Astronomy:Ex nihilo

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Short description: Latin phrase meaning "out of nothing"


Tree of Life by Eli Content at the Joods Historisch Museum. The Tree of Life, or Etz haChayim (עץ החיים) in Hebrew, is a mystical symbol used in the Kabbalah of esoteric Judaism to describe the path to HaShem and the manner in which He created the world ex nihilo (out of nothing).

Ex nihilo is Latin for "out of nothing": when phrased as ex nihilo nihil fit, "nothing comes from nothing", it means that the universe was formed from eternal matter; as creatio ex nihilo, "creation out of nothing", it means that matter is not eternal but had to be created by some eternal uncaused cause, frequently defined as God.[1]

Creation ex nihilo is a theistic answer to the question of how the universe comes to exist: the Big Bang theory, by contrast, is a scientific theory; it offers no explanation of cosmic existence but only a description of the first few moments of that existence.[2]

Theology

Ex nihilo nihil fit: uncreated matter

Ex nihilo nihil fit means that nothing comes from nothing.[3] In ancient creation myths the universe is formed from eternal formless matter,[4] namely the dark and still primordial ocean of chaos.[5] In Sumerian myth this cosmic ocean is personified as the goddess Nammu "who gave birth to heaven and earth" and had existed forever;[6] in the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish pre-existent chaos is made up of fresh-water Apsu and salt-water Tiamat, and from Tiamat the god Marduk created Heaven and Earth;[7] in Egyptian creation myths a pre-existent watery chaos personified as the god Nun and associated with darkness, gave birth to the primeval hill (or in some versions a primeval lotus flower, or in others a celestial cow);[8] and in Greek traditions the ultimate origin of the universe, depending on the source, is sometimes Okeanos (a river that circles the Earth), Night, or water.[9]

To these can be added the account of the Book of Genesis, which opens with God separating and restraining the waters, not creating the waters themselves out of nothing.[10] The Hebrew sentence which opens Genesis, Bereshit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz, can be translated into English in at least three ways:

  1. As a statement that the cosmos had an absolute beginning (In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth).
  2. 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).
  3. 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!).[11]
  4. In the beginning GOD created something into existence that until now did not exist.[12]

It has been known since the Middle Ages that on strictly linguistic and exegetical grounds option 1 is not the preferred translation.[13] Option 4 is the common translation in Jewish literature and is explained at length in the famous basic work of the Tanya[14]. Our society sees the origin of matter as a question of crucial importance, but for ancient cultures this was not the case, and the authors of Genesis wrote of creation they were concerned with God bringing the cosmos into operation by assigning roles and functions.[15] This was still the situation in the early 2nd century CE, but by that time Christian scholars were beginning to see a tension between the idea of world-formation and the omnipotence of God, and by the beginning of the 3rd century the tension was resolved, world-formation was overcome, and creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology.[16]

Creatio ex nihilo: the creation of matter

Creatio ex nihilo, in contrast to ex nihilo nihil fit, is the idea that matter is not eternal but was created by God at the initial cosmic moment.[1] This was always the understanding of the Jewish sages as explained by the medieval commentaries of Nachmanidies[12] and Maimonides in his guide for the perplexed.[17] The concept is sometimes claimed to be present in a 2nd century BCE Jewish work called Second Maccabees, or in the 1st century CE Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria,[18] but it seems to have originated around 200 CE in disputes between Christians, gnostics, and neo-Platonists, [19] and by the 3rd century creation ex nihilo had become a fundamental tenet of Christian theology.[20]

Some modern biblical scholars think that scripture does not support ex nihilo creation, and consequently find other reasons for continuing to hold it.[21] Some argue that it is indeed implied in scripture, even if never actually stated; others that it gains validity from having been held by so many for so long; and others find support in modern cosmological theories surrounding the Big Bang.[22] Some examine alternatives to creatio ex nihilo, such as the idea that God created from his own self or from Christ, but this seems to imply that the world is more or less identical with God; or that God created from pre-existent matter, which at least has biblical support, but this implies that the world does not depend on God for its existence.[22]

Metaphysics

Cosmological argument and Kalam cosmological argument

A major argument for creatio ex nihilo, the cosmological argument, states in summary:[citation needed]

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

An expansion of the first cause argument is the Kalam cosmological argument, which also requires creatio ex nihilo:[23]

  1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
  2. The universe began to exist.
  3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
  4. If the universe has a cause, then an uncaused, personal creator of the universe exists, who without the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and infinitely powerful.
  5. Therefore, an uncaused, personal creator of the universe exists, who without the universe is beginningless, changeless, immaterial, timeless, spaceless, and infinitely powerful.

