Did God have a mummy and daddy? Or did s/he he just create her/himself? | Notes and Queries

Did God have a mummy and daddy? Or did s/he he just create her/himself?

Renee-Margaret Slater, Aberdeen, Scotland

• Mary was his mother, despite his predating her. He was his own father. Or possibly Joseph was. Or according to some Jewish sources, a Roman Centurion was. The truth is, of course, that the human mind is both his mummy and daddy. Your question is an ancient one, and has no real validity, because neither he or she exist. In the words of Douglas Adams, he "disappeared in a puff of logic" long ago.

  Simon, Milford Haven, UK

• God is a human invention. We have computers that can design computers that are smarter than themselves. These smarter computers, in turn, design computers that are again smarter than themselves. Imagine a group of computers at the end of a long line of development that collaborate to design a computer that is n times smarter than them all put together, and totally unlike anything that has gone before. This computer is so smart, so complex and so sophisticated that it becomes aware of itself. It develops conciousness. It will recognise itself as intelligent, indeed it will recognise itself as the most superior entity in its environment. It will then question its origin, and conclude that whatever gave rise to it must be n times more superior again, and as it is the most superior entity in its environment, its more superior originator must lie somewhere outside its environment. In short, it will have to invent God to explain its own existence. Just like us.

  J. Owens, London, UK

• Why is this question included under 'Root of all evil'?

  Pete Wigens, Stroud, Gloucestshire, England

• Emily, you are referring to the Old Testament God. The God that Jesus talks about in the New Testament is forgiving. You might be an atheist but you are a baptised member of the Church of England so you’re looking at God from a Christian perspective. The God you don’t believe in is the Christian God. The true answer is that we'll never know anything about God for certain. No one; not the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Pope, the Dali Llama, Richard Dawkins, any other religious person, atheist or agnostic can say for absolute certainty that God exists, or say anything else about God with absolute certainty for that matter. It is purely a matter of faith and belief.

  Berner, Berne Scotland