If God made the universe and everything in it, where did he get all the stuff?

Question

I asked the vicar this, aged 10, pointing out that if the raw materials were there already, then they must have been made by someone else, and if they were not, then 'just where did he get all the stuff? And if they were then God didn't make everything, did he? There must have been several gods at it and, if so, how many? and where did they get the stuff from - and who made him - or them?

Answer 1

He created it.

Answer 2

An interesting question that has been asked by most of history. Unfortunately, we usually approach the answer from a humanistic perspective, presuming that there must have been something within all that nothing to have been used to create the everything that we see. We tend to presume that God must have had some beginning because our perspectives are so locked into the construct of time, we can nary conceive the possibility of something or someone not having a birth or beginning or having been created.

If God created the universe and everything in it, then all of the "stuff" that was used to create everything must also be a part of the "everything" that was created.

There is a particular doctrine on the Church that God created everything "ex nihilo", or out of nothing. While this is not necessarily incorrect, we must understand that it is not a complete description.

First, for "nothing" to exist before the presence of "something" is a logical impossibility. Nothing must be the ABSENCE of something (really, everything). And of there are no somethings (and no everything), there cannot be a nothing since this nothing is simply the something that describes the absence of everything.

Second, you've already presumed that God is NOT everything...and this is probably where I'll lose you since you're simply wanting to use a somewhat logical argument to disprove the possibility of the existance of God. But since you asked...God is pre-existant, which is to say that He had no beginning and has no end.

How? you ask. Well, I can't tell you how, as I am not God. However, I can tell you that if God does exist and God did create everything that now exists, then He everything created must exist in some way within Him, since there is nothing outside of Him. Which means that he is not bound by time or matter as we know it. In fact, time, which was created by God, exists within eternity, which was also created by God. And nothing that was created exists outside of God.

So...now that we're largely lost in some abstract ideas, here it comes. God created everything. Period. I would even go so far as to say that, while this is difficult for our minds, God created everything out of Himself.

Obviously, if you have chosen to disbelieve the existance of God or the validity of the Bible, these arguments are moot as we have a disconnect at the most fundamental level.

Answer 3

If you study your physics you'll find out that what you call "stuff" is actually nothing more than packets of energy that science calls quanta. There really is no "stuff" just packets of energy held together by fields of energy. This is demonstrated in Einstein's famous equation e=mc2 that shows matter and energy are equal.

Furthermore, this energy exists in a fundamental state of probability that only collapses to form what we experience as "reality" when acted upon by consciousness. Matter is formed when consciousness acts on energy.

So energy and consciousness pre-exist matter and act together to form the material universe. This is all scientific fact proven in laboratory results.

These facts raise the question of where is the source of this all-pervasive energy from which all of creation is made, and whose consciousness focuses it into "reality"?

The answer is actually quite simple:

In the beginning there was the Creator, the original source. The Creator was all that there was and there was nothing that was not the Creator. The Creator was composed entirely of energy, and was completely conscious and aware of every aspect of it's own Divinity. However, just as you might know yourself to be a generous person but would not be able to experience the act of giving generously unless there was someone other than you to whom you could give, the Creator, though aware of it's own Divinity, could not fully experience itself since All was One.

Therefore the Creator worked out a magnificent plan where all things could be experienced. In a singular moment we call the Big Bang, the energy of the Creator (which we call Love) was converted into the fundamental building block of matter - the photon of light (E=MC2). Through the principles of vibrating energy creation was stratisfied into density layers in the same way the vibrations we call sound stratisfy into harmonic layers. Just like some sound frequencies cannot be detected by your hearing, some densities of creation cannot be directly percieved by our senses.

Some fundamental conclusions (again supported by science) are that:

1. Everything in Creation is an individual expression OF the Creator, BY the Creator. Therefore every atom, rock, tree, animal, human, planet, star or galaxy is alive with it's own level of consciousness imparted by the Creator.

2. The energy of the Creator is the fundamental constituent of nature from which all things are formed. Therefore there is no separation from the Creator or anything else, this is only an illusion.

3. The gift of the illusion of separation was provided in order that each person could co-create their own variation of experience with absolute free-will. Nonetheless, it is still an illusion, in reality All-is-Oone.

In reality you ARE the Creator experiencing Itself, and you exist in a highly detailed holographic environment that overlays true reality. Like an actor in a daytime soap opera, the character you are playing now is not the real you, you are merely acting out your dramas on this stage of visible light.

Unlike a scripted TV show however, this play is an improvisation, and you are a co-creator of the entire production.

Answer 4

If God mad the universe and "all the stuff in it" as you asked,then he made all of "the stuff" too. You answered your own question there. Without the universe and everything in it, no "stuff" was available. God is eternal and has no begining or ending. The scientist have trouble believing this, but yet they turn around and state that space and the universe has always been there so you should have no trouble believing that God has no begining either.

Answer 5

Either God is the supreme being of the universe or He is not.
If God is the supreme being of the universe, then God can do anything,
If God can do anything, then he can certainly create something from nothing.
So, God created the matter of the universe from nothing.

Actually, God is limitless pure energy and atoms are composed of energy. So it can be said that all the matter of the universe is a part of God.

Answer 6

Every theologian knows its Walmart. No, seriously, I believe in literal intelligent design according to Genesis. According to this line of belief, God simply spoke or thought everything into existence. As for multiple gods and their creation... God, by definition, has no beginning or creation. God simply was and is. This concept of something or someone having no beginning is mind boggling. Maybe its simply a case of finite minds trying to comprehend the infinite.
I hope this helps.

Answer 7

Your major mistake in this question is the lack of distinction between the universe, which is a time- and space- based and limited creation, and eternity, which is self-existent, non-temporal and non-spacial.

God is existential in eternity. God draws from a source in eternity called the Unqualified Absolute and through the force of his will, he qualifies portions of that absolute and creates whatever he wants.

I understand that this may not completely answer your question, but it is a difficult question to answer in a few short paragraphs. I would suggest reading about it for yourself in the Urantia Book. The Foreword - the first part of the book - expounds upon these very concepts you wish to know about. It explains the various levels of reality - existential, transcendental and experiential - and even attempts to explain to us how God "came to be". God is existential, meaning he has always existed, but the authors attempt to explain this and other existential "events" in eternity in temporal language because our minds perceive reality in that fashion.

Answer 8

God created the "universe", but the "stuff" is man made. God put Adam in the garden, and hid the chair in the tree. He also gifted men to work with certain elements such as steel, metal, and the like. Man makes use of the stuff from the earth.

Answer 9

All what stuff?
Study Buddhism for a while; you will find that "Everything is nothing".
And do you know what, that is correct!
Can you prove that anything exists?
I venture to suggest that everything, including the computer on which you are reading this email, and me, are just thoughts in an empty void.
Well? Prove me wrong!

Answer 10

i think that billions and billions of years ago something really big happened and after billions of years a single celled organism crawled out of the water and turned into a dinosaur and they the dinosaur crapped out a monkey and then a monkey had a baby (but not an ordinary monkey, it was a caveman) and then the man invented the ipod. Isn't life great?

Man, i don't think anyone will ever know what really happened. It's all just speculation. At least until someone finds one of those little green men. Then all hell will break loose.

Answer 11

God made the universe