the question I’m asking isn’t where does the circle begin but rather why is the circle there
"Why", in this case, is the wrong question... because it comes with incorrect implications.
When we ask "why is a thing there", we're starting with the presupposition that something caused it... and that makes it a contingent entity.
If we say "why" does God exist, the "why" question implies something was prior to him which caused him... this would make God a contingent being, not an eternal, self existent being.
God does not exist by contingency, but by necessity of his own being... in theology this is what we call God's "aseity."
He did not "come into existence", there is nothing prior to him which "caused" him.
If there is nothing prior to him which caused him, then there is no "why", because "why" implies contingency... if anything at all caused God to be, then that thing would be more powerful than God, and that thing would, essentially, be God.
God exists by the necessity of his own being... he has always existed, he never began to exist, and nothing prior to him caused him.
If "something" was not eternal, then nothing could be here now... nothing could currently exist unless "something" was eternal.
If there was ever a time when there was "nothing"... there would be nothing still.
Even atheists and non-Christians have understood this for thousands of years.... it's not a religious statement.
God's eternal nature is not something we can fully comprehend, but we can have SOME comprehension of it.
- We can use simple logic, and work backward, and very quickly see that something had to be eternal... something must have always existed.
- Then we can easily deal with contingency, and logically see that something which has always existed is not contingent on anything else for it's existence... this means there is no "why", other than it exists by sheer necessity of it's own existence.
- We can deduce these things logically, and fairly easily, and humans have understood these things for a very long time.
Conclusion:
We can easily understand that God IS eternal, and that something MUST BE ETERNAL, and that something which is eternal has no explanation for being other than it's own necessity.
- We can easily come to these logical conclusion... and people have understood these things for a long time.
- But understanding that God is eternal, and that he must be eternal.... well... that's very different than understanding what being eternal is like. It's not something we can relate to.
- Eternality is one of God's "incommunicable" attributes, that means it's an attribute which humans simply don't have... since we don't have it, it's very hard for us to relate to it, or understand it. We can accept it, and understand it to be true, both by faith and by logic... but we can't relate to it.
Sorry this topic is so hard to comprehend... but we're talking about God's incommunicable attributes... they are hard to comprehend by definition.
God Bless.
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