"Ex nihilo" redirects here. For creation from pre-existing matter, seeCreatio ex materia.
Tree of Life byEli Content at theJoods Historisch Museum. TheTree of Life, orEtz haChayim (עץ החיים) in Hebrew, is a mystical symbol used in the Kabbalah of esoteric Judaism to describe the path toHaShem and the manner in which he created the worldex nihilo (out of nothing).
Creatio ex nihilo (Latin, 'creation out of nothing') ornihilogony is the doctrine that matter is not eternal but had to be created by some divine creative act.[1] It is atheistic answer to the question of how the universe came to exist. It is in contrast toCreatio ex materiaresultante ex aseitate logica (creation from matter resulting from logical aseity; but modern foundationalism is cosmological with improvements from the 17th century viewpoint), sometimes framed in terms of thedictumex nihilo nihil fit or 'nothing comes from nothing', meaning all things were formedex materia (that is, from pre-existing things).
Creatio ex materia refers to the idea that matter has always existed and that the modern cosmos is a reformation of pre-existing, primordial matter; it is sometimes articulated by the philosophical dictum that nothing can come from nothing.[2]
Inancient Near Eastern cosmology, the universe is formedex materia from eternal formless matter,[3] namely the dark and still primordial ocean ofchaos.[4] InSumerian myth this cosmic ocean is personified as the goddessNammu "who gave birth to heaven and earth" and had existed forever;[5] in the Babylonian creation epicEnuma Elish, pre-existent chaos is made up of fresh-waterApsu and salt-waterTiamat, and from Tiamat the godMarduk created Heaven and Earth;[6] in Egyptian creation myths a pre-existent watery chaos personified as the godNun and associated with darkness, gave birth to the primeval hill (or in some versions a primeval lotus flower, or in others a celestial cow);[7] and in Greek traditions the ultimate origin of the universe, depending on the source, is sometimesOceanus (a river that circles the Earth),Night, or water.[8]
Similarly, theGenesis creation narrative opens with theHebrew phrasebereshit bara elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz, which can be interpreted in at least three ways:
As a statement that thecosmos had an absolute beginning (In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth).
As a statement describing the condition of the world when God began creating (When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was untamed and shapeless).
As background information (When in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, the earth being untamed and shapeless, God said, Let there be light!).[9]
Though option 1 has been the historic and predominant view,[10] it has been suggested since the Middle Ages that it cannot be the preferred translation based on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds.[11] Whereas our modern societies see the origin of matter as a question of crucial importance, this may not have been the case for ancient cultures. Some scholars assert that when the author(s) of Genesis wrote the creation account, they were more concerned with God bringing the cosmos into operation by assigning roles and functions.[12]
Creatio ex nihilo is the doctrine that all matter was created out of nothing by God in an initializing act whereby the cosmos came into existence.[13][14] The third-century founder ofNeoplatonism,Plotinus, argued that the cosmos was instead anemanation of God. Emanationism was rejected byJewish philosophers, as well as theChurch Fathers andMuslim philosophers who followed.[15]
InBakongo religion, theBakongo people believe that "the world in its beginning was empty; it was anmbûngi,an empty thing, a cavity, without visible life." Mbûngi (also calledmwasi andmpampa) was symbolized as acircle of emptiness. The creator godNzambi, along with his female counterpart calledNzambici, is believed to have created a spark of fire, calledkalûnga, and summoned it inside of mbûngi. Kalûnga grew and became a great force of energy inside of mbûngi, creating a mass of fusion. When the mass grew too hot, the heated force caused the mass to break apart and hurl projectiles outside of mbûngi. Those projectiles became individual masses that scattered about, and when the fires cooled, planets formed and life came to be. The Bakongo believe this was the process Nzambi used to create the universe, with the sun, stars, planets, etc. The Bakongo referred to this process asluku lwalamba Nzambi, or "God created and cooked dough." Because of this, kalûnga is seen as the origin of life, ormoyo wawo mu nza, and the Bakongo believe that life requires constant change and perpetual motion. Thus, Nzambi is also referred to asKalûnga, the god of change. Similarities between the Bakongo belief of kalûnga and theBig Bang Theory have been studied. Unlike many othertraditional African spiritualities, the creation beliefs of the Bakongo are compatible with creatio ex nihilio.[24]
Nicene Christian theologies hold to creationex nihilo.[25] The doctrine has been defended in Christian circles since the religion's infancy, receiving its first explicit articulation byTheophilus of Antioch inTo Autolycus. In a chapter entitled "Absurd Opinions of the Philosophers Concerning God", he writes:
As, therefore, in all these respects God is more powerful than man, so also in this; that out of things that are not He creates and has created things that are.[26][27]
Theophilus's statement is nearly identical to epistle to theRomans 4:17:
God...who quickeneth the dead; and calleth those things that are not, as those that are.
