Did the Universe Create Itself?

Did the universe create itself?

Quite a few atheists put forward the claim that the universe could have created itself and therefore doesn’t need a God as an explanation for its existence. However, a closer look this claim reveals that it’s self-contradictory.

For a thing to create itself it had to exist before it existed. In other words it had to both exist and not exist at the same time. But this violates one of the fundamental principles of logic, namely the law of non-contradiction which states, in the words of Aristotle, that “one cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect and at the same time.“

In other words, a thing can’t both have the property A and the property not-A in the same respect, and at the same time. A ball, for example, can’t both have the property of “fully red” and the property “fully blue” in the same respect, and at the same time. Similarly a universe can’t both exist and not exist in the same respect, and at the same time.

We thus have to reject the idea of a self-creating universe.