His statement:
“If they had been occurring from eternity, today’s event would depend on the completion of an infinite succession.”
We reply:
“We do not concede this. Rather, today’s event would be preceded by events with no beginning. Why do you say that this is impossible?”
I say:
The substance of this is that it would depend on the completion of a succession with no beginning and no first event. It is unbounded in the direction of the past, but has an endpoint in the other direction.
His statement:
“If they had been moving from eternity, there would be two sequences: one extending back from today’s motion, and the other from the motion that occurred yesterday.”
We reply:
“We do not concede this. That would follow only if the motions existed simultaneously.”
I say:
The substance of this is that matching can occur only between two existing things. Yet one may say that matching in external reality can occur only between two existing things, whereas a matching can be conceived between two nonexistent things, especially if both previously came into existence. Thus, the two things being matched may be conceived in the mind without ever existing in external reality, like abstract numbers detached from the things counted; or they may be nonexistent things yet to come, like future events; or nonexistent things that have passed, like earlier events; or existing things, like actual magnitudes and actual collections of things counted.
A second answer may also be given:
The two sequences, one of which is matched against the other, with a difference at one end and no limit at the other, are unequal