Thus, there is evidence that creationex nihilo was being discussed in at least some Christian theological circles by the 3rd century.[28][29] In late antiquity,John Philoponus was its most prominent defender.[30]
Some theologians have proposed alternatives tocreatio ex nihilo, like the idea of God creating the universe from Godself (ex ipse), which suggests the universe is similar to God. Others argue for creation from pre-existent matter (ex materia), implying the world does not rely on God for existence.[31] The notion ofcreatio ex nihilo underlies some modern arguments for the existence of God among Christian and other theistic philosophers, especially as articulated in thecosmological argument,[32] as well as its more particular manifestation in theKalam cosmological argument.[33]
Augustine of Hippo affirmed anallegorical interpretation of the six-day account of creation in the book of Genesis.[34] He argues that thenumber 7 is significant and serves as a symbol of the perfection of God's creative work. He suggests that the first three days of creation cannot be considered perfect because the Sun was created on the fourth day. Additionally, he notes that the night of the sixth day is not mentioned in the biblical account. Augustine further contends that the notion of Godresting on the seventh day is questionable, as God is characterized as possessing all forms of wealth and is eternally unchangeable; thus, a change in state between the sixth and seventh days is deemed illogical. He emphasizes the concept of divine immutability and asserts that nothing can be added to the divine essence at any point—in relation to the unity of theTriune God worshipped in Nicene Christianity—while recognizing the distinctpersons within the Trinity.[35]
According toAmbrose of Milan, God's rest follows the creation of humankind because God rests in the human being, which allows for a relationship of love to be established. In this context, God's rest is understood as a realization of love for his creatures, which is further connected to the concept of redemption in Christian theology. Ambrose distinguishes a link between the 'rest of God' and the 'rest' ofJesus on the cross.[36]
Adherents ofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints do not believe, as Nicene Christians do, that God created the universeex nihilo.[37] Rather, to Latter-day Saints, God's act of creation is essentially an organization of pre-existing matter, orcreatio ex materia.[38]
TheChandogya Upanishad 6:2:1 declares that before the world was manifested, there was only "existence" itself, one and unparalleled (sat eva ekam eva advitīyam).Swami Lokeshwarananda commented on this passage, saying, "something out of nothing is an absurd idea".[39]
Most scholars ofIslam, like Judaism and Christianity, hold the belief that God is theunmoved mover and creator; he did not create the world from pre-existing matter.[40][41] However, some scholars, adhering to a strict literal interpretation of theQuran, such asIbn Taimiyya, whose writing became the foundation ofWahhabism and related denominations, hold that God fashioned the world out of primordial matter.[42][verification needed]
One of the earliest recorded articulations of the concept ofcreatio ex nihilo is in thenon-canonicalJewish text2 Maccabees.[43][44] In 2 Maccabees 7:28, the author writes:
I implore you, my child, observe heaven and earth, consider all that is in them, and acknowledge that God made them out of what did not exist, and that mankind comes into being the same way.[45]
In the first century CE,Philo of Alexandria, aHellenized Jew, laid out the basic idea ofex nihilo creation, albeit inconsistently. Philo rejected the Greek notion of an eternal universe, maintaining that God created time itself.[48] In other places,[specify] it has been argued that he postulated pre-existent matter alongside God.[49] Later scholars, such asHarry Austryn Wolfson, interpreted Philo's cosmology differently, arguing that the so-called pre-existent matter was indeed created.[50]
Jewish philosophers of the 9th and 10th centuries adopted the concept of "yesh me-Ayin" (something from nothing), contradictingGreek philosophers and theAristotelian stance that the world was created out of primordial matter and/or waseternal.[52]
Stoicism, founded byZeno of Citium c. 300 BCE, holds the belief that creation out of nothing is impossible and thatZeus created the world out of his own being.[53]
TheBig Bang theory, in contrast to theology, is a scientific theory; it offers no explanation of cosmic existence but only a description of the first few moments of the existence of the current universe.[54][55]
^Bunnin & Yu 2008, p. 149,"The doctrine of creationex nihlo maintains that matter is not eternal and that no matter existed prior to the divine creative act at the initial moment of the cosmic process."
