This question is posed by many atheists and agnostics. It, they think, gives them a reason not to
believe. Many different churches and religions teach that there is more than one God. That god give birth to other gods.
The LDS is one church that teaches that. They believe that gods are as numerous as humans. Every person that leads a
good life can become a god according to LDS theology (http://www.lds-mormon.com/lds_theology.shtml). But the question still remains...who create the very first God?
Why does God have to have been created at all? "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the
earth." The answer was in the very first verse of the bible.
This verse tells us that there was a "beginning". Not only the beginning of the creation of
the universe, but the beginning of time as we understand it. We can see here that God has created time, as well as all
of the other dimensions of the universe.
Other scriptures approve this theory:
--To the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority,
before all time and now
and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:25)
--The hope of eternal life, which God... promised before the
beginning of time (Titus 1:2)
--This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. (2 Timothy 1:9)
--No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory
before time began. (1 Corinthians 2:7)
How does this get around the problem of God's creation? There are two possible interpretations of
these verses. One is that God exists outside of time. Since we live in a universe of cause and effect, we naturally assume
that this is the only way in which any kind of existence can function. However, the premise is false. Without the dimension
of time, there is no cause and effect, and all things that could exist in such a realm would have no need of being caused,
but would have existed from eternity. Therefore, God created the time dimension of our universe specifically for a reason
- so that cause and effect would exist for us.
The second interpretation is that God exists in more than one dimension of time. Things that exist in
one dimension of time are restricted to time's arrow and are confined to cause and effect. However, two dimension of time
form a plane of time, which has no beginning and no single direction. A being that exists in at least two dimension of time
can travel anywhere in time and never had a beginning, since a plane of time has no starting point. Either interpretation
leads one to the conclusion that God has no need of having been created.
The idea that God can be eternal leads us to the idea that maybe the universe is eternal,
and, therefore, God doesn't need to exist at all. Actually, this was the prevalent belief of atheists before the observational
data of the 20th century strongly refuted the idea that the universe was eternal. This fact presented a big dilemma
for atheists, since a non-eternal universe implied that it must have been caused. Maybe Genesis 1:1 was correct! Not to be
dismayed by the facts, atheists have invented some metaphysical "science" to attempt to explain away the existence of God.
Hence, most atheistic cosmologists believe that we see only the visible part of a much larger "multiverse" that randomly spews
out universes with different physical parameters. Since there is no evidence supporting
this idea (nor can there be, according to the laws of the universe), it is really just a substitute "god" for atheists. And,
since this "god" is non-intelligent by definition, it requires a complex hypothesis, which would be ruled out if we use Occam's
razor, which states that one should use the simplest logical explanation for any phenomenon. Purposeful intelligent design
of the universe makes much more sense, especially based upon what we know about the design of the universe.
God has no need to have been created, since He exists either outside time (where cause and
effect do not operate) or within multiple dimensions of time (such that there is no beginning of a plane of time). Hence God
is eternal, having never been created. Although it is possible that the universe itself is eternal, eliminating the need for
its creation, observational evidence contradicts this hypothesis, since the universe began to exist only ~13.7 billion years
ago. The only possible escape for the atheist is the invention of a kind of super universe, which can never be confirmed experimentally
(hence it is metaphysical in nature, and not scientific).
