In the Bible it starts by saying "In the beginning......" so does God have a beginning?

Question

he is forever but did he start somewhere

Answer 1

Who created God?

A number of sceptics ask this question. But God by definition is the uncreated creator of the universe, so the question ‘Who created God?’ is illogical, just like ‘To whom is the bachelor married?’

So a more sophisticated questioner might ask: ‘If the universe needs a cause, then why doesn’t God need a cause? And if God doesn’t need a cause, why should the universe need a cause?’ In reply, Christians should use the following reasoning:

Everything which has a beginning has a cause.1
The universe has a beginning.
Therefore the universe has a cause.
It’s important to stress the words in bold type. The universe requires a cause because it had a beginning, as will be shown below. God, unlike the universe, had no beginning, so doesn’t need a cause. In addition, Einstein’s general relativity, which has much experimental support, shows that time is linked to matter and space. So time itself would have begun along with matter and space.


Since God, by definition, is the creator of the whole universe, he is the creator of time. Therefore He is not limited by the time dimension He created, so has no beginning in time — God is ‘the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity’ (Isaiah 57:15). Therefore He doesn’t have a cause.

In contrast, there is good evidence that the universe had a beginning. This can be shown from the Laws of Thermodynamics, the most fundamental laws of the physical sciences.

1st Law: The total amount of mass-energy in the universe is constant.
2nd Law: The amount of energy available for work is running out, or entropy is increasing to a maximum.
If the total amount of mass-energy is limited, and the amount of usable energy is decreasing, then the universe cannot have existed forever, otherwise it would already have exhausted all usable energy — the ‘heat death’ of the universe. For example, all radioactive atoms would have decayed, every part of the universe would be the same temperature, and no further work would be possible.

So the obvious corollary is that the universe began a finite time ago with a lot of usable energy, and is now running down.


Now, what if the questioner accepts that the universe had a beginning, but not that it needs a cause? But it is self-evident that things that begin have a cause — no-one really denies it in his heart. All science and history would collapse if this law of cause and effect were denied. So would all law enforcement, if the police didn’t think they needed to find a cause for a stabbed body or a burgled house.

Also, the universe cannot be self-caused — nothing can create itself, because that would mean that it existed before it came into existence, which is a logical absurdity.

IN SUMMARY

The universe (including time itself) can be shown to have had a beginning.

It is unreasonable to believe something could begin to exist without a cause.

The universe therefore requires a cause, just as Genesis 1:1 and Romans 1:20 teach.

God, as creator of time, is outside of time. Since therefore He has no beginning in time, He has always existed, so doesn’t need a cause.



OBJECTIONS

There are only two ways to refute an argument:

Show that it is logically invalid

Show that at least one of the premises is false.

Is the argument valid?

A valid argument is one where it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false. Note that validity does not depend on the truth of the premises, but on the form of the argument. The argument in this article is valid; it is of the same form as: All whales have backbones; Moby Dick is a whale; therefore Moby Dick has a backbone. So the only hope for the sceptic is to dispute one or both of the premises.

Are the premises true?

1. Does the universe have a beginning?

Oscillating universe ideas were popularized by atheists like the late Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov solely to avoid the notion of a beginning, with its implications of a Creator. But as shown above, the Laws of Thermodynamics undercut that argument. Even an oscillating universe cannot overcome those laws. Each one of the hypothetical cycles would exhaust more and more usable energy.

This means every cycle would be larger and longer than the previous one, so looking back in time there would be smaller and smaller cycles. So the multicycle model could have an infinite future, but can only have a finite past.2

Also, there are many lines of evidence showing that there is far too little mass for gravity to stop expansion and allow cycling in the first place, i.e., the universe is ‘open’.


According to the best estimates (even granting old-earth assumptions), the universe still has only about half the mass needed for re-contraction. This includes the combined total of both luminous matter and non-luminous matter (found in galactic halos), as well as any possible contribution of neutrinos to total mass.3

Some recent evidence for an ‘open’ universe comes from the number of light-bending ‘gravitational lenses’ in the sky.4 Also, analysis of Type Ia supernovae shows that the universe’s expansion rate is not slowing enough for a closed universe.5,6 It seems there is only 40-80% of the required matter to cause a ‘big crunch’.

