Page 67, Time, Death, and Conscience, Chapter 7

The entry of Dasein into the world was an event of massive import. It was then that history, significance, worldhood, and, in a sense, time itself began. Dasein in Heidegger takes over some of the functions traditionally ascribed to God. Dasein has the advantage that it is finite, in the world, and temporal. Unlike an infinite, supratemporal, unchanging deity, Dasein is open to and opens up a world.