How could God not have a creator?

[warpspeedpetey]

My 8-year-old son told me the other day that he was having trouble understanding how God has always existed. He explained that it was difficult to understand because everything else was created (by Him), but not God; He always existed. I had a response, but I was wondering what any of you out there would say.

G-d is Actus Purus, the very act of existing. The act of existing is formally logically necessary because the negation of the act of existing is the act of not existing, which is a logical contradiction and therefore an impossibility. The only possible state of reality is for G-d to be.

How would I explain this to an eight year old? Good luck with that lol.

 

[warpspeedpetey]

…Richard Dawkins can’t grasp that, but I bet your 8-year old is smarter.

lol

 

[Luke_K]

The good sisters at St. Mark’s Elementary did not mess around when I asked the same question as a kid. They went straight to a (simplified) explanation from Aquinas, which I more or less understood:

Good for those sisters, for not simply placating your curiosity but providing you with an answer that could stand the test of time.

 

[melekali]

Amazing!

So many interesting thoughts but haven’t you missed an important point? The question is invalid from the start; the real question has to be, “Is it possible for God to have a creator?” for if “God” is created, then the one or the thing which created God is superior to God … of which, by definition, there cannot be any such.

The problem is one of semantics and intuition; we lack language to express the inexpressible, and attempting to explain to children why their intuition leads them to false conclusions is not possible, for a child lacks the experience and education to follow the needed explanation. You might more easily explain to the child why gamma rays cannot be seen but can kill, or why electrons are compelled to flow along a wire by the “pressure” of voltage.

A similar problem arises often when trying to explain “infinite.” Most try to describe how infinite means “bigger than anything” but actually, infinite has nothing to do with size, dimensions, or limits. In reference to “the infinite” those terms are meaningless … there simply are none of these involved in “infinite.”

Efforts to simplify difficult concepts are admirable, but usually fall short, and should be avoided unless carefully explained in advance. I love to discuss this stuff, but I raised (reasonably well, I think) seven children so I speak with some experience.

Logically, there has to be a starting point. God, by definition, is the starting point.

 

[empther]

We and everything in the world exist because of something else.
God is existence. HIs essence is to exist. He is his own existence.

God is the “necessary being”. He is necessary. He cannot not exist. Why? We don’t know. To understand that, we would have to be God. It may help to consider that if God didn’t exist neither would anything else.

The time element is what confuses people.
“Time” has no substantial existance. It is a mental concept we use to measure change, or the rate of change. If there is no change, there is no time.

God is infinite in everything that we can say about him. You can’t change from infinite to finite, or from finite to infinite. God is changeless. Therefore, the mental concept of time means nothing when we talk about God.

Question: Did God wait fifty trillion years before creating the world,
or did he wait only minute?
Answer: Yes!

 

[Almagore]

We are a little ego centric demanding that God have a creator. I’m not saying this about you but about people in general. The problem we have understanding this is due to the nature of the mind. From our earliest memories we see one thing come into existance and then something else comes into view and we assume the first thing that appeared caused the second thing to appear. Maybe this is the case most of the time and maybe not.

The famous world renowned Carl Jung said this was not the case. He formulated the concept of synchronicity which said that there was something bigger and more powerful that caused the first thing and the 2nd thing to exist and that the first did not cause the other. I’m not sure of that but it seems an interesting possibility. For sure I know that the human brain/mind is a finite organ. Just because a human being can’t understand something doesn’t mean that that something is not true.

Our human minds are programmed to only see things in cause and effect in all of our schooling and how everything is explained to us. Because of this the human mind is only able to see things in a cause and effect relationship but because our minds are programmed that way does not mean that ultimate reality has to operate according to the limits of our finite mind.

God has always existed, there was never a time when he was not. Someone who commented said that time did not exist in some way that I have forgotten.However I know from my own experience that there is no such thing as time in ultimate reality. In ultimate reality it is always now and there is no past and there is no future. The concept of time is a useful concept that we can use to help us but we should never forget that time only exists in our mind and not in ultimate Reality.

Because there is no time in Ultimate Reality and God not only exists in Ultimate reality, God is in fact Ultimate reality. As there is no such thing to God as time; no beginnings and no end; it is impossible for Got to have a beginning or an end. Things that have form and change have a beginning and an end, God has no form and never changes. There is no change in His Highest aspect.

Because of our mental programming and because of the limits in understanding due to us having a finite and limited mind; many of us may never clearly understand why God had no beginning and will have no end. Thank God that He created some some people who are so smart and love us so much and have been given the grace of God; do understand this question which is a Mystery to us so that we can believe the truth of Gods Word because we trust those who are smarter than us.

As an aside, I always got goose bumps when in church we sang that refrain, “As it was in the beginning, is now, and always will be; world without end. Amen.”