God’s existenceDraft · awaiting advisor review
If everything needs a cause, who made God?
In short
No one did. The classic argument is not that everything needs a cause, but that whatever begins to exist, or depends on something else, needs one. God as Christians understand him has no beginning and depends on nothing: he is the uncaused source of everything else.
The Objection
If the universe needs a creator, the creator needs a creator too. Saying God is uncaused is special pleading: why not simply say the universe is uncaused and leave God out?
Put as its strongest advocates would put it.
The Christian Case
- Philosophical argument
The arguments of Aquinas and the “kalam” argument don’t claim that everything has a cause. They claim that what begins to exist, or what exists only by depending on something else, has a cause. Something that never began and depends on nothing doesn’t need one.
- Scripture
The Bible describes God as without beginning: from everlasting to everlasting, the Creator who does not grow tired. The Word was already there “in the beginning”.
- Philosophical argument
An endless chain of things that each depend on another doesn’t explain why there is a chain at all. Many argue it must rest on something that exists in its own right.
- Philosophical argument
Why not the universe itself? Because the universe as we know it changes, is made of parts and, on most cosmology, had a beginning, marks of something that depends on something else. That is where the real debate lies.
Where the Evidence Is Weaker
Whether the universe began, and whether a necessary being is even possible, are both debated by philosophers and physicists.
Arguments to Avoid
- Treating the question as silly: it is a good question.
- Overstating what physics says about the beginning of the universe.
Read for Yourself
Psalm 90:1–2
1A Prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. 2Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Isaiah 40:28
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
John 1:1–3
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Further Reading
- Five Proofs of the Existence of God · Edward Feser (2017)
- On Guard · William Lane Craig (2010)
- Atheism: A Very Short Introduction · Julian Baggini (2003)A clear case from the other side.
Drafted with Opened AI and awaiting review by Opened’s apologetics advisors. Labels show the kind of support each point has: Scripture is what the Bible says; historical evidence and philosophical arguments can be checked by anyone; “Christians differ” marks questions on which faithful Christians disagree.
Next QuestionIsn’t faith believing without evidence?