Ashley Plandowski
September 27, 2017 10:57 PM
If God made the Universe, Who made God?
There are people all around the world who claim to be an atheist, they deny the
existence of God. Refusing to open themselves to the many truths that point directly to
God. This view may have been passed down to them through their parents, a tragedy, or
they may not have a reason for it at all. In Paul Copan’s article, “If God Made the Universe,
Who Made God”, there are many valuable truths and scientific facts that can be brought to
the attention of an atheist. These truths can aid to their understanding of the reality of God’s
existence.
I would first point them to mainstream science and the fact that the Big Bang theory
affirms that the universe- physical time, space, matter, and energy- came into existence
roughly 13.7 billion years ago. A phenomenon that has been detected from redshifting starts
indicates they are moving away from us which in turn proves that our universe is expanding.
As they backtrack in time, they see the universe moving back toward a definite starting
point or beginning. There are a countless number of Scriptures that point us to this truth.
Jeremiah 10:12 puts it like this: God is the one who used his power and made the earth. He
used his wisdom and built the world. With his understanding, he stretched the sky over the
earth. (ERV)
I would proceed in telling the atheist of Metaphysics which is the study of ultimate
reality.“Something” cannot come from “nothing”, being cannot come into existence from
non-being, this is considered an obvious metaphysical principle. In order for something to
be it has to come from something that was or has been. Non-being has absolutely no
potentiality to produce anything, so we can clearly see being cannot come from "no-thing".
Nothing would exist now if nothing existed in the past- undeniably, something exists now.
This alone proves “something” has always existed. Psalm 90:2, defines this truth with
clarity, You were God before the mountains were born, before the earth and the world were
made.You have always been and will always be God!
Considering these truths I have brought forward, is it possible that God could not
have existed? Could the universe not have existed? Unlike God, the universe is a contingent
being, it required something outside itself to cause its existence. The universe is finite and is
sustained by something outside of itself. So if that something had chosen not to bring it into
existence, it could easily not have existed. God is a necessary being and a necessary beings
own nature is the sufficient reason for its own existence. Hebrews 11:3 states, Faith helps us
understand that God created the whole world by his command. This means that the things
we see were made by something that cannot be seen. God is uncaused, self-sustaining, and
eternal. The grounds for God’s existence are within himself and he alone is the ultimate
cause for everything that is. As a necessary, self-sustaining, eternal being, God cannot not
exist.
1st Reply: to classmates post
Roxy, I absolutely adore your entry, especially the last quote you give
reference to! "If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to
believe in God." This is such a simple and beautiful statement. It basically sums up the
whole article, we read by Paul Copan "If God Made the Universe, Who Made God?" He
connects the dots between science, logic, and reason. Showing us that God is a necessary
being. In his own nature, there is sufficient reason for his own existence. He is (a)
Uncaused, (b) self-sustaining, (c) eternal, and (d) ultimate.
"God has to exist in all possible worlds. As a necessary being, God cannot
not exist." 1
24 And when they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said,
“O Sovereign Lord [having complete power and authority], it is You who made
the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything that is in them, (Acts
4:24 AMP)2
2nd reply
I greatly enjoyed reading your discussion board post on the existence of God.
I also wanted to thank you for that beautiful quote from W. Somerset Maugham. I
feel when we look at these arguments side by side it truly depicts how we cannot, in any
logical or rational way, exist if there were no God, the only true, self-sufficient, necessary
being as the uncaused for the cause. 3 This is from Richard Swinburne's "The Existence of
God", written in 2004.
"The cosmological argument is the argument to God from the existence of a complex
physical universe. God can create such a universe (by keeping it in existence as long as
it exists ‐ whether for a finite or infinite time) and has some reason to do so because it
is a theatre for finite agents which they can shape and in which they can develop. But
it is a far less simple beginning of things than is God, and so a priori not to be
expected but for the action of God."1
"One form of the teleological argument (or argument from design) claims
that since it is moderately probable that God will make humans, it is
moderately probable that he will make a universe subject to simple laws of
nature, for only so can humans make differences to each other and the
world. The other form of the argument claims that if God is to make
humans, he must make a universe ‘fine-tuned’ to bring about human
bodies. So the hypothesis of theism leads us to expect a universe governed
by simple laws which are such as, together with the boundary conditions of
the universe, to bring about humans. All this would be extremely
improbable if there were no God." 2
Acts 17:28Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
28 It is through him that we are able to live, to do what we do, and to be
who we are. As your own poets have said, ‘We all come from him.’
GRADE9/27/17 10:57 PM 148/150
My professor’s COMMENTS :) :0 ;) <3
Feedback to Learner
Thank you for your DB on the existence of God. There is much speculation over this topic in society but I
thought you presented some reasonable answers to the questions that were asked this week. I also
thought that you did a nice job weaving in the material from the article along with some relevant Scripture.
Definitely one of the strongest in the class this week. Keep up the great work moving forward!
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