Another Article I Did On Helium, This Time On The Question,"Who Created God?"

It is clearly evident to me that many people still seem to struggle with this, to me, largely logically primordial question, “If God Created Everything, Who Created God?” Upon reading many of the articles posted about this topic, it also is clearly evident to me that few (if any) of those who wrote upon this topic have really performed actual research or deep analysis on such a problem’s history, and more than that, its actual logical bearings on the contingency of a creator for the universe, or for the purposes of this question “him”-self. I notice some of the top writers going so far as to say that, “there is currently no answer to this question.” –such a supposition I know to be completely ignorant of the last two thousand years of Western Philosophy and theology as we know it; for such a question has long since been dealt with and abandoned by those whose aim is to disprove a divine existence in the first place. Many have made much stronger attempts at disproving such a being via the Problem of Evil.

Before delving too far into this subject matter; however, I would first allow for all readers to know my own intentions and convictions. I find this necessary for my belief in the freedom of man in his affairs, and also to not waste the time of some individuals who do not care to consider the arguments of one from a different perspective. I am a Christian who studies problems like this every day and minute of my life as I study world religion and philosophy in school. I don’t go to a Christian University, but rather a secular school. I am a former atheist and not ignorantly so as if I somehow intellectually “lost” a battle with Christianity but rather I consider myself to be intellectually honest, as I encourage all to do. MOST importantly of all, I am a NOBODY who is easily shown up by REAL theologians who have something beyond an elementary education such as mine.

The question of whether God, in the Western Christian sense (as I’m certain that is the “God” whom this question is directed towards), was created or not is absurd logically. The question along with many others I have noticed in related articles about this such as, “Can God create a rock so heavy that he cannot lift it?” (therefore nullifying his omniscience), are logically systemically contradictory. They both rely on lethally erroneous assumptions that cause the very questions, not even the arguments, to fall apart. As I am aware of the specific audience I am writing to, I will restrict my answers and contemplations to the Judeo-Christian God of the Israelites; a God who is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. My arguments via physics will adhere to current understandings of the physical world via Quantum Mechanics, Relativity, and the Laws of Thermodynamics. However, most of my arguments and reasoning will remain philosophical as that’s what everyone seems to “want.”

“If God Created Everything, Who Created God?”

The answer to this question will demand several definitions about the nature of inherent qualities that the universe has. Some of you philosophy buffs out there may notice that this article will reflect upon certain characteristics of arguments for the existence of God, most notably one (of the many) versions of the Cosmological Argument. From what modern physics has revealed about the universe as we know it today, there was a beginning –the Big Bang some fourteen odd billion years ago. There were two very important things that began with the Big Bang: space and time, respectively. We know that it is a fundamental law of physics that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, and yet we have a beginning whereby matter exploded from nothing into existence simultaneously with time. Now don’t get too excited I’m not saying that this alone is any sort of proof for the existence of God, but rather it demonstrates that the laws of physics needed to be and were broken in order for space and time to erupt into existence in the first place.

Time for the fun part, if one attempts to “retrodict” to a “point before” the Big Bang, than something rather unscrupulous is being suggested. That is to say things “happen” or “happened” BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF TIME. To say that something has been created necessitates the existence of time as a necessary entity. “I exercised at the gym today.” –is a logically coherent conjecture. To ask, “If God Created Everything, Who Created God?” is logically inconsistent. Something that I feel that is important to note at this point is that the question that we are asking already assumes that (a) God exists. To argue about whether or not any God was necessary for any of this is an entirely different conversation in its own right –a problem which I feel is much more worthy than this in the first place. Our current dilemma; however, is perhaps best articulated via logical argument, a basic form goes something like this:

(1) Everything that exists contingently has a reason for its existence.
(2) The universe exists contingently.
Therefore:
(3) The universe has a reason for its existence.
(4) If the universe has a reason for its existence then that reason is God.
Therefore:
(5) God exists.

This is a basic form of the Cosmological Argument from Contingency. The distinguishing factor that is relevant to this conversation is whether or not God would fall into the category of a contingent being or a necessary being. That is, would his existence require explanation (who created Him?) or if it begins with Him. The point of the discussion above about time was to articulate that necessity ends and contingency begins with the beginning of the universe, the Big Bang. Because phenomena occur in time, and time did not “exist” “prior to” the Big Bang, then the question of God’s contingency is easily smashed. God is the necessary being with which the universe is contingent upon, in this argument.

Therefore, as the issue of time has been clarified, the issue of whether or not God could have had a creator is absurd outright. TIME TIME TIME, it’s all about time. I’m sure you’ve heard enough of it; however, it is entirely necessary for some to hear. It is understandably difficult to remove one’s perspective from that of time, or be it impossible. However, one must not let that difficulty extend to something that is eternal (Latin for “no time”).

I am a Christian with no degree in anything, a nobody; just some twenty year old kid that goes to church in some small hick town in the mid-west United States. The arguments above are no “end-all” argument for God’s existence, but I think that perhaps it is for the question that we have asked in regards to “His creator.” I’m not the type of Christian who will cram Jesus down your throat the first chance that I get because that is not what being a Christian is about. It’s about being loyal to the truth, and showing love to people. Unfortunately all that is seen of the contemporary American Christian is the ignorant, intolerant, and largely inconsiderate undereducated, misinformed, illogical, irrational, hypocritical, charismatic, and practically dangerous individuals roaming about. Sad to say there are some that are like that and I’m afraid that they’ve just missed the point. They were meant to be the light of the world and have become one of the greatest stumbling blocks for all of mankind.

Even apart from our religious/spiritual affiliations I feel that it is necessary for us to be loyal to the truth and to honesty with one another. The purpose of this article is not so much to argue about what I still consider a layperson’s problem with the philosophy of religion, but rather to present the perspective that it is an intellectually reputable position to be a believer in God, not just in the Judeo-Christian God, but the mere concept of a creator.

If one can bring themselves to the place whereby the realization occurs that theism is a reasonable position, then at least an atheist could be brought to agnosticism. Everyone is an agnostic. Everyone. That is because epistemologically there is not a possible means with which to derive conclusive evidence amounting in the favor or either the theist or the atheist. It is with that fact in mind that one should be honest and maintain the integrity of a true student of academic skepticism. Don’t be sold anything, but rather through conviction and reason, one ought to bring themselves to the place where the head and the heart meet, because that is where the essence of being human is truly found.

-Στεφανος Άρρις