In Jewish philosophy

The idea of creation ex nihilo was explained in the 10th century CE by Saadia Gaon, who in his work Book of Beliefs and Opinions described God as awesome and omnipotent. This God had created the world from nothing.[24] Today Jews, like Christians, tend to believe in creation ex nihilo, although some Jewish scholars recognise that Genesis 1:1 recognises the pre-existence of matter to which God gives form.[25]

The medieval commentary of the Ramban [12] points out in his commentary to the Bible (Genesis 1,1) , beriah is the only term in the Holy Tongue for absolutely innovative creation, creation ex nihilo.

In any progression from ilah (“cause”) to alul (“effect”), the alul existed previously as well, albeit in a distinctly different state. The term “creation”, by contrast, describes the coming into existence of something that until now did not exist, for it is impossible for yesh (“created substantiality”) to be found within ayin (“nothingness”). Were it to be otherwise, the ayin itself would cease to be ayin and would itself become yesh.

In point of fact, created substance is also truly nullified to the G‑dliness that creates it, for “All is before Him as naught.” Why, then, do we say that creation ex nihilo cannot result from ilah and alul because the effect — the created substance — would be nullified to its source, when in truth even as the substance exists as a yesh, created ex nihilo, it is in any event nullified to the Divine source that is responsible for its creation and that continuously vests itself within it to constantly create it anew?

It is explained in the book of Tanya [14] that while the above is indeed true, nevertheless, this is so only “before Him,” i.e., as it exists in G‑d’s knowledge (for G‑d, of course, views things as they truly are, so that created beings are “before Him as naught”: they are “like the non-existence of the sun’s rays while they are still found within the orb of the sun”).

A created being itself, however, regards its own existence in an entirely different light: it “knows” and “feels” beyond any shadow of doubt that it enjoys true and independent existence. This (entirely fallacious) view can only come about when it is created ex nihilo as a something. Were it instead to be created by a process of ilah (cause) and alul (effect), it would be impossible for it not to be fully cognizant of its Creator; in its own view as well, it would exist in a state of utter self-nullification.


Islamic

Islam shares with Christianity and Judaism the concept that God is First Cause and absolute creator; he did not create the world from pre-existing matter.[26]

See also

References

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bunnin & Yu 2008, p. 149.
  2. ↑ Van Till 1990, p. 114.
  3. ↑ Pruss 2007, p. 291.
  4. ↑ Berlin 2011, p. 188-189.
  5. ↑ Andrews 2000, p. 36,48.
  6. ↑ Wasilewska 2000, p. 45,49,54.
  7. ↑ Wasilewska 2000, p. 49-51,56.
  8. ↑ Wasilewska 2000, p. 58-59.
  9. ↑ Gregory 2008, p. 21.
  10. ↑ Berlin 2011, p. 189.
  11. ↑ Bandstra 1999, pp. 38–39.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 The Torah: with Ramban's commentary. Artscroll. 2004. 
  13. ↑ Blenkinsopp 2011, p. 30.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Tanya, epistle 20". https://www.chabad.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/7965/jewish/Epistle-20.htm. 
  15. ↑ Walton 2006, p. 183.
  16. ↑ May 2004, p. 179.
  17. ↑ The Guide for the Perplexed. Dover Publications Inc. 2000. ISBN 0486203514. 
  18. ↑ Wolters 1994, p. 109-110.
  19. ↑ Oord 2014, p. 2.
  20. ↑ May 2004, p. 179-180.
  21. ↑ Oord 2014, p. 2-3.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Oord 2014, p. 3-4.
  23. ↑ Craig 2000, p. 105.
  24. ↑ Satlow 200, p. 201-203.
  25. ↑ Karesh & Hurvitz 2005, p. 103-104.
  26. ↑ Friemuth 2013, p. 128.

Bibliography




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