To explore the relationship between a creator and their creation, consider the analogy of an engineer who invents a phone. This example helps us understand the fundamental difference between the creator and the created, and how the creator is not subject to the rules governing the creation.
When we think of a phone, it is a complex piece of technology composed of various components—microchips, circuits, batteries, screens, software, and so forth. For this phone to come into existence, there had to be a designer, an engineer who conceived the idea of the phone, developed its blueprint, and oversaw its construction. The fact that the phone exists at all indicates that its creator, the engineer, existed prior to the phone. Without the engineer’s knowledge, intent, and action, the phone would have never come into being. Therefore, the creation (the phone) is entirely dependent on the existence and work of the creator (the engineer).
Now, once the phone is created, it functions according to specific rules and laws that are intrinsic to its design. For instance, the phone requires a power source to operate, it runs on specific software that must be updated periodically, and its hardware is susceptible to wear and tear over time. These are the rules and limitations under which the phone operates. It is bound by its design to function in a certain way—its battery must be charged, its software must be maintained, and it is vulnerable to damage from physical impacts.
However, these rules that apply to the phone do not apply to the engineer who created it. The engineer is not dependent on a battery to function, does not require software updates to exist, and is not made of circuits or microchips. The engineer is a human being who exists independently of the phone and does not share the same limitations or constraints that the phone does. The engineer is, therefore, not bound by the laws governing the phone; instead, the engineer operates in a completely different realm of existence, governed by different rules—those of biology, psychology, and social interaction, among others. This is a fundamental point: the creator is inherently different from and operates independently of the creation.
Similarly, when we consider the universe as a creation, the question of who created it leads us to think about the nature of its creator. The universe, like the phone, follows specific rules and laws that define its operation. These include the laws of physics—such as gravity, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics—which govern everything from the movement of galaxies to the behavior of subatomic particles. Time and space are also fundamental aspects of our universe; everything within it is subject to these dimensions.
If we apply the analogy further, God is the engineer, and the universe is the phone. God, as the Creator, must have existed before the universe came into being, just as the engineer existed before the phone was created. For the universe to exist, there must have been a pre-existing cause—an intelligent mind that conceived it, brought it into being, and set the laws that govern it. The very fact that our universe has order, structure, and predictable laws suggests the presence of a deliberate and powerful force that designed it. This force, which we refer to as God, must necessarily be outside and independent of the creation itself.
Furthermore, just as the engineer is not subject to the rules governing the phone, God is not subject to the rules governing the universe. The laws of time, space, and physics apply to everything within the universe, but not to its Creator. God exists outside the confines of time and space; He is timeless and spaceless. This is why questions like “Who created God?” are fundamentally flawed—they impose the rules of the created universe onto its Creator. If God were subject to time and space, He would be part of the created order and thus not truly God. Instead, God is the uncaused cause, the eternal being who exists independently of the universe and is not constrained by its laws.
To further clarify, think about the idea of time itself. Time is a dimension that began with the creation of the universe. Before the universe existed, time as we know it did not exist. Thus, God, as the Creator of the universe, also created time. He exists outside of it. Asking “What happened before God created the universe?” is like asking “What is north of the North Pole?” It’s a question that misunderstands the nature of what is being asked. “Before” is a concept rooted in time, and time is a part of the universe that God created. God is eternal—He does not have a beginning or an end. He does not exist within the framework of time; rather, time exists within the framework of His creation.
This distinction helps us understand why God, as the Creator, is fundamentally different from His creation. Unlike everything in the universe, which is bound by the laws of nature, God is not. He is not confined by the dimensions of time and space or the physical laws that govern matter and energy. Just as the engineer is separate from and not constrained by the phone’s design, God is separate from and not constrained by the universe.
In conclusion, the analogy of the engineer and the phone helps illustrate a critical point: the creator is always greater than the creation. The creator is not bound by the limitations of the creation, and the creator’s existence is independent of the creation. By understanding this, we can better grasp why God, as the Creator of the universe, is not subject to the rules of time and space that govern our universe. He is the eternal, self-sufficient origin of all that exists.