Incidentally, this low mass is also a major problem for the currently fashionable ‘inflationary’ version of the ‘big bang’ theory, as this predicts a mass density just on the threshold of collapse — a ‘flat’ universe.

Finally, no known mechanism would allow a bounce back after a hypothetical ‘big crunch’.7

As the late Professor Beatrice Tinsley of Yale explained, even though the mathematics say that the universe oscillates, ‘There is no known physical mechanism to reverse a catastrophic big crunch.’

Off the paper and into the real world of physics, those models start from the Big Bang, expand, collapse, and that’s the end.8

2. Denial of cause and effect

Some physicists assert that quantum mechanics violates this cause/effect principle and can produce something from nothing. For instance, Paul Davies writes:

… spacetime could appear out of nothingness as a result of a quantum transition. … Particles can appear out of nowhere without specific causation … Yet the world of quantum mechanics routinely produces something out of nothing.9

But this is a gross misapplication of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics never produces something out of nothing. Davies himself admitted on the previous page that his scenario ‘should not be taken too seriously.’

Theories that the universe is a quantum fluctuation must presuppose that there was something to fluctuate — their ‘quantum vacuum’ is a lot of matter-antimatter potential — not ‘nothing’.

Also, I have plenty of theoretical and practical experience at quantum mechanics (QM) from my doctoral thesis work. For example, Raman spectroscopy is a QM phenomenon, but from the wavenumber and intensity of the spectral bands, we can work out the masses of the atoms and force constants of the bonds causing the bands. To help the atheist position that the universe came into existence without a cause, one would need to find Raman bands appearing without being caused by transitions in vibrational quantum states, or alpha particles appearing without pre-existing nuclei, etc.

If QM was as acausal as some people think, then we should not assume that these phenomena have a cause. Then I may as well burn my Ph.D. thesis, and all the spectroscopy journals should quit, as should any nuclear physics research.

Also, if there is no cause, there is no explanation why this particular universe appeared at a particular time, nor why it was a universe and not, say, a banana or cat which appeared. This universe can't have any properties to explain its preferential coming into existence, because it wouldn't have any properties until it actually came into existence.

Is creation by God rational?


A last desperate tactic by sceptics to avoid a theistic conclusion is to assert that creation in time is incoherent. Davies correctly points out that since time itself began with the beginning of the universe, it is meaningless to talk about what happened ‘before’ the universe began. But he claims that causes must precede their effects. So if nothing happened ‘before’ the universe began, then (according to Davies) it is meaningless to discuss the cause of the universe’s beginning.

But the philosopher (and New Testament scholar) William Lane Craig, in a useful critique of Davies,10 pointed out that Davies is deficient in philosophical knowledge. Philosophers have long discussed the notion of simultaneous causation. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) gave the example of a weight resting on a cushion simultaneously causing a depression in it. Craig says:

The first moment of time is the moment of God's creative act and of creation's simultaneous coming to be.

Some skeptics claim that all this analysis is tentative, because that is the nature of science. So this can’t be used to prove creation by God. Of course, sceptics can't have it both ways: saying that the Bible is wrong because science has proved it so, but if science appears consistent with the Bible, then well, science is tentative anyway.

A final thought

The Bible informs us that time is a dimension that God created, into which man was subjected. It even tells us that one day time will no longer exist. That will be called "eternity." God Himself dwells outside of the dimension He created (2 Timothy 1:9, Titus 1:2). He dwells in eternity and is not subject to time. God spoke history before it came into being. He can move through time as a man flips through a history book.

Because we live in the dimension of time, it is impossible for us to fully understand anything that does not have a beginning and an end. Simply accept that fact, and believe the concept of God's eternal nature the same way you believe the concept of space having no beginning and end -- by faith -- even though such thoughts put a strain on our distinctly insufficient cerebrum.

Paul S. Taylor, adapted from author Ray Comfort


Further Reading

More information can be found in the following works. Unfortunately they are too friendly towards the unscriptural ‘big bang’ theory with its billions of years of death, suffering and disease before Adam’s sin. But the above arguments are perfectly consistent with a recent creation in six consecutive normal days, as taught by Scripture.

