A recent tweet exchange made me think that the common misunderstanding it revealed was worth exploring further. The exchange went something like this:

Me: You can’t explain the universe without God.

Him: How do u explain God then?

Me: You don’t: he explains you.

Him: The greatest cop-out ever…

The misunderstanding – and it’s one that flourishes as much in the Dawkins-Hitchens conglomerate as in the mentally less well endowed specimens that answer my tweets –  is that God is in the category of things that need explaining: he isn’t. He is in a category that has one member: himself – not created, indivisible, beyond nature, omniscient, omnipotent, omni-present. If he could be “explained” he would no longer be God.

So, if an answer can be found to questions like, “who made God” or “how do you explain God” it means the questions have been asked of something that isn’t God. It makes little sense to ask for a cause of something that is the First Cause. If the cause could be found, that god would not be the first cause and, therefore, not be God.

God is the great explainer; he is to be worshipped, loved and enjoyed. Not explained.