Ex Nihilo or Ex Dei
Ex Nihilo is Latin for “from nothing” or "out of nothing". It is often used as a
descriptive of God’s act of creation to convey the idea that God created
everything from nothing. This has often bothered me due to the limitations of
the expression. The idea may hold against a superficial examination and
may even be rationalised with the Scriptural contention that God sustains
everything in creation by His power. I say may because we really have no proof that God
created from nothing.
God Created
Right about now some may hear alarm bells ringing so let me just say that I do not believe in a pre-existent creation (before this one), nor do I believe in a "Wheel of Time" concept where creation to destruction is an endlessly cyclic process. All we are told is that first there was God and then He created us and everything we know, sustaining it by His power. The first three words of the bible, “בראשית ברא אלהים” (B'reishit bara Elohim), are traditionally translated “In the beginning, God created… ”. The word “bara”, meaning “create” (Strongs 1254), carries no direct revelation that this creation was physically “from nothing”. The idea that this creation was from nothing is our logical interpretation of the text intending to convey the philosophical idea (within a theological context) that our existence was not and then by the action of God, it was – it came into existence. The added qualifier "ex nihilo" is not intended to provide definitive insight into the physical substance of creation, the creative process or how God sustains creation and of itself it does not stand alone but must be augmented by the declaration of the first cause (i.e. God).
In an attempt to
reconcile this with current scientific theory at least one commentator has turned to
sources such as the Catalonian Rabbi, Nahmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nahman, or
Ramban, ca. 1195–1270) and his commentary on Genesis. Nahmanides
would interpret Genesis 1:1 as:
“Through the Ten Sefirot, God created, from absolute nothingness, the prime matter of the heavens and all it would contain and the prime matter of the earth and all that it would contain.”1
The ten Sefirot stems from the Jewish mystical doctrine
known as Kabbalah. Nahmanides was thus referring to the Kabbalistic theory of
the “ten creative forces that intervene between the infinite, unknowable God
("Ein Sof") and our created world.”2 Chuck Missler,
without detailed treatment of the subject that I have seen, attempts to equate the
theory of modern physics depicting our existence in terms of a
multi-dimensional hyperspace of more than four dimensions—ten is a current
estimate”3, with the Kabbalistic doctrine of the ten sefirot. The
inference is that this is what Genesis might be saying and a Jewish rabbi was clever
enough to work it out way before modern science. This is despite the esoteric
Kabbalistic knowledge being couched in symbology and images which must be
deciphered, and the necessity of the practice of meditation to obtain mystical contact with
these sefirot.4 While proposed as interesting information within the
discussion of angelic, demonic, UFO and paranormal phenomena, this is pure
speculation not sustained by solid biblical or scientific study. We must be careful
not to go astray with our thought processes as this can prevent us from
developing and maintaining a solid world-view underpinned by solid study. I
mention this only to demonstrate that there are limits to one’s imaginings and
to venture further can be unhealthy.
First Cause
Back on topic, when we dig a little deeper philosophically and
start examining the concepts of reality and existence, the idea of creation ex
Nihilo becomes interesting. Using light and darkness as an example, light is
the self-independent entity and darkness is merely a lack of or lessening of
light. Shadows do not exist without light as a shadow is created where light is
blocked or diminished. If there was never such a thing as light then there
would be no need for the concept of darkness.
Now consider the idea of “non-existence”. The very concept of nothingness or non-existence as a state of being is flawed since by definition it depends on “existence” to give it meaning. The state of non-existence is not self-independent and cannot stand without there first being an existence, thus non-existence is merely a lack something rather than a definite quantity of nothing. Following this line of thinking we can see that evolutionary models of cosmology (i.e. the various Big Bang models) fail philosophically to provide answers for the first cause of existence. This is because philosophically, for there to be nothing there first had to be something in order for us to understand that there could be a lack of something which we would subsequently call nothing.
Now consider the idea of “non-existence”. The very concept of nothingness or non-existence as a state of being is flawed since by definition it depends on “existence” to give it meaning. The state of non-existence is not self-independent and cannot stand without there first being an existence, thus non-existence is merely a lack something rather than a definite quantity of nothing. Following this line of thinking we can see that evolutionary models of cosmology (i.e. the various Big Bang models) fail philosophically to provide answers for the first cause of existence. This is because philosophically, for there to be nothing there first had to be something in order for us to understand that there could be a lack of something which we would subsequently call nothing.
So in this way ex Nihilo actually leads one to seek the
something that defined the nothing. In terms of “creation ex Nihilo”, the bible
tells us that “In the beginning God…”, thus answering the philosophical
contention that there must some eternal existence (a something) to enable or necessitate the
definition of non-existence.