Craig, W.L., Apologetics: An Introduction (Chicago: Moody, 1984).
Craig, W.L. online article "The Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe" http://www.leaderu.com/truth/3truth11.html
Geisler, N.L., Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 1976).
References and Notes


Actually, the word ‘cause’ has several different meanings in philosophy. But in this article, I am referring to the efficient cause, the chief agent causing something to be made. Return to text

Novikov, I.D. and Zel’dovich, Ya. B., "Physical Processes Near Cosmological Singularities", Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 11:401-2 (1973). Return to text

Schramm, D.N. and Steigman, G., "Relic Neutrinos and the Density of the Universe," Astrophysical Journal, 243:1-7 (1981). Return to text

Watson, A., "Clusters point to Never Ending Universe," Science, 278 (5342):1402 (1997). Return to text

Perlmutter, S. et al., "Discovery of a supernova explosion at half the age of the universe," Nature, 391(6662):51 (1998). Perspective by Branch, D. Destiny and destiny. Same issue, pp. 23-24. Return to text

Glanz, J., "New light on the fate of the universe," Science, 278 (5339):799-800. Return to text

Guth, A.H. and Sher, M., "The Impossibility of a Bouncing Universe," Nature, 302:505-507 (1983). Return to text

Tinsley, B., "From Big Bang to Eternity?", Natural History Magazine (October 1975), pp. 102-5. Cited in Craig, W.L., Apologetics: An Introduction (Chicago: Moody, 1984), p. 61. Return to text

Davies, P., God and the New Physics (Simon & Schuster, 1983), p. 215. Return to text

Craig, W.L., "God, Creation and Mr. Davies," Brit. J. Phil. Sci. 37:163-175 (1986). Return to text

Author: Jonathan Sarfati, Answers in Genesis. First published in: Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal 12(1):20-22, 1998.

Copyright © 1998, 2003, Answers in Genesis, All Rights Reserved - except as noted on attached "Usage and Copyright" page that grants ChristianAnswers.Net users generous rights for putting this page to work in their homes, personal witnessing, churches and schools. Illustrations and layout copyright, 2003, Eden Communications

Answer 2

In the instant following the beginning, the generation of the cosmos became the regeneration of the cosmos. The force is the same, only the name and date has changed. At the end of the Bible, Jesus says he is the 'Resurrection'. He is the same person, that generated the beginning. He is regenerating now, and forever. Anything that came into the cosmos, came through Him. They will leave through the same door, some to glory, some to shame.

It is difficult to discuss beginnings, and ends, when you are trapped between two eternities.

Answer 3

The Beginning refers to the beginning of God's creations.
God Does not have a beginning as time has no beginning.

Answer 4

"In the beginning..." was kind of an intro to God kicking off a new project, the start of the universe. It is widely accepted that the universe is expanding outward in all directions which implies, if you roll back time, everything in the universe originated from a single point. So where did that singe point come from? What is the universe expanding into? The explosion was so well orchestrated that we got a perfectly positioned earth, with a moon to stabilize our axis. Who else could pull of such a chain reaction that resulted in children playing in sunny peaceful meadows on earth, while our neighbor Venus is lifeless and raining sulphuric acid.

Answer 5

God IS the beginning

Answer 6

No. God is eternal. He always was and always will be. He has no beginning and no end.
This is speaking of the beginning of creation, the beginning of our world, the beginnning of creation.
Not the beginning of God. God has no beginning

Answer 7

it means in the beginning of time not the begining of god. god has been around forever

Answer 8

God apparently had no beginning ....a concept that we cannot fathom.
However, just because we cannot fathom it, does not mean its inaccurate.
Psalm 90:2 indicates he has always been around.
When Genesis says "In the beginning..." it is referring to the beginning of earth's creation.

Answer 9

No.

Heb 7:3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

Answer 10

No... and that's why he's so incredible. It's hard for us to understand the concept of eternity-- when we contemplate it we get nowhere.

God describes Himself as one who always was, always is, and always will be. He is the one constant of the universe.

The "In the beginning" refers to the beginning of the world, or the beginning of time. God existed before all that, amazingly enough.

Answer 11

I wonder what he did for that infinte length of time before creation... And what were we little souls doing for all that eternity? singing our praises to god??? thank god for creation... it is like a well deserved intermission from an eternity mindless singing of praises... and worse for me, my soul can't even carry a tune.