We have been discussing the beginnings of the universe. In the last article, I reviewed the lineup of suspects to determine which one best fit the evidence at the crime scene (the beginning of the universe). I demonstrated how the most reasonable “suspect” for the cause of the universe is God.

One of the key reasons I gave against the Cosmic Rebound Theory and the Multiverse Theory is that these theories merely push the beginning down the road a little bit. You would still have to explain where the multiverse generator came from. You would still have to explain where the matter and energy came from in the Rebound Theory because the expansions and contractions would get smaller over time. Hence, they had a beginning.

This, of course, leads to another question that naturally gets asked by everyone at some point in their life: where did God come from?

Christian philosophers and apologists will often get annoyed when people ask this question, for reasons that will become clear in a minute. But I understand why people ask it. So let’s take a few minutes to give a response.

The reason this question frustrates philosophers and apologists is that it shows that the questioner does not understand the definition of God. One of God’s attributes is that he is timeless. He has always existed. This must be the case because, if everything (including time) had a beginning, then the cause of time had to be outside of it. If time had a beginning, then the cause of time had to exist outside of time.

The thing that started it all must exist outside of the thing. And, at the bottom of all of the causes must be an Uncaused Cause. Otherwise, we end up in an infinite regress. We could continually ask “what started that? OK, what started that? And, what started that?” Eventually, we have to hit a foundation, or we could just keep going. That foundation is God.

Asking this question is what’s known as a categorical error. The person is asking a question that doesn’t make sense given the thing the question is about.

Categorical error questions ask nonsensical questions given the subject matter. For example, if I asked the question, “How many inches is the color blue?” Or, “How much does Beethoven’s 5th Symphony weigh?” Those are questions that don’t make sense. The color blue doesn’t have the physical property of dimension, so you can’t measure it. And, Beethoven’s 5th, while powerful, does not have mass that can be weighed.

Just like blue doesn’t have a dimension and Beethoven’s 5th doesn’t have weight, God does not have a beginning. It doesn’t make sense to ask where God came from because one of his attributes is that he had no beginning!

This isn’t an idea invented by Christians or Jews, either. Aristotle recognized the infinite regress problem before 322 BC. He realized that, at the bottom of the stack, there had to be something that had always been there and that started everything. True, Aristotle didn’t call this unmoved mover the God of the Bible. But neither does the Kalam Cosmological Argument get you directly to the God of Christianity. What it does show is that the cosmos had a beginning, and something outside of it had to cause it to begin.

Speaking of the argument, let’s restate it so I can show another reason this question makes no sense, given the way the argument is stated.

1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe had a cause.

Look at the first premise again. It says that everything that **begins** to exist has a cause. We’ve made the case that God didn’t have a beginning. And, since he didn’t have a beginning, he didn’t have a cause! This argument doesn’t apply to him.

I understand why people ask this question. I definitely understand why kids ask this question. I also understand why adults ask this question. It’s because we aren’t taught logic and metaphysics in school as part of the general curriculum.

It’s also clear why the New Atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens ask the question as well. It demonstrates my point that we aren’t taught logic and metaphysics anymore. Dawkins is a scientist, and Hutchins was a journalist. And, whenever they would ask this question, even their atheist philosopher counterparts would groan.

Asking where God came from or who made God are questions that don’t make sense based on the properties that God possesses. Because things began to exist, they had to be begun by a beginner who didn’t have a beginning. And that beginner is God.