As Christians we believe that God created the world. As soon as you talk to a non-believer and say God created the world, there’s a question that almost always comes up next. Then who created God? One of the great atheists of the 20th Century known as Bertrand Russell wrote a book called Why I am not a Christian. He said “If the Christian says God made the world, then he has to be prepared to answer the question ‘Who made God?’” This question commits what we call a “category fallacy”. What if I asked you “How much does a musical note weigh?” You think “Musical notes, which are sound, and weight, these are distinct categories” and you’re confused. “What does the color pink taste like?” Color is something you see, that’s a distinct category from taste. Asking “Who made God?” makes the same category fallacy. We can only ask who made something of things that can be made. So it makes sense to ask “Who made my shoes?” because shoes are the kind of things that can be made. It makes sense to ask “Who made this camera?” because cameras can be made. It makes sense to ask “Who made this building?” because buildings can be made. But God, by definition, is the kind of things that cannot be made. If God was made, then he wouldn’t be God. So when somebody asks “Who made God?”, they’re committing the category fallacy because here’s essentially what they’re saying “Who made the unmakeable creator of the universe?” That’s like saying “What caused the uncaused, self-existent creator of the universe?”
Up until the 20th century, Christians said “God alone is self existent and eternal.” Atheists say “No, the universe itself is eternal” and scientifically we couldn’t really judge between the two. But in the 20th century with a number of different scientific findings, now almost all scientists recognize that the universe had a beginning and then came into existence. It certainly can’t come from itself, can’t come from nothing, so there must be a cause outside of the universe to bring the universe into existence. That’s who the Bible describes as the everlasting God.
Can I explain how there is an uncaused self-existent creator of the universe? Of course I can’t but this is what we know. The world around us had a beginning and that cries out for a self-existing cause outside of the universe and it seems to best explain the world as we know it. Psalm 90:2 “From before the mountains were brought forth, from before God had made the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.” In Genesis 1, it says “In the beginning, God created…” Even the book written by Moses over 3400 years ago assumed that the universe had a beginning and God alone is eternal. This book was written before any scientific breakthroughs that now seem to be confirming that the universe really did have a beginning. Friend, this is one reason among many that we can trust the Bible is God’s word and trust the God who stands behind the scriptures.