If God created the universe who created God?
September 5, 2009 by Steve
Filed under AA: Steve Bruecker, Apologetics
This is a popular question from people who don’t believe in God. My initial response to anyone who asks me who created God is to say, “What comes before the beginning?” Of course nothing comes before the beginning. Nothing comes before God; God is the beginning; He is by definition the uncreated creator.
I arrive at my belief by “Reasoning to the best explanation.” For example, do you believe science when it says the universe came into existence as a result of the big bang? If yes, then a big bang needs a big banger! I don’t have enough blind faith to believe the universe came into existence out of nothing and by nothing. As Genesis 1:1 states, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Who created God? No one did; God is the first cause of the universe and as such, uncreated by definition.
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This is an excellent answer! Thanks!
yes this is great. i am in year 8 and doing a RE essay at the moment and the title is: ‘Is It Reasonable To Believe That God Created The Universe?’ if you have any ideas please comment! many thanks.
I have to say I love the title of your paper: ‘Is It Reasonable to Believe that God Created the Universe?’ You are only showing the reasonableness of God as the creator. This is an excellent tactic of not trying to prove too much.
Here are some possible resources:
William Lane Craig’s web site: http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/PageServer has both popular and scholarly articles on the existence of God and in the process arguments for God as the creator. Craig also has on his web site debates on the existence of God you can watch, MP3 files to listen or read the transcripts from the debates. You could form many of your arguments based on Craig’s works.
I also recommend Craig’s book “Reasonable Faith” and his defense of the Kalaam Cosmological Argument for the existence of God.
Another good book is by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, “I don’t have enough Faith to be an Atheist.” Chapter 3 deals with making a case for the existence of God.
I hope this helps as you write your paper. Let me know if I can help you further.
Steve
WHO CREATED GOD?
Earlier it was impossible for us to give any satisfactory answer to this question. But modern science, rather we should say that Einstein, has made it an easy task for us. And Stephen Hawking has provided us with the clue necessary for solving this riddle. Actually scientists in their infinite wisdom have already kept the ground well-prepared for us believers so that one day we can give a most plausible and logically sound answer to this age-old question. Let us first see how Hawking has helped us by providing the necessary clue. In his book “A Brief History of Time” (Chapter: The origin and fate of the universe) he informs us that there are 1080 particles in the region of the observable universe. Then he raised the question regarding the origin of these particles, and gave the answer himself. According to quantum theory particles can be created out of energy in the form of particle/antiparticle pairs. But there the question does not stop. Another question props up regarding the origin of that energy. But when it is said that total energy of the universe is exactly zero, then all is said and done. So this is the clue: if we can somehow arrive at zero, then no further question will be raised, and there will be no infinite regression. What I intend to do here is something similar to that. I want to show that our God is a bunch of several zeroes, and that therefore no further question need be raised about His origin. And here comes Einstein with his special theory of relativity for giving us the necessary empirical support to our project.
God is a Being. Therefore God will have existence as well as essence. So I will have to show that both from the point of view of existence as well as from the point of view of essence God is zero. It is almost a common saying that God is spaceless, timeless, changeless, immortal, and all-pervading. Here we are getting three zeroes; space is zero, time is zero, change is zero. But how to prove that if there is a God, then that God will be spaceless, timeless, and changeless? From special theory of relativity we come to know that for light both distance and time become unreal. For light even an infinite distance is infinitely contracted to zero. The volume of an infinite universe full of light only will be simply zero due to this property of light. A universe with zero volume is a spaceless universe. Again at the speed of light time totally stops. So a universe full of light only is a spaceless, timeless universe. But these are the properties of light only! How do we come to know that God is also having the same properties of light so that God can also be spaceless, timeless? Scientists have shown that if there is a God, then that God can only be light, and nothing else, and that therefore He will have all the properties of light. Here is the proof.
