"Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?" (Job 11:7, NIV).
God is the "uncaused caused" or "unmoved mover" (causa prima or first cause in Latin), according to the Greeks of antiquity, viz., Aristotle.
"The finite cannot contain (grasp) the infinite." classic axiom
"Tell me your certainties, I have enough doubts of my own." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
According to the "Kalam cosmological proof" of God, everything that begins to exist has a cause, the cosmos began to exist, ergo it had a cause or Beginner.
NOTE THE ILLOGICAL ASSUMPTION THAT EVERYTHING CAME FROM SOMETHING, WHICH WOULD BE THAT INFINITE REGRESS WAS POSSIBLE OR YOU COULD CROSS INFINITY! WE MUST NOT ASSUME EVERYTHING WAS CREATED!
Or, who made God? Paul Little cites when Bertrand Russell asked, "Well, who created God?" and when no answer was forthcoming, he said, "My entire faith collapsed," according to his book, Why I Am Not a Christian. The premise of the question is that everything came from something! Everything that exists in time and space had a beginning because of the space-time continuum. If we say that everything had a beginning, then there would be a time when nothing existed! Then nothing would exist now! By logic, something must have had no beginning and always was! If that were not so, then nothing could ever exist, for out of nothing, nothing comes (ex nihilo, nihil fit in Latin). Russell should have asked where he came from!
There is a problem of eternal regression or, in mathematics, the impossibility of crossing infinity--every chain of events must have a starting point (e.g., if I say God came from X, you would only ask, "Where did X come from?" and then, "Where did Y come from?" and so forth ad infinitum; soon we're at the end of the alphabet by analogy). Nothing can be explained by an eternal link of cause and effect (passing the buck) by an infinite series of efficient cause. At some point, the chain breaks down with a starting point, or it wouldn't exist.
Russell might well have asked, where did love come from? Or, "Where did I come from?" We discovered them, they were always there in God's mind and He revealed them to us. God is love and love came from God, existing even before God expressed it in His creation. and salvation plan. We are the expression of God, as being His icons, or created in the image and likeness of God. You may well ask, "Where did love come from, or where did justice come from?" They certainly existed before being expressed. Fair play existed before we have learned to express it in sports! We don't create anything, but only discover what's already there! A child may not understand this, but neither will an adult, for God's profundity is beyond our comprehension and we will never quite figure God out or put Him into a box.
If God came into being or began to exist, He would be captive to time and not eternal--God exists outside the time/space continuum. Only that which is caused has a beginning. Since God is eternal, He can have no cause and that's why He is the First Cause or as His name may be called "I CAUSE TO BE." This is because God created the time-space continuum and is no slave to itit. He exists independent of them. Eternal, by definition, means no beginning and no cause. The law of cause and effect says every effect must have a cause; God is not an effect and has no cause. By the laws of non-contradiction and of causality, nothing can be its own cause or create itself! But there can be an uncaused cause. In other words, according to the law of causality, nothing just happens by itself!
God is the "uncaused caused" or "unmoved mover" (causa prima or first cause in Latin), according to the Greeks of antiquity, viz., Aristotle.
"The finite cannot contain (grasp) the infinite." classic axiom
"Tell me your certainties, I have enough doubts of my own." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
According to the "Kalam cosmological proof" of God, everything that begins to exist has a cause, the cosmos began to exist, ergo it had a cause or Beginner.
NOTE THE ILLOGICAL ASSUMPTION THAT EVERYTHING CAME FROM SOMETHING, WHICH WOULD BE THAT INFINITE REGRESS WAS POSSIBLE OR YOU COULD CROSS INFINITY! WE MUST NOT ASSUME EVERYTHING WAS CREATED!
Or, who made God? Paul Little cites when Bertrand Russell asked, "Well, who created God?" and when no answer was forthcoming, he said, "My entire faith collapsed," according to his book, Why I Am Not a Christian. The premise of the question is that everything came from something! Everything that exists in time and space had a beginning because of the space-time continuum. If we say that everything had a beginning, then there would be a time when nothing existed! Then nothing would exist now! By logic, something must have had no beginning and always was! If that were not so, then nothing could ever exist, for out of nothing, nothing comes (ex nihilo, nihil fit in Latin). Russell should have asked where he came from!
