Where Did God Come From?

[disciple]

Greetings Barbara,
It is nice to meet you and I'm sorry that you are God-free, but of course that is your God given right. There are a lot of people who don't believe in a divine creator and all believers were once unbelievers so pretty much everyone starts at the same place. We also tend to get annoyed with others when they don't agree with us, I guess that's the fun of a discussion forum, being annoyed enough to stay interested while not getting angry. Anyway , I believe God created everything, you say there is no God, so where did everything come from? Even if you believe in evolution, there had to be a start or a first thing.
I often hear the scientists are getting close to finding out how everything began
and what will they conclude? Either God created eveything or everything came from nothing.

[God-free]

Originally Posted by disciple

Greetings Barbara,
It is nice to meet you...

Nice to meet you too.

Originally Posted by disciple

.. and I'm sorry that you are God-free,...

No need to be sorry for me. I'm quite happy to be free. I highly recommend it.

Originally Posted by disciple

.. but of course that is your God given right.

Originally Posted by disciple

There are a lot of people who don't believe in a divine creator and all believers were once unbelievers so pretty much everyone starts at the same place.

Agreed. Unfortunately, too many of us are exposed to religion so early in life that our memories don't go back that far, making it seem as though it's always been there. I think that's unfairly manipulative and can, effectively, interfere with a person's natural capacity for intellectual growth.

Originally Posted by disciple

We also tend to get annoyed with others when they don't agree with us, I guess that's the fun of a discussion forum, being annoyed enough to stay interested while not getting angry.

Have I annoyed you? I agree discussion forums can be fun, even addictive for some, but so far our discussion hasn't gotten heated. Even if it did, I hope you wouldn't take it personally.

Originally Posted by disciple

Anyway , I believe God created everything, you say there is no God, so where did everything come from?

Actually, what I say is, "I don't believe in god(s)". The question of where everything came from is not related to atheism. I can offer my opinion based on what little I've read on the subject (i.e.; big bang; multiverse; etc.), but the fact is, there is no definitive answer yet.

Originally Posted by disciple

Even if you believe in evolution, there had to be a start or a first thing.

If we're still talking about the origin of the universe, I don't know that there had to be a start or a first thing.

Originally Posted by disciple

I often hear the scientists are getting close to finding out how everything began
and what will they conclude?

Beats me.

Originally Posted by disciple

Either God created eveything...

Which brings us to the question in the OP. Where did God come from?

Originally Posted by disciple

.. or everything came from nothing.

I've never heard anyone make that claim. Have you?

Barbara

[disciple]

Hello again Barbara,
Thanks for your reply. No you have not annoyed me, that was a pre-emptive statement because atheists usually get annoyed with me. I hope we can have future discussions without taking anything personal. I don't know a lot about science but I love God and enjoy talking about all the great things I believe He has done, including of course His creative work but also His wonderful redemptive work.
By the way, I'm glad you are happy, God is good to everyone.
I believe God has always existed, I don't understand an eternal existance nor can I explain it but I believe it. You know, faith.

[HRG]

Originally Posted by disciple

Greetings H2H,
As humans we want to know the answer to every question, but when it comes to God there are just some things we cannot know. He gives us proof of His existance by His creation,

There is something missing here: the argument that the universe is a creation.

it is obvious everything has a purpose.

Or that some people project their purposes onto everything.

It is scientifically impossible for nothing to create everything.

It is not scientifically required for the universe to be created at all.

If nothing created everything, then the "nothing" isn’t nothing. It is something, because it had the amazing ability to create everything. Only an unscientific ignoramus would hold to the thought that nothing created everything. We have the dilemma of having everything, so we therefore have to come to the conclusion that something made it.

Or we can conjecture the same about the universe that theists conjecture about their God: that it has always existed and was not made by something else.

Whatever it was, it had to be non-material (unseen), eternal (without beginning or end), and it had to be omnipotent (have the amazing ability to create everything from nothing).

It needed not be eternal (because it might itself have been created) nor omnipotent (all we could conclude is that it was able to create this universe).

If the professing atheist concedes to such basic logic (which he must or he reveals that he is unscientific and unintelligent), then he’s not an atheist. He is in truth an agnostic ("One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism."). He is someone who believes that there was a creative force that brought everything into existence,

As a theist, you should ask yourself which creative force is responsible for the existence of your God (even if said existence is eternal).

It is not wrong to have questions about God's existance but our inability to understand all His ways sometimes causes us to stumble.

Alternative scenario: the various self-contradictions in concepts like omnipotence and omniscience should make us believe that such a being does not exist.

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Heart2Heart

Most religions believe God exists; so, where did God come from? Did He come from nothingness?

Even "nothingness" is a creation of God.....

God does not experience 'time" like created things...

God does not get old,
God was never younger than he is now....

[pilgrim1411]

Originally Posted by Heart2Heart

Most religions believe God exists; so, where did God come from? Did He come from nothingness?

The first premise "Most religions believe God exists," is valid. The second premise "where did God comes from" is invalid, and a straw man (from the Christian perspective), because we never made the claim God came from anything. God is infinite. Only finite and contingent beings (things) come [sic] from something else. God is in need of nothing. He is pure actuality, with no unrealized potentialities. The final statement "Did he come from nothingness,"***umes the validity of the second premise, and is impossible because it is a metaphysical truth that something cannot come from nothing.

[Jean Chauvin]

Hello,

Even Nothingness is a creation from God.

lol. This is extremely weak sauce. God is not the creator of nothing. He created something out of nothing. But did not create nothing out of something.

Where did God come from. The term "from" is a word for a being in time and space. Since God is eternal and not bound by time and space he did not come from anything but has always been.

Also, since He is infinite in His nature and since time is finite, by definition God is.

This is why Scripture says God is the Alpha and Omega, He can see all past, present and future at the same time.

Read Augustine's Work.

Respectfully,

Jean Chauvin (Jude 3).

[alanmolstad]

even the nothingness before the creation...is yet a creation of God.....because even the term is different than God.....and the moment you have even a term that is different than God it has to come forth from God as it is not God itself

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

even the nothingness before the creation...is yet a creation of God.....because even the term is different than God.....and the moment you have even a term that is different than God it has to come forth from God as it is not God itself

The above concept is actually something that a lot of people dont catch...

The idea I was talking about is that a lot of people teach that God made all things out of "nothingness".....But what I add to this is that even this idea of "nothingness" has to be a creation of god as well...
For if the "nothingness" is not God, then God had to make it....

This points us to the idea that is behind my words being that before God created time and space, and even the void of nothingness, there was ONLY God......ONLY Him....
There was nothing else....
For if there was anything else that was npt god, then god has to be the source of that thing.


Therefore, God created all things out of nothingness, and even this nothingness is a creation of god.....

[DrDavidT]

Originally Posted by Heart2Heart

Most religions believe God exists; so, where did God come from? Did He come from nothingness?

there is only one answer to this-- the Biblical God has always existed. He had no origin.

the gods of other religions are poor imitations and not real