Allow me to introduce you to the concept of the UrGod.
The UrGod? Huh? What is
that? Well, it's the
God of God. If God is "
God the Father" than the UrGod is the
Father of the Father, the
Grandfather. And what a great Grandfather it must be!! The UrGod is, simply put, a (hypothetical) being which is by definition
greater than any conceivable ordinary God, for its fundamental
attribute is that it is the
Creator of the ordinary God.
And it is because the UrGod is greater than God (and by definition more powerful than God) that it possesses the
power of
concealment of it's very existence from God itself. And indeed, UrGod has the power to set forth a God created with
all the apparent knowledge, memories, and beliefs of being the sole God, the sole creator in the
Universe. But deep down, neither this created God (or any God, actually) could ever quite be sure that its UrGod did or didn't exist.
Now you might ask, what is the use of an UrGod? What do we need the concept of an UrGod for, if we have a concept of God. Well, it's simple. We need an UrGod for the same reason, and to the same extent, that we need a God. We need an explanation for the possibility of the creation of God. If God is
our hypothetical creator, than the UrGod is exactly equally plausible as a hypothetical creator of God. In an ontological sense, it is a concept that
must exist simply because it
can exist. If God can actually exist, then by definition the UrGod can actually exist. If God doesn't or can't exist for some reason, then the ergot for the same reason can't or won't exist.
As a thought experiment, the UrGod
calcifies all the arguments which can be made for and against the existence of God. Anybody who doubts the existence of God would have to doubt the existence of the UrGod, for the same reasons. Anybody who believes that God exists they would have to believe in at least the possibility that the UrGod exist, for the same reasons. Now, some might claim that "God" has given man some kind of
revelation to make people believe it it. Looking to the
books of their various
cultures, there's no revelation so far from an UrGod. But, naturally, the UrGod is the only entity which
could give a revelation to God, and if God isn't telling us about it, we would have no way of knowing if there is indeed such an UrGod-to-God revelation. The UrGod may have no interest in giving
us any revelation because we're simply not this subject of its interest; maybe it simply wants to see what the God it has created does. And any reason for which God would have bothered creating our
Universe is a possible reason for the UrGod to have created God. Maybe UrGod so loved God before God existed that he did whatever UrGod's do to create a God. Maybe the UrGod creating God is just something that was
inevitable. And all the philosophical arguments that we have -- the
ontological argument, the
argument from design, the
first cause are arguments which would apply to why an UrGod would exist with respect to God.
Naturally, men may deny the existence of UrGod, but that simply makes each such man an
Atheist as to UrGod, and puts these nonbelievers in the same boat with respect to UrGod as other Atheists are to their own Gods. And, if there's a just plain regular God up there, even it may be an Atheist as to its UrGod, even while always knowing the unknowability of it.