world. Robert Anderson, Berowra He was doing his maths homework, because mathematics can explain everything in the Universe.

Jack Alexander, Randwick I am working on it.

Joyce Alexander, Blayney

He was on Holy Day. Having Time on His hands, He decided to make the world. Ten Ch'in U, Pennant Hills Designing intelligently, and after this world's use-by, trying to get it right next time.

Ted Hutchison, Rathmines

He was destroying the first one. We're the second prototype.

Bob Smart, Collaroy God was busy planting a garden eastward in Eden and 'Eve took of the fruit thereof and did eat'. Betty Buchanan, Oatley Before He created the world, I believe He ran a bar on Mars,

Mark Leyton, Sydney

He was in nothing, doing nothing, thinking nothing (there was nothing to think about), feeling nothing, reacting to nothing. Indeed He was nothing and to reasonable people is still nothing. And people still worshop this nothing! "What fools we mortals be!" W. Wetherell, Bucca God was having a nice, busy time in His garden shed, thinking away at the details of the multiverse. Our planet was an afterthought, put together when Mrs God had already called him in for tea.

Kate Johnson, Canley Vale

God hadn't been created until humans thought of Him sometime after they evolved on Earth - then full of bountiful life. It's all in the mind. Bruce Holmes, Moss Vale Do scientists know what colour dinosaurs were? Dunno about scientists, but any preschooler can tell you they were purple.

Sandy Parkinson, Hilton, WA

Most dinosaurs were feathered, so one imagines that their colours were as varied as their descendants, the birds.

Steve Barrett, Glenbrook

No. We can only guess that they were as various as today's reptiles. On that basis, they may have been pale underneath to cast less shadow and camouflaged elsewhere to blend with the landscape.

Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie No, but young schoolkids and The Wiggles do.

Murray Hutton, Mt Colah At what age do the young stop trying to look older and start trying to look younger again?

At about the same time as bar staff stop asking them for ID. Stuart Niven, Hunters Hill At whatever age they are when they finally pay off their HECS debt and can then afford Botox.

Alison Sweeney, Randwick

Is it possible to estimate the quality of someone's singing voice by listening to his speaking voice? No. In the movie The Student Prince Edmund Purdom had a beautiful speaking voice, but his singing was so atrocious he had to mime his songs to the voice of Mario Lanza. Marni Nixon was the singing voice of many actresses in quite a few musicals, many of whom had lovely speaking voices, but whose singing was best done under the shower. Sandy Parkinson, Hilton, WA No. Were it otherwise, all of those honey-toned hosts on Classic FM would be opera superstars. Rex Harrison had a melodious voice but almost abandoned his role of Higgins in My Fair Lady because he could not sing. His recitative may have impressed the impressionable but it is not much better than Rap.

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Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie

Usually as soon as they reach the age they'd wished to look like.

Norm Neill, Leichhardt When they physically look older.

John Mamutil, Baulkham Hills

As soon as they realise they have to pay full price in cinemas and on public transport. Sandy Parkinson, Hilton, WA From experience, when they stopped asking for ID when entering a bar. Linda Williams, Chiswick When teeth suddenly turn a melancholy but subtle shade of autumnal yellow, we discover to our relief and delight that dyed hair, a wig or a well polished pate is so much classier than the original.

Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie

When the need to cover the grey hair overrides the need to cover the pimples. Sue Grunstein, Kensington At about the same age as they become old enough to know better.

Will Kemp, Lennox Head

Younger than you'd think.

Roger Marchant, Reid, ACT When bouncers stop asking them for I.D.

Meagan Crisp, Telopea Why are tennis balls yellow?

The "optic yellow" colour is intended to have the best visibility. Some argue orange is more visible in certain conditions, but it doesn't show up well on television, so it won't be adopted for pro events.

Simon Macks, New Lambton They're not. Tennis balls are green.

Seamus Deagan, aged 11, Bellingen

Obviously, it is to make them more visible. Orange is brighter still but does not show up so well on TV. Like all games played on grass, tennis would be lots more fun if the balls were green. Paul Roberts, Lake Cathie Might cause a mighty racket if it's any other colour.

Steve Barrett, Glenbrook Is it possible to estimate the quality of someone's singing voice by listening to their speaking voice?

Anyone privy to the metamorphosis of Gomer Pyle into Jam Nabors would hardly think so. Ron Elphick, Buff Point The human voice is an extension of the human personality and that same one voice handles both the tasks of singing and speaking with an unmistakable similarity. A good teacher should be able (simply by conversing), to interview a pupil and recognise what range the voice should be in (bass, tenor, etc), what correct sound (for that individual) should be and even what sort of material would be most suitable.

Mark Leyton, Sydney

Why do we sometimes see the moon during the day and sometimes not? The reason we see the moon at all is because it reflects the sunlight which falls on it. Whether or not it is seen in daylight or at night is controlled by the Moon's cycle around the Earth and position in the sky relative to the viewer. When viewed from Earth with the Sun located directly behind the viewer we see a full moon. As the Earth and Moon move relative to each other with the Sun at right angles to the Moon the viewer will only see half the Moon illuminated and so the viewer will see a crescent Moon. The complex combinations of viewing angle, position of the Earth and celestial location of the Moon creates the phases of the Moon as seen from Earth.

Anthony Healy, Willoughby Why is land called "real estate"? Is there "unreal" estate?

There is Unreal City, London, according to T.S. Eliot in 'The Waste Land'. Then there is reel estate, aka Hollywood; and very possibly, surreal estate, which might refer to the legacy of Marcel Duchamp and chums, a Dali-esque landscape, or a magical Magritte state of affairs.

Ten Ch'in U, Pennant Hills At room temperature is glass actually a slow moving liquid?

No, glass is solid at room temperature. As it is heated it slumps, then becomes soft and eventually flows as a thick liquid. This absence of a well defined melting point has led people to incorrectly infer that glass still flows at room temperature, albeit much more slowly.The evidence often given is that very old window panes are thicker at the bottom or distort images. Such windows may exist, but do so due to the glassmaking techniques of the day, not the glass flowing over time. Considering the accuracy of some glass optical instruments still in use after decades, a flow rate even this slow would have rendered them useless in a matter of days.

Cal Foote, Bondi Beach ANY ANSWERS? * Did exploring Europeans ever catch deadly diseases from indigenous populations, and if so, which ones?

* Why does asparagus make your urine smell funny? * Why is the owl reputed to be wise?

* What is the most popular house name in Australia? * Why can't you make a sound when a golfer is preparing to strike the ball? READERS' RESPONSES

smh.com.au - What was God doing before He created the world?

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