Topics Religion

Question If there is a God, should we ever know who made him/her/it? And if the answer is "God has always existed" then why not argue that the universe has always existed (even before the BingBang) and therefore not created by God. What I am really trying to ask is: How is leaving a question's answer infinite, any answer at all?

Accepted:
October 18, 2005

Comments

For some relevant responses, see Question 241.

When considering a question such as this one, it's worth remembering what the "dialectical context" is, that is, who's asking what question for what purpose, and who's trying to prove what. So, in this case, if someone is trying to prove that God exists by asking "Who made all this stuff?" then the question, "Well, who made God, then?" is perfectly fair, and the answer, "Well, God just is" is, as you note, adequately answered by "Well, then maybe all this stuff just is". What that shows is that the argument has no probative force: It doesn't prove its conclusion; indeed, in this case, at least, the argument doesn't seem to provide any real support for its conclusion.

If, however, the question "If there is a God, who made him, her, or it?" is intended to pose a problem for theists, then the answer "God just is" is perfectly adequate, so long as one's reason for saying that God exists isn't the one just mentioned. Which is to say that there is a stalemate here.