This is the conundrum that baffles both believers and rationalists alike. Some believers in God claim that God is omnipotent and omniscient as it says so in the Bible, and therefore He needed no one to create him, as he "created" himself or simply "always was." This is a common explanation (and I use the term loosely) in religious faith reasoning (a term I also use loosely). Here's why.

Because religion relies on supernatural occurrences that require a "faith-based" and not a "logical" understanding, they can then make absurd suppositions that simply fly without question. For example, if you are a strict believer in God, the Bible, etc. you might believe that there was once a talking snake, that a man could live in a whale, that Jesus banished evil spirits into a flock of pigs, and that a man alone could build an ark that could house one of every animal. If you believe these things, it probably would not surprise you or seem absurd to you if you were then told that God created himself. However, this lack of logic is based in a presumptive fallacy.

The truth is that everything has a beginning. Simply stating that things always existing in infinity is something "difficult for humans to understand" might seem cosmic and wise but is really condescending. That's like saying that the answer to a difficult question is so improbable and irrational that if you doubt its plausibility, you are merely too naive to comprehend it.

Conversely, science too cannot answer this question, as it relates to the Universe. If there is no God, we ask Science, then who (or what) created the Universe? If the answer is "the Big Bang" then we must ask, but what existed BEFORE that, and if the answer to that is "X" we must answer, then what created X? This paradox is cyclical and frustrating, but it cannot be explained by religion OR science because there is no - as of yet - understandable explanation. We are dealing with the Universe: something of which we can only see an infinitesimal part.

In other words, there is currently no answer to this question. Religion can only surmise that if "something else" were to have created God, that would thereby negate the prevalent concept of the omnipotent and omniscient God. However, such a God is not without question. Could this God, who created Himself and is omniscient and omnipotent, could he create a stone so heavy that even He could not lift it? You see, if the answer is "Yes, he could, because God can do anything," then God could create a stone so heavy that He could not lift it, thereby creating something that he is unable to do, negating his omnipotence. If the answer is, "No, because there is nothing God cannot do so he could not create a stone that He could not lift," then NOT creating the stone is something He cannot do, which negates his omniscience. These riddles may seem trite, but it is important to understand the holes in the biblical (contrasting, contradicting) depictions of God.

The answer to this question is that there is no answer, yet, though I doubt there ever will be one. I don't think this is something we are meant to know, though it is very telling that when humanity lacks an answer to something, instead of admitting it and seeking out the reasoning behind it, they will simply make one up.

Learn more about this author, Andrea Nostramo.
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