When a six year girl wrote a letter asking who invented God (it seems it was a class assignment), her father followed up by sending the letter to a variety of religious institutions in the United Kingdom. The Archbishop of Canterbury wrote the following response:
Dear Lulu,
Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this ‚Äì
‚ÄòDear Lulu ‚Äì Nobody invented me ‚Äì but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.
Then they invented ideas about me ‚Äì some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints ‚Äì specially in the life of Jesus ‚Äì to help them get closer to what I’m really like.
But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’
And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.
I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lots of love from me too.
+Archbishop Rowan
I don’t think it’s half bad though I’m not sure if at six, I would have understood what he wrote. Or maybe the lack of dinosaur references would have bored me. Either way, I think it’s a good letter for the audience Archbishop Rowan was writing for – moms and dads.