Scientists have shown that total energy of the universe is always zero. If total energy is zero, then total mass will also be zero due to energy-mass equivalence. Now if there is a God, then scientists have calculated the total energy and mass of the universe by taking that God into consideration. In other words, if there is a God, then this total energy-mass calculation by the scientists is God-inclusive, not God-exclusive. This is due to two reasons. First of all, even if there is a God, they are not aware of the fact that there is a God. Secondly, they do not believe that there is a God. So, if there is a God, then they have not been able to keep that God aside before making this calculation, because they do not know that there is a God. They cannot say that they have kept Him aside and then made this calculation, because by saying so they will admit that there is a God. They cannot say that the behind-the-picture God has always remained behind the picture, and that He has in no way come into the picture when they have made this calculation, because by saying so they will again admit that there is a God. At most they can say that there is no God. But we are not going to accept that statement as the final verdict on God-issue, because we are disputing that statement. So the matter of the fact is this: if God is really there, then total mass and total energy of the universe including that God are both zero. Therefore mass and energy of God will also be zero. God is without any mass, without any energy. And Einstein has already shown that anything having zero rest-mass will have the speed of light. In other words, it will be some sort of light. So, if God is there, then God will also be light, and therefore He will be spaceless, timeless. So from the point of view of existence God is zero, because he is spaceless, timeless, without any mass, without any energy.
Now we will have to show that from the point of view of essence also God is zero. If there is only one being in the universe, and if there is no second being other than that being, then that being cannot have any such property as love, hate, cruelty, compassion, benevolence, etc. Let us say that God is cruel. Now to whom can He be cruel if there is no other being other than God Himself? So, if God is cruel, then is He cruel to Himself? Therefore if we say that God is all-loving, merciful, benevolent, etc., then we are also admitting that God is not alone, that there is another being co-eternal with God to whom He can show His love, benevolence, goodness, mercy, compassion, etc. If we say that God is all-loving, then we are also saying that this “all” is co-eternal with God. Thus we are admitting that God has not created the universe at all, and that therefore we need not have to revere Him, for the simple reason that He is not our creator!
It is usually said that God is good. But Bertrand Russell has shown that God cannot be good for the simple reason that if God is good, then there is a standard of goodness which is independent of God’s will. (Book: A History of Western Philosophy, Ch: Plato’s Utopia). Therefore, if God is the ultimate Being, then that God cannot be good. But neither can He be evil. God is beyond good and evil. Like Hindu’s Brahma, a real God can only be nirguna, nirupadhik; without any name, without any quality. From the point of view of essence also, a real God is a zero. Mystics usually say that their God is a no-thing. This is the real God, not the God of the scriptures.
So, why should there be any need of creation here, if God is existentially, as well as essentially, zero?
But if there is someone who is intelligent and clever enough, then he will not stop raising question here. He will point out to another infinite regression. If God is light, then He will no doubt be spaceless, timeless, etc. Therefore one infinite regression is thus stopped. But what about the second regression? How, and from whom, does light get its own peculiar properties by means of which we have successfully stopped the first regression? So, here is another infinite regression. But we need not have to worry much about this regression, because this problem has already been solved. A whole thing, by virtue of its being the whole thing, will have all the properties of spacelessness, timelessness, changelessness, deathlessness. It need not have to depend on any other external source for getting these properties. Thus no further infinite regression will be there.
I found this letter so interesting I replied to Himangsu Sekhar Pal as one of my regular posts. For those who would like to read how I answered him go to: http://biblicalworldviewacademy.org/1095/answering-who-created-god/
Steve
You say that there was nothing before God, so that the sequence is (1) Nothing, (2) God, (3) Our Universe etc.
Why not just miss out God and say that before the Universe there was nothing. From your reasoning, I don’t see any need for a God.
(Maybe the real answer is that we don’t fully understand time and the whole question is meaningless).
Philip,
Sorry if there was some confusion over what I said. It seems you are giving nothing some sort of ontological status; that nothing is something. Therefore, you conclude nothing can come before God. Nothing in the sense that I used it, refers to “no thing” before God. God is eternal; God is uncreated and has existed from all eternity. Nothing in my definition has no ontological status and therefore, cannot be prior to God. God is the beginning and is eternal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOz4PkdY7aA