The Properties of Self-existence: Is it necessary for the universe to have a creator?
I was having a discussion with some friends about the existence of God, and there was one point that kept coming up; it starts by the atheist asking: If we assume that every creature needs a creator, then who created God? The theist answers that God was not created by anyone, God is self-existent. But here, the atheist answers that if this is the case, then why are we adding one more level, and saying that God created the universe, but no one created God? Why don't we just say that no one created the universe; that the universe, by itself, is self-existent. That is, as long as we are saying that every creature has a creator except for one self-existent entity, why is it that we are adding one more unobservable entity to fill in that role, why don't we just take the universe to be that self-existent entity? I can't provide an answer for this, but I think that a plausible method could go as follows: Find a set of properties, let's call it S , such that if a certai
