Ex nihilo

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Ex nihilo is a Latin term meaning "out of nothing". It is often used in conjunction with the term creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning "creation out of nothing". Due to the nature of this, the term is often used in philosophical or creationistic arguments, as a number of people say that God created the universe from nothing.

Arguments in Favor

Some verses from the Christian Bible often cited in support of Ex nihilo creation by God are the following:

[Genesis 1:1] - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

[Proverbs 8:22-24] - 22 “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago. 23 From time indefinite I was installed, from the start, from times earlier than the earth. 24 When there were no watery deeps I was brought forth as with labor pains, when there were no springs heavily charged with water.

[Psalm 33:6] - By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

[John 1:3] - Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

[Romans 4:17] - ... the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

[1 Corinthians 1:28] - He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,

[Hebrews 11:3] - By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Another major argument for creatio ex nihilo is the "first cause" argument, which may be summarized as:

Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
The universe began to exist.
Therefore, the universe must have a cause.

Arguments Against

It has been argued that this concept cannot be deduced from the Hebrew and that the Book of Genesis, chapter 1, speaks of God "making" or "fashioning" the universe. However, Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi (1745-1812) refuted these arguments in section II of his book titled "Tanya".

Thomas Jay Oord argues that Christians should abandon the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo. Oord points to the work of biblical scholars, such as Jon D. Levenson, who acknowledge that the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo is not present in the first book of the canon.

Early Christian theologians and philosophers, including Philo, Justin, Athenagoras, Hermogenes, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, and, later, John Scotus Erigena also found no good reason to affirm the creation-out-of-nothing hypothesis. Philo, for instance, postulated a pre-existent matter alongside God.

For an examination of how the doctrine arose originally in Gnosticism and then was adopted by early Church leaders to shore up doctrines of divine determinism, see Gerhard May, Creatio Ex Nihilo: The Doctrine of ‘Creation out of Nothing’ in Early Thought. trans. A. S. (Worrall. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1994).

Process theologians argue that God has always been related to some “world” or another. Oord speculates that God created our particular universe billions of years ago from primordial chaos. This chaos did not predate God, however, for God would have created the chaotic elements as well.

Critics also claim that rejecting 'creatio ex nihilo' provides the opportunity to affirm that God has everlastingly created and related with some realm of nondivine actualities or another. According to this alternative God-world theory, no nondivine thing exists without the creative activity of God, and nothing can terminate God’s necessary existence.

While the idea of God everlastingly relating with creatures may seem strange because of its novelty, even its opponents in Christian history – like Thomas Aquinas – admitted it as a logical possibility.

Another scientific argument against creatio ex nihilo is made by Sjoerd Bonting. A viable alternative is offered by physicists Paul Steinhardt (Princeton University) and Neil Turok (Cambridge University). Their proposal is based upon the ancient idea that space and time have always existed in some form. Using developments in superstring theory, Steinhardt and Turok suggest that the Big Bang of our universe is a bridge to a pre-existing universe, and that creation undergoes an eternal succession of universes, with possibly trillions of years of evolution in each. Gravity and the transition from Big Crunch to Big Bang characterize an everlasting succession of universes. This argument, however, still fails to explain how such a system of successive universes could have come into being.

Ex nihilo

Arguments in Favor

Arguments Against

See also