Who created God? | John Lennox at UCLA

Summary

The transcript addresses profound questions about the nature of God, creation, and the universe. It explores the challenges faced by materialists regarding the universe's beginning and tackles the classic question of 'Who created God?' The speaker emphasizes that the Christian claim is that God is eternal, not created. They discuss mysteries in Christianity, like the Trinity, and compare them to unexplained scientific concepts like consciousness and energy. The discussion highlights how both science and faith deal with mysteries and argues that belief in God provides a coherent explanation for existence.

Takeaways

• 🌌 The speaker discusses the difficulty of understanding the concept of a beginning in a materialistic universe, referencing the Big Bang theory and the age-old question of what preceded it.
• 🤔 The question of what created God is explored, with the suggestion that it implies a misunderstanding of God as being created rather than uncreated or eternal.
• 🕰️ The concept of God being outside of time is mentioned, which is a way to express the incomprehensibility of God's nature to humans.
• 🔄 The speaker points out that the question 'who created God?' is a form of begging the question, as it assumes that everything must have a creator.
• 📚 Reference is made to religious texts, particularly the Gospel of John, to support the idea that God was not created but 'already was'.
• 🔢 The Trinity is acknowledged as a mystery, and the speaker uses the example of consciousness and energy to illustrate that there are many things we accept as real without fully understanding them.
• 👥 The speaker shares a personal analogy of marriage to explain the concept of the Trinity, suggesting that God is a fellowship of persons, which is a mystery but also magnificent.
• 🧠 The debate with Richard Dawkins is mentioned, highlighting the challenge of asking who created the universe if one believes that the universe created us.
• 🔬 The speaker emphasizes the explanatory power of concepts like God, even if we cannot fully comprehend them, drawing a parallel to scientific concepts like energy.
• 💡 The idea that God is not a solitary being but a community is presented as a profound mystery that offers a deeper understanding of God's nature.

Q & A

What is one of the main challenges materialists face regarding the origin of the universe?

Materialists often struggle with the concept of a beginning to the universe, as they are confronted with the question of what caused the initial cause. The Big Bang theory suggests the universe started at a certain point, but this leads to further questions about what initiated that event.

How does Christianity address the question of who created God?

Christianity claims that God is eternal and uncreated. Therefore, the question 'Who created God?' does not apply because God is considered to exist outside of time and was not brought into being.

What was Augustine's perspective on God's relationship to time?

Augustine argued that God exists outside of time. This explanation addresses the question of creation but is often difficult to fully comprehend because humans have no experience of what it means to exist outside of time.

How does the speaker respond to the idea that Christian mysteries, such as the Trinity, are just ways of saying 'we don't know'?

The speaker acknowledges that Christian mysteries, like the Trinity, are difficult to understand. However, he argues that just because something is mysterious doesn’t mean it lacks explanatory power. Mysteries like energy and consciousness are also not fully understood, yet they are accepted due to their explanatory power.

How does the speaker handle Richard Dawkins' argument from 'The God Delusion' regarding the creation of God?

The speaker counters Dawkins' argument by stating that asking 'Who created God?' assumes that God is created, which contradicts the Christian claim that God is eternal and uncreated. He also flips the argument by asking Dawkins who created the universe, which Dawkins claims created us, to highlight the limits of the question.

What analogy does the speaker use to help explain the Christian concept of the Trinity?

The speaker uses the analogy of marriage, where two people become 'one flesh' to illustrate a sense of unity and fellowship. He suggests that similarly, God is not a singular entity but a fellowship of three persons (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), which reflects the unity within the Trinity.

Why does the speaker believe in concepts like consciousness and energy even though their true nature is unknown?

The speaker believes in these concepts because of their explanatory power. Although their exact nature is a mystery, their ability to explain various phenomena makes them valid beliefs, much like how the mystery of the Trinity explains certain aspects of Christian faith.

What distinction does the speaker draw between created things and uncreated things?

The speaker highlights that the Christian view distinguishes between created things (which 'came to be') and the uncreated (which 'already was'). God, according to Christianity, falls into the category of the uncreated, as God has always existed.

How does the speaker respond to a physicist’s critique of the Trinity as irrational?

The speaker turns the critique back on the physicist by asking if he knows what energy or consciousness truly are. When the physicist admits that he doesn’t know, the speaker argues that just because we don’t fully understand something doesn’t mean it isn’t real or rational.

What conclusion does the speaker reach about mysteries in science and religion?

The speaker concludes that mysteries are present in both science and religion. Just as scientists accept mysterious concepts like energy due to their usefulness, Christians can accept mysteries like the Trinity because they provide a coherent explanation for religious experiences and beliefs.