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About this quote

What does it mean?
A super-intelligence might exist elsewhere in the universe, but it could not be the creator of the universe because it would not have existed at the beginning.
In plain terms
Even if a god-like being exists, it cannot explain how the universe started since it would have to exist after the universe did.
What can you take from it?
A created being cannot explain its own creator.

Where it applies

  • philosophy of religion
  • cosmological arguments
  • science vs. theology

Putting it to work

  • discussing creation arguments
  • clarifying cosmological models

Questions to consider

  • What explains the first cause?
  • Does time apply to a creator?

Another view

The argument assumes the universe had a beginning and that a god must be temporally bounded.

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