There is a problem of eternal regression or, in mathematics, the impossibility of crossing infinity--every chain of events must have a starting point (e.g., if I say God came from X, you would only ask, "Where did X come from?" and then, "Where did Y come from?" and so forth ad infinitum; soon we're at the end of the alphabet by analogy). Nothing can be explained by an eternal link of cause and effect (passing the buck) by an infinite series of efficient cause. At some point, the chain breaks down with a starting point, or it wouldn't exist.
Russell might well have asked, where did love come from? Or, "Where did I come from?" We discovered them, they were always there in God's mind and He revealed them to us. God is love and love came from God, existing even before God expressed it in His creation. and salvation plan. We are the expression of God, as being His icons, or created in the image and likeness of God. You may well ask, "Where did love come from, or where did justice come from?" They certainly existed before being expressed. Fair play existed before we have learned to express it in sports! We don't create anything, but only discover what's already there! A child may not understand this, but neither will an adult, for God's profundity is beyond our comprehension and we will never quite figure God out or put Him into a box.
If God came into being or began to exist, He would be captive to time and not eternal--God exists outside the time/space continuum. Only that which is caused has a beginning. Since God is eternal, He can have no cause and that's why He is the First Cause or as His name may be called "I CAUSE TO BE." This is because God created the time-space continuum and is no slave to itit. He exists independent of them. Eternal, by definition, means no beginning and no cause. The law of cause and effect says every effect must have a cause; God is not an effect and has no cause. By the laws of non-contradiction and of causality, nothing can be its own cause or create itself! But there can be an uncaused cause. In other words, according to the law of causality, nothing just happens by itself!
This is like saying that every event has a cause and everything that begins to exist has a cause. God is not an event nor an effect and has no beginning, therefore no cause and cannot have come from anything. God is the Beginner, and has no beginning, and couldn't have arisen from any cause or from anywhere. R. C. Sproul says, "Being eternal, God is not an effect. Since he is not an effect, he does not require a cause. He is uncaused. It is important to note the difference between uncaused, self-existent eternal being and an effect that causes itself through self-creation."
God is self-existent, needing no one, and nothing to exist--depending on only Himself. God came from God--He is totally existent within Himself and fully satisfies all His needs by His very being. We are all contingent creatures needing others, but God needs only Himself. If everything were contingent, dependent on outside forces, then nothing would be possible; ontologically speaking, something must be a necessary being for anything to exist in reality. If God did need someone or something, that person or thing would be God!
All in all, there is can be no explanation for God's eternity and we cannot answer all questions--His thoughts are higher than ours, like the heavens from the earth (cf. Isa. 55:8-9). We don't need all the answers to believe in Him though, and believing in God doesn't mean we have all the answers; however, we do have sound reasons for our faith.
God is self-existent, needing no one, and nothing to exist--depending on only Himself. God came from God--He is totally existent within Himself and fully satisfies all His needs by His very being. We are all contingent creatures needing others, but God needs only Himself. If everything were contingent, dependent on outside forces, then nothing would be possible; ontologically speaking, something must be a necessary being for anything to exist in reality. If God did need someone or something, that person or thing would be God!
All in all, there is can be no explanation for God's eternity and we cannot answer all questions--His thoughts are higher than ours, like the heavens from the earth (cf. Isa. 55:8-9). We don't need all the answers to believe in Him though, and believing in God doesn't mean we have all the answers; however, we do have sound reasons for our faith.
But no one has all the answers! And we believe despite our doubts, but we can know the Answerer to our queries and doubts. We will never understand many truths about God because we are finite and He is infinite and He has certain truths we are not capable of knowing--the secret things belong to the Lord and only that which is revealed belongs to us (cf. Deut. 29:29). Our God, then, is transcendent or separate from creation as its Creator, and not subject to being created, formed, or emanated from anything or anyone. Soli Deo Gloria!
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