An image of the Supreme Soul as a point of light “Who made everything, dad?”
“Who made everything, dad?”
“What do you mean? The Earth? The houses? Cars?”
“Everything.”
“Like the universe?”
“Yes.”
How would you deal with that? The easiest answer is God, of course. But the boy is smart. Damned smart, and I can’t risk him asking who made God?
It makes sense. If God made everything , who made God? And who made the person, thing, or force that made God? And so on. In any case, I didn’t want to open up the hellish box of questions that comes with crediting God for the universe. Let’s face it, it’s not much of a stretch from congratulating God for making dolphins to wondering that the %^$% he/she/it was up to when conjuring up plagues, serial killers, and tsunamis.
“Dad, is God a weirdo sadist that does some messed up stuff?”
On the other hand, there’s the Big Bang. About the only way you can explain it to a child is to say there was a giant explosion which came a from a small point of light that had all of the elements of the universe in it. There’s probably a better way, but I will leave that for another day to think about.
In any case, cosmologists have no real idea about what came before the Big Bang. The dumb ones will argue about what constitutes ‘before’ while the smart ones will admit it’s a matter of speculation.
If Einstein and Hawking couldn’t give a decent answer, what chance does a guy like me have? It’s not like I did a very good job of explaining Easter.
But back to the question at hand.
“Who made everything, dad?”
“No one really knows, mate. It’s a great question but the most important thing is to be happy, enjoy life, and have fun.”
