How could God have always existed?
Most scientists agree that our universe (space, time & matter) had a beginning (the so-called Big Bang). Therefore, it needs a beginner, a maker. It cannot create itself, so it needs a creator. Since time, space & matter didn’t exist before the creation of the universe, the ‘cause’ of the universe has to be timeless, spaceless & immaterial.
You cannot keep going backward forever, saying ‘What caused this cause” or “What caused that cause”. Something had to start it all. Philosophers call this the ‘First Uncaused Cause’. We can also call it ‘God’. This won’t get us all the way to the God of the Bible yet, but it does rule out atheism as a logical explanation for the origin of the universe.
Question: Who made God?
No one! He wasn’t made. He has always existed. Only finite things or things that are made need a maker. Only things that have a beginning need a beginner. It’s a category mistake to ask “Who made the unmade?” It’s like asking “Who is the bachelor’s wife?”
Question: Did God create Himself?
Again only finite things need to be created. This leaves us with 3 choices;
1) He is self-created…but nothing can create itself.
2) Caused by another…only finite things are created.
3) Uncaused…God must be uncaused, even if we cannot understand it.
Question: Is there only one God?
If you have 2 unlimited beings, then you have no limits as to where one stops and the other starts. So there can be only one unlimited being.
-since He caused everything else, He is unlimited in power (omnipotent).
-since He exists outside of time, He is eternal.
-since He exists outside of space, He is omni-present (Infinite, He can exist anywhere at the same time).
-since He made the universe, He is omniscient (He has all knowledge).
-since His creatures have morals, He is the ultimate moral being.
So God is omni-present, eternal, omniscient, omnipotent & moral.
Question: Is this the God of the Bible?
The Bible says that God is…
1) Eternal…Colossians 1:17 & Hebrews 1:2
2) Omni-present (Infinite)…1st Kings 8:27 & Isaiah 66:1
3) All good (moral)…Psalm 86:5 & Luke 18:19
4) Omnipotent…Hebrews 1:3 & Matthew 19:26
5) Omniscient…1st John 3:20 & John 21:17 & Hebrews 4:13
What about the multi-verse?
The multi-verse view of the universe is that there is a universe-creating ‘machine’ that creates trillion of universes, ours being just one. First off, there’s absolutely no proof at all for this view. It’s just idle speculation that tries to get around the fact that our universe has a beginning (and hence, a beginner). Secondly, if it was true, you just haven’t gone back far enough in time. Who created this ‘machine’? Eventually, you’ll get back to a ‘First Uncaused Cause’ again.
Why couldn’t the universe have always existed?
There are 2 reasons the universe couldn’t have always existed.
First…we know that our universe (space, time & matter) had a beginning. So we know it hasn’t always existed.
Why couldn’t the universe have always existed?
This question wrongly assumes that everything must have a cause. We only claim that everything that has a beginning needs a cause.
A…Did the universe have a beginning?
1…The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics says the universe is running down. Since it’s
running down, it must have had a starting point that it’s running down from.
2…Math – an infinite time can NEVER be traversed. Infinitely in the past means that
there is no beginning to time. So no matter how many days there were in the
past, you will NEVER reach today. But since we have arrived at ‘today’, time had to
have a beginning.
3…Since nothing can cause itself, the universe must have been caused by something
else.
Second…if the universe had no beginning, that means that it has existed infinitely in the past. Since time is moving forward, we would NEVER have reached ‘today’. WOW! Do you feel that your mind just got stretched? Let me re-state that. Since time is moving forward and if there is an infinite number of days in the past, we NEVER would have reached ‘today’. But we have reached ‘today’, so there can’t be an infinite number of days in the past. And that means that time had a beginning.
Let me explain further…by definition, an infinite number of days can NEVER be traversed…in other words, it has no beginning and no end. But since the days before today have happened, this means that the number of days in the past are not infinite but finite…a limited number of days, proving once again that time did have a beginning.
I know that the concept of infinity is hard to understand. We keep wanting to think that there is a starting point somewhere. But infinity has no starting or ending points. Infinity in the past just keeps going and going and it never stops. This is why, if there where an infinite number of days in the past, we would NEVER reach today, as in this present day or right now.
Book references:
“Who Made God?” by Zacharias & Geisler, page 24
“The Case for a Creator” by Lee Strobel
“I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” by Geisler & Turek
Reference websites:
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/kalam
Regards,
Dave Maynard
https://bsssb-llc.com