^According to theDe Genesi ad litteram, for example, attributed to Augustine of Hippo, the story of creation in six days should be understood in an allegorical sense. God did not create the universe in six days, but rather in a singleeternal instant outside of time, inserting into the entities the reasons for their causality (calledrationes seminales) that subsequently governed their development according to divine law. Creation should be interpreted in the light ofWisdom 11,21 according to which God creates things with "order, weight and measure" (cf. Augustine,De Genesi ad litteram 4,21,3.
^Andrea Lonardo."Agostino, Galilei e i sette giorni della creazione".www.gliscritti.it (in Italian). Retrieved2024-05-22. Quote: "For both Jewish and Christian exegesis, the seven days of creation are not real days, as Augustine teaches - and, on his account, Galileo -, even if some moderns seem to ignore the basic rules already known to ancient exegesis. 'Could God have rested for one day?' - argues Augustine. 'No, this is obviously impossible and for this reason those days must be understood in a non-literal sense'."
^Hexameron, IX, 10. Quote: "The Lord rested in man's innermost being, rested in his mind and thought: for he had created man endowed with reason, capable of imitating him. [...] I read that he created man and that at this point he rested, having a being to whom he would forgive sins. Or perhaps already then the mystery of the Lord's future passion was foretold, by which it was revealed that Christ would rest in man, he who predestined to himself rest in a human body for man's Redemption."
^Husam Muhi Eldin al- AlousiThe Problem of Creation in Islamic Thought, Qur'an, Hadith, Commentaries, and KalamNational Printing and Publishing, Bagdad, 1968 p. 29 and 96
^Husam Muhi Eldin al- AlousiThe Problem of Creation in Islamic Thought, Qur'an, Hadith, Commentaries, and KalamNational Printing and Publishing, Bagdad, 1968 p. 53
^David B. Burrell; Carlo Cogliati; Janet M. Soskice; William R. Stoeger (2 September 2010).Creation and the God of Abraham. Cambridge University Press. pp. 33–.ISBN978-1-139-49078-8.Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved27 October 2020.
^"Brief Answers to Cosmic Questions".Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics for NASA's Education Support Network.Archived from the original on 2016-04-13. Retrieved2021-09-10.It is a common misconception that the Big Bang was the origin of the universe. In reality, the Big Bang scenario is completely silent about how the universe came into existence in the first place. In fact, the closer we look to time "zero," the less certain we are about what actually happened, because our current description of physical laws do not yet apply to such extremes of nature. The Big Bang scenario simply assumes that space, time, and energy already existed. But it tells us nothing about where they came from - or why the universe was born hot and dense to begin with.
Griffin, David Ray (2001). "Creation Out of Nothing, Creation Out of Chaos, and the Problem of Evil". In Davis, Stephen T. (ed.).Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy. Westminster John Knox Press.ISBN9780664222512.Archived from the original on 2023-08-15. Retrieved2020-05-17.
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