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.
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[edit] Arguments in Favour
Some verses from the Judeo-Christian Bible often cited in support of Ex nihilo creation by God are the following:
Genesis 1:1-2 - 1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Proverbs 8:22-24 - 22The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. 23I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 24When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.
Psalm 33:6 -6By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
John 1:3 - 3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Romans 4:17 - even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
1 Corinthians 1:28 - 28And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
Hebrews 11:3 - 3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
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.
An opinion held by some Orthodox Jewish scholars is that the Book of Genesis contains a mystical interaction between God and all of creation. A familiar name of God for Christians, "alpha and omega", comes from the idea of God being the cause of all creation. The Hebrew equivalent of the letter "alpha" is "aleph", both letters being the equivalent to the letter 'A'. Therefore, since God alone represents the letter 'A', the next letter in the alphabet, 'B', or "bet" obviously is situated after the letter 'A'. Because then, the Torah begins with the letter 'B', in the word "bereshit" - or, in the beginning - some have posited the idea that we can conclude that God existed before the Torah, but that the Torah was the next thing to exist in the universe, and that this relationship between God and the Torah supports the theory of ex nihilo, due to the fact that the letter 'A' is situated before the letter 'B' in the alphabet.
[edit] Islam
The Mu'tazili favoured this thought.
[edit] 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 Jewish and 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.
[edit] Computer science
In some computing environments, "ex nihilo" is used to describe various techniques for creating data structures or objects. In prototype-based programming languages, an object is created "ex nihilo" if it does not use another object as its prototype.
[edit] Social architecture
There is a process by which one creates a social structures by providing a space. So for example you can rent a space in a commercial district in a town and simply leave it open for others to provide the inspiration for creating something in it. The vacuum of the space attracts something to manifest in it. This process is also given the name Edwarding after Matthew Edwards who created Circlecenter (circlecenter.com) based on this principle.
There is a yang form of social architecture where you prescribe and design more of what you want to see. There is a yin form of social architecture where you allow more of the structure to be built by the participants. Open space technology and world cafe are more yin forms. Edwarding is a relatively yin form of social architecture.
[edit] See also
[edit] Suggested reading
- Thomas Jay Oord, Science of Love: The Wisdom of Well-Being (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2005), especially chapter 2.
- Jon D. Levenson, Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994; New York: Harper & Row, 1987).
- Sjoerd L. Bonting, Chaos Theology: A Revised Creation Theology [Ottawa: Novalis, 2002].
- James Edward Hutchingson, Pandemoneum Tremendum: Chaos and Mystery in the Life of God [Pilgrim, 2000].
- David Ray Griffin, “Creation out of Chaos and The Problem of Evil,” in Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy, 2nd ed., Stephen T. Davis, ed., [Atlanta: John Knox, 1999].
- Catherine Keller, The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming [Routledge, 2003].
- Michael E. Lodahl “Creation out of Nothing? Or is Next to Nothing Enough?” in Thy Nature and Name is Love, Bryan Stone and Thomas Jay Oord, eds. Nashville, TN: Kingswood, 2002
