This is an interesting question and an important idea to explore but asking who made God doesn’t really make sense. It is a bit like asking: “What does red taste like?” or: “Where is the single man’s wife?” These questions are what philosophers call ‘category errors’. Let me explain: red belongs to the ‘category’ or group of colours not the category of flavours - red doesn’t have a taste, it’s a colour! So the question: “What does red taste like?” doesn’t make sense because you cannot taste ‘red’. Likewise, a single man is not married so he cannot have a wife! He belongs to the category or group of single people not the category of people who have wives.
So, what about God? Let’s assume for the moment that God definitely exists. What does it mean to be God? God has to be all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present. All-powerful: God has to have power over things like wind, gravity and people. All-knowing: God has to know everything past, present and future. All-present: God has to be everywhere, all at the same time.
God also has to be unmade. If God made us, the universe and everything in it, then they have to be bigger, better and cleverer than everything that they have made. If something or someone made God, then that person or thing would be more powerful, more knowing and more present than God. This is impossible, because, as we have seen, in order to be God, they have to be all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present! These things are really hard to get our heads around, but God must have always existed. If God has a maker, then they wouldn’t be God.
Only things that have a beginning need a maker. Your smart phone, that cake, the bus all need a maker. God had no beginning, so God did not need to be made. When we ask: “Who made God?” we’re asking: “Who made the unmade one?” It’s a nonsense question!
Maybe we would be better to ask some other questions:
- Do you think God exists? If no, why not? If yes, why?
- If God does exist, what do you think he or she is like?
- How do you think the universe came into existence?
- Do you think anything about your life points to a ‘maker’? (Perhaps you could flick back to last month’s Big Question and take a look at the ‘argument from design’ together).
