If God Made the Universe Then Who Made God?

by Rob Lundberg

Have you ever been involved in a conversation with a skeptical co-worker,friend, or someone on campus who has asked you this question: “If God made the universe then who made God?”  This is a common question made by those who do not hold a supernatural worldview, like atheists and anti-theists.  So what I would like to do is get down to the real issues of this objection and look at it from three challenges.

The first challenge is that it makes a categorical error. What makes this a categorical error is the fact that the one asking it does not believe in the supernatural and trusts only what they can perceive through the five senses. Using the term or name, “God” has a supernatural essence to it that is foreign to the naturalistic worldview.  

It would be like asking, “How does your favorite song smell?” It just does not make sense, does it? This objection is often asked by those who are fans of the famed atheist, Bertrand Russell who once said, “If everything must have a cause then God must have a cause.”  But everything does not need to have a cause. God is not a thing, but a supernatural Being.[1]

And this is where God is lifted high and lofty in a category all His own, which takes us to our second understanding.

Second, the challenge of not taking into the different kinds of being.  In my presentations on the existence of God, I insert a very important issue to that puts this objection to rest. That is that there are various kinds of being. What do we mean by this?

One kind of being is non-existence or non-being, which is what an atheist would hope for when it comes to God.  There is also a kind of being known as self-caused being. This is impossible, for nothing can cause itself to exist.  Any “thing” that exists, has it’s cause outside of itself, which is what is known as a contingent cause. These are things (including people) who are caused by another.  

Lastly aside of the kinds of existence like non-existence, self-causations, and contingent causes, there is the last kind of existence known as uncaused existence.  This is where God’s existence can be categorized.[2] 

God is the uncaused Cause.Everything that has a beginning has a beginner.  Since God has no beginning, He is the beginning-less Beginner. He is the uncreated Creator.  God is the First Cause of all that begins to exist.   

Think of it this way. Every painting shows the design in the mind of the Painter.  Every product has a Producer. If there is an origin, then there must be an Originator.  And since there is a beginning (a genesis) there is a first Generator.  The One that generates it all is God.

Exclaimed right from the very first verse of the Bible the Scriptures announce, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God is far from being created. God is the Creator of all things.  He is the Cause of all first causes.

Think back to what God said to Moses at the burning bush as He was appointing him to confront the Pharaoh of Egypt.

“Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, “What is his name?” what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you'” (Exodus 3:13-14).

As the One who was not made, God was saying, “Moses, go tell them that the One who never began to exist (the unmade One) sent you.”

God is unlike us.  We are contingent beings where God is a necessary Being.  We are dependent beings where God is an independent Being.  The universe is contingent. God spoke the universe into existence.  This means that all things that have begun to exist are dependent on and sustained by God for their existence.

The third and final challenge is in the question itself, “Who made God?  The word “made” cannot be said of God. For God is the Unmade Maker, the Uncaused Cause.

If you look all around us, look at your desk, your car or your computer. Somebody made that. Everything that exists around us had a cause for its existence. Wouldn’t it be easier to say that Somebody made that? Or how about this. Wouldn’t be easier to believe that Something or Someone took nothing and made something (Genesis 1:1) than to believe that nothing took nothing and made something?

So the next time someone asks you, if God created then universe then who made God, take these three challenges with you and share them with your friend or conversant who may be asking this question. It might get them to investigate the Christian faith a little deeper.  It also may cause you to look into more learning how to answer more objections to your faith.

If we can be of assistance with any objection, contact us at roblundberg@ratiochristi.org and let’s discuss how you can be an ambassador ready to give an answer for the reason you have in Christ and His gospel.
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Notes

[1] When we are talking about God, we are referring to one that is spaceless, timeless, immaterial, powerful, moral, personal, intelligent, sustainer, Creator and First Cause of the existence and design of the universe.  God is the only entity in existence, the reason for whose existence is in Himself. This an argument starting from necessary Being.

[2] An overall argument for theism which can be found in Dr. Norman Geisler’s Christian Apologetics on page 239, that goes something like this:  (1) Some things undeniably exist (e.g., I cannot deny my own existence); (2) my nonexistence is possible; (3) whatever has the possibility not to exist is currently caused to exist by another; (4) there cannot be an infinite regress of current causes of existence; (5) therefore, a first uncaused cause of my current existence exists; (6) this uncaused cause must be infinite, unchanging, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-perfect; (7) this infinitely perfect Being is appropriately called “God”; (8) therefore, God exists; (9) this God who exists is identical to the God described in the Christian Scriptures; (10) therefore, the God described in the Bible exists.

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