Who Made God?
The question being presented concerns itself with the origins of God. The question will delve into the stigmas associated with the divine and his nature. The question will have three objections, an appeal to authority contradicting the objections, a personal reply to the objections and three answers resolving the objections.

Objection 1. A strong objection to the infinite nature of God, some would say, is that the religions need the existence of such a God in order to “stay in business.” Without the existence of a God most religions would be baseless and would lose their communities of their faithful. Therefore, it is suggested that religion created God in order to create a strong tether between them and their faithful.

Objection 2. Also, some scholars would argue (Nietzsche and Schoppenhauer) that the idea of God was a human invention created in order to satisfy the human thirsting for immortality and to comfort the reality that humans are finite beings and are not substantial by any means of the word.

Objection 3. Finally, from a psychoanalytic perspective, there is the argument, which says that the notion of God was created by man’s repressed guilt created by their parents that is now displaced in God (Freud).

Sed Contra. St. John Damascene says that, “God is infinite and eternal, and boundless.”

I answer that, In order for God to be God, he cannot have a creator. God must be infinite in nature, which means that he cannot have a beginning because that would limit God. Rather, God is eternal; He is unchanging and limitless. God has no creator; there is nothing that comes before or after God.

Reply to Objection 1. While it is true that the notion of religion was founded on a belief of God, it is not true that they created the concept of God in order to fulfill their own needs. Rather, religion was created because of a belief in an eternal entity. This eternal entity is the basis for religion not the other way around. Without the presupposition of an eternal entity, there would be no religion. Therefore, it can be said, God created religion not that religion created God.

Reply to Objection 2. Although humans are limited in their physical form, it is not the case that the concept of God was created in order to satisfy the fear of dying. Instead, it is the case that the notion of immortality is gotten from the existence of an immortal being. Therefore, it can be assumed that God instilled this idea of immortality in us rather than us creating God to suite the concept of immortality.

Reply to Objection 3. Though God, at times, is analogized as a father figure, it is not because of repressed guilt caused by our parents that we created God. Rather, we need to attribute qualities to God from earthly things; therefore we create analogies for God. We can say things such as, “God is like this or like that.” We know that there is a God, we then compare Him to things around us we do not create a God because of things around us.

02/16/2005

Posted on 02/17/2005
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