At some point in our lives, most of us pause to wonder about the origins of everything around us. Where did it all begin? How did the universe come to be? When we reflect on these questions, there are a handful of possibilities that naturally come to mind. Some might imagine that the universe emerged from nothing. Others consider the idea that it is self-created. Some think of it as something that was made by another created thing, while others sense that it must have been brought into existence by something uncreated. Finally, some entertain the notion that the universe itself is uncreated, having always existed from eternity. Our perception of these possibilities is shaped by a wide array of influences, our upbringing, education, culture, scientific exposure, books, interactions, and even personal experience, all of which guide the way we interpret the mystery of existence. Here is an analysis of each of them….
The Universe Was Created by Nothing.
“Nothing” means the absence of everything: no matter, no energy, no space, no time, no laws, no potential, and critically, no creative power. Nothing, in other words, has no properties, no abilities, and no causal capacity. Trying to define “nothing” that everything came from is already a problem, because the very act of describing it or giving it any attributes makes it “something”, and thus it is no longer nothing. If there were truly nothing, there could be no mechanism for anything to emerge. From absolute nothing, nothing can come. The mere suggestion of it borders on the absurd and contradictory, let alone holding it as a belief. To assert that the universe came from nothing is to assign causal power to the absence of all things, which is incoherent.
The Universe was self-created
The belief itself collapses under the weight of logic. For something to create itself, it would first have to exist before it existed. In other words, the universe would need to possess the power to bring itself into being while it did not yet exist, a contradiction in terms. Would a woman be capable of giving birth to her own self? Something cannot simultaneously exist and not exist, nor can it act causally from a state of nonexistence. Self-creation is therefore logically impossible because it violates the most basic principles of reason. Furthermore, claiming self-creation does not solve the problem of origins; it merely attempts to bypass it. Logic and reason converge here: the universe could not have created itself, and the search for a coherent explanation inevitably points beyond the universe itself
The universe has always existed. (It’s Uncreated)
The belief of an eternal universe claims that reality never had a beginning but has always existed in some form, making creation unnecessary. At first glance, this seems like a simple solution to the question of origins, but it runs into serious scientific and philosophical difficulties. Modern cosmology strongly suggests the universe has a finite age: there’s a lot of evidence pointing that the world had a beginning, and the expansion of the universe (Hubble’s law) implies a starting point in the past. If the universe had been expanding forever, it would now be infinitely large, which it is not. Moreover, the Second Law of Thermodynamics teaches that entropy always increases in a closed system. If the universe had existed eternally, it should have already reached a state of maximum disorder and heat death. The fact that usable energy still exists points strongly to a universe with a finite past, not an eternal one.
Beyond science, the eternal universe faces deep philosophical problems. To say the universe is eternal means the past is infinite, but an actual infinite series of moments cannot exist in reality. You cannot cross an infinite to arrive at today; if there had been infinite days before now, the present moment would never have come. It’s not possible to “cross” an actual infinity to arrive at time. Yet we are here, today, nested in time. Furthermore, an eternal universe has no explanation for why it exists rather than not existing. It becomes a brute fact, with no ultimate cause or grounding.
The universe was created by something created.
The claim that the universe was created by something that itself is created only postpones the question of origins rather than answering it. It leads to a logical problem known as infinite regress. If the universe’s creator was created by something else, and that creator was also created, and so on, you end up with an infinite chain of creators with no starting point. This raises the question: what initiated the chain? An infinite regress doesn’t provide a satisfactory explanation because it avoids identifying a first cause or origin. Alternatively, if the creator of the universe was created, it implies the creator is not fundamentally different from the universe itself; both would be contingent, meaning they depend on something else for their existence. A created creator would lack the ultimate authority or power to be the universe’s cause, as it would itself require a cause. A cause would need to exist outside the chain of created things to account for the universe’s origin, i.e, uncreated
The universe was created by something uncreated.
The belief that the universe was created by something uncreated offers a compelling explanation for why anything exists at all. Unlike the other possibilities, it avoids the problem of infinite regress, providing a foundation for all contingent things. A necessary, self-existent reality can account for the existence of the universe without relying on something else to bring it into being. In this way, it satisfies the principle of sufficient reason, giving a coherent answer to the question of why there is something rather than nothing.
Additionally, an uncreated cause aligns with the order and intelligibility we observe in the universe. The consistency of physical laws, the fine-tuning of constants, and the rational structure of reality are all easier to explain if they originate from a purposeful, necessary source rather than from randomness or self-generation. This perspective also provides a framework for morality, love, purpose, and meaning. If the universe is grounded in a conscious, uncreated being, then objective values and relational truths become intelligible, offering a coherent context for human experience and ethical understanding.
One potential challenge, however, is that the concept of an uncreated being can feel counterintuitive. Skeptics may ask: if everything needs a cause, why does this being not require one? While this may initially seem difficult to grasp, philosophy has long argued that some ultimate reality must exist independently to account for everything else. It’s also good to recognize that the realm of the created and Creator is worlds apart, like a carpenter and a table. You can’t grasp the infinite as a finite person. The Creator exists on a level of being, knowledge, love, and power that far surpasses anything within creation. We, as finite creatures, are limited by time, space, and understanding, while the Creator is infinite, eternal, and unbounded. Trying to fully grasp the infinite with a finite mind is like attempting to contain the ocean in a cup: no matter how much we study or experience, the fullness of God’s nature will always exceed our comprehension.
Creator & Creation
