by Gideon Odoma

You’d be the rare exception if you’ve never vocally or reflectively asked this question.

I can still remember my frustration at the futility of my infantile philosophical gymnastics around this subject. As a teenager, I thought hard, long, frequently and fruitlessly on this mother of all questions: ‘Who created God?’ Till this day, I reflect on the subject, though at a different level now.

LET’S DIG.
“If God created the universe, WHO CREATED GOD?”
Is this a legitimate question? Maybe. But I think it is a misleading one. So misleading, it is incorrect. The question is pre-loaded with horrendous assumptions. Let’s briefly unpack two.

1.
First, the question is a trap. It is what thinkers call a complex question. A ‘Complex question’ presupposes a fact that may not be true. It is a question that is based on an implied assumption. Like I used to ask church going folks back in my secondary school days: “Why are you not yet born again?” It is a trap! The unasked assumption is that my respondent is not born again.

Another example (borrowed) is if I ask a clerk, “does your boss know you are a thief?” The query presupposes he is a thief. If he answers ‘yes’, it means he is a thief and his boss is aware. If he says ‘no’, it means he is a thief but his boss doesn’t know it. Either way — Yes or No — he is a thief. Similarly, it is a complex question to ask “If God created the universe, WHO CREATED GOD?” The question presupposes that God is a created being. But that is not (necessarily) true.

There are strong reasons to think the universe has a cause. This is partly based on the scientific evidence available today. The evidence shows our universe is not eternal but came into being or began to exist at what is often called the Big bang.

Philosophically, ‘effects’ follow from ’causes’. There cannot be an effect without a cause. The universe does not exist necessarily. Therefore, it must be the effect of some other cause. Nothing causes itself. No woman gave birth to herself, no matter how productive she is. So, it is nonsense to say “the universe created itself”. You have to look outside of anything that is not eternal-in-the-past, to find its cause. The universe is not eternal. So, it must have a cause. More, the Bible clearly asserts: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”

On the other hand, there is neither reason nor evidence to think that God was created/caused. Hence, we cannot ask the question of His origin simply because we talk of the origin of the universe. They (God & the universe) are not in the same category. We know the universe did begin to exist. Hence, it is legitimate and correct to ask “what/who caused the universe?”

If God, unlike the universe, is eternal, if He did not begin to exist, it is meaningless to ask ‘Who Created God?’ By definition, God is the First Cause of everything. He is the un-caused Cause. God exists necessarily. He has no cause.

2.
Second, when someone asks “If God created the universe, who created God?” the questioner is implying that unless we can tell what/who caused the Cause of the universe, we cannot know the cause of the universe. This is manifestly wrong. It is same as saying, if I don’t know my father’s father, I cannot be justified in knowing my father as my father. In my case, true, my father has a father, but I don’t need to know a thing about him — my grandfather — in order to know my father.

We don’t need to know the maker of the maker of the universe to know the maker of the universe. We don’t need to know the creator of God to be justified in identifying God as the Creator of the universe. Hence, the question is misguided. It is silly to insist on knowing God’s creator before considering the evidence for God as the cause of the universe.

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Who created God?
Sorry, He won’t be worth the name God if He were created. Created gods, as a wise man once said, are idols.

Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Gideon Odoma is a minister of the Gospel and founder of Fortress Ministry.