Creator and Sustainer
That eternal existence is found in the God of the bible. It also follows that rather than simply describing our existence as beginning “ex Nihilo”; we could now speak of “creation ex Dei” or “from God”, for while our existence began from nothing it was brought into being by God. One could speculate that it was also out of God’s very substance, as the Eternal Existence or first cause, that we were created. Since we are of His substance, it is thus logically compatible that He sustains the entire creation and instantaneously knows everything about the entire creation. However, if one were to take this line of thought further, it should be clearly delineated as speculation as I have done here. As alluded to earlier, there are limits to what God has revealed to us about Himself and His ways.A matter of definition
One might ask what is the point of all this? Truthfully when
I began writing this I didn't really have a point to make, just a series of
random musings that I thought I might commit to print to allow me to flesh them
out a little further. In doing so what did stand out to me is the different
ways in which people regard certain statements like “Creation ex Nihilo”.
Here I have portrayed it as a philosophical statement of our origins within a theological context. How many times have you read a discussion of this concept and been left with the impression that the author is saying that, according to the bible, there was literally and physically nothing and then God just made “stuff” appear from nowhere like a David Copperfield magic trick? On a superficial level this seems adequate but to deep thinkers this in effect takes the philosophical and theological into the material (scientific) while claiming biblical authority for the link.
While I don’t deny the definite possibility that God could create something from literally nothing, I do have difficulty with claiming biblical proof for it since there are other possibilities and scripture does not address the issue on scientific level. There are various possibilities that come to mind when considering the beginning of matter and energy or the process of formation of current space-time. Perhaps God used a "seed" of His own existence (being) and then inflated it rapidly in a process similar to the Big Bang (as thought Nahmanides), perhaps He did create matter and energy independently from Himself and out of nothing, and perhaps, regardless of the origin of matter/energy, the time-frame for creation was virtually instantaneous after the spoken command of God (not billions of years as science would have us believe) meaning that what we consider to be universal constants, such as Planck's constant and the speed of light, were actually variable during creation and vastly different to the values measured today. How can anyone be dogmatic in the face of such unsubstantiated speculation?
To say there was physically nothing and then God just made “stuff” appear is in one sense a logical absurdity. Have we not just acknowledged that there was God? I would call that something. Perhaps I am over-thinking it as I often do but it seems more pertinent to me to speak of our existence (and the matter/energy comprising our existence) as not existing in its current form until God created it. Biblical Creation as an act then becomes simply one of the eternally existent One bringing into existence that which was not and is more properly a philosophical/theological concept. How He did it or whether He created from nothing or from Himself (the divine essence) we are just not told. Food for thought I guess and that is what it’s all about.
Here I have portrayed it as a philosophical statement of our origins within a theological context. How many times have you read a discussion of this concept and been left with the impression that the author is saying that, according to the bible, there was literally and physically nothing and then God just made “stuff” appear from nowhere like a David Copperfield magic trick? On a superficial level this seems adequate but to deep thinkers this in effect takes the philosophical and theological into the material (scientific) while claiming biblical authority for the link.
While I don’t deny the definite possibility that God could create something from literally nothing, I do have difficulty with claiming biblical proof for it since there are other possibilities and scripture does not address the issue on scientific level. There are various possibilities that come to mind when considering the beginning of matter and energy or the process of formation of current space-time. Perhaps God used a "seed" of His own existence (being) and then inflated it rapidly in a process similar to the Big Bang (as thought Nahmanides), perhaps He did create matter and energy independently from Himself and out of nothing, and perhaps, regardless of the origin of matter/energy, the time-frame for creation was virtually instantaneous after the spoken command of God (not billions of years as science would have us believe) meaning that what we consider to be universal constants, such as Planck's constant and the speed of light, were actually variable during creation and vastly different to the values measured today. How can anyone be dogmatic in the face of such unsubstantiated speculation?
To say there was physically nothing and then God just made “stuff” appear is in one sense a logical absurdity. Have we not just acknowledged that there was God? I would call that something. Perhaps I am over-thinking it as I often do but it seems more pertinent to me to speak of our existence (and the matter/energy comprising our existence) as not existing in its current form until God created it. Biblical Creation as an act then becomes simply one of the eternally existent One bringing into existence that which was not and is more properly a philosophical/theological concept. How He did it or whether He created from nothing or from Himself (the divine essence) we are just not told. Food for thought I guess and that is what it’s all about.
Psalm 119:15 - I will meditate on your precepts and
fix my eyes on your ways.
4. http://www.js.emory.edu/BLUMENTHAL/GenRamban.html
(Note 2)
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