Dear Theophilus: On God and Creation

If God created us, then who created God?

Sincerely,

Theophilus

Dear Theophilus,

The question of who created God is usually brought up in philosophical discussions. It is a major objection that atheists place to justify their disbelief. It is also usually brought up in the question of the origins of the universe.

One of the most established principles of logic/science/reality is the principle of causality: something that has a beginning has a sufficient cause. So if we accept the fact that the universe had a beginning (even naturalists believe the universe had a starting point) it is self-evident that it has a cause. But what sort of cause is sufficient to explain the origins of the universe?

Rational thinking says this cause must be self-sufficient, super intelligent and incredibly powerful. This cause had to be eternal spirit.  Asking the question of someone who is eternal, someone who had no beginning, where they came from (Who created God?) is like asking “To whom is the bachelor married?” It is an illogical question. It also is a tricky question as it falsely assumes that this ultimate reality (God) had a beginning or was conceived by someone else.

Even the early philosopher, Plato, understood that regardless of what he or any other philosopher conceived this ultimate reality to be that this cause was uncaused. So it is reasonable to accept the premise of an uncaused cause, mainly God.

God is an uncreated being who has no beginning and no end. If there is a person/thing/force that created God, then that person/thing/force would be God and god would be a created being, albeit powerful yet still created. And this created being is lesser than that which created him/her/it.

All of us are trying to identify the first cause of the universe.  It is as if this cause created us with a hunger or device that causes us to seek and inquire about this uncaused cause. Ecclesiastes 3:11 states; “He (God) has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Those who reject the existence of this uncaused cause must then, have to explain how the universe came to be without any cause; they also have to believe that life itself popped into existence without an adequate cause.

Scripture explains sufficiently about the Creator. We can also know this Creator from observing and studying nature. St. Augustine held that we ought to approach the quest for knowledge of the Creator by holding together the two sacred forms of revelation that God has given to humanity: the Book of Scripture and the Book of nature. His belief was that these two books are God’s perfect and complementary ways to communicate with his creation about Himself. Romans 1:18-22 teaches that we know sufficient about this Creator to understand the truth about God.  This is also why the ancient Hebrews used the name of YHWH (Yahweh) to refer to God as this meant that God is “the uncreated, self-existent One.”

So to answer the original question: No one created God. He is the only uncreated being existing eternally.

Do you have a question that you want answered by our Dear Theophilus writers? Send all of them to cotblog@gcu.edu with the subject line “Dear Theophilus.” To learn more about GCU’s College of Theology, visit our website or click the Request More Information button.