Samuel Beckett Quotes
What was God doing with himself before the creation?
This is a fascinating quotation. During Augustine’s time and for hundreds of years thereafter, this was accepted as obvious truth and taught by the church. When rationality permeated the Enlightenment and science flourished, this view was realized to be clearly faulty—that time started with the creation of the universe by whatever means. However, in the 21st century, new understandings of the Big Bang together with the Einstein revelation of space-time as an entity, caused many scientists to think that it just might be possible that time began with the Big Bang, and Augustine might have been right after all, though for a different set of reasons. This is another example of a difference between the scientist and the political, philosophical or religious ideologue. To the later, truth is eternal. To the scientist all truth is ephemeral and changes as our perceptions, tools, calculations, and understandings improve.
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish novelist, playwright, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. A resident of Paris for most of his adult life, he wrote in both French and English.
