Ex nihilo

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(New page: The Latin phrase '''''ex nihilo''''' means "out of nothing". It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation, as in ''creatio ex nihilo'', meaning "cr...)
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''Ex nihilo'' when used outside of a religious/metaphysical context also refers to something coming from nothing. For example, in a conversation, one might raise a topic ''"ex nihilo"'' if it bears no relation to the previous topic of discussion. The term also has specific meaning in military and [[computer science|computer-science]] contexts.
''Ex nihilo'' when used outside of a religious/metaphysical context also refers to something coming from nothing. For example, in a conversation, one might raise a topic ''"ex nihilo"'' if it bears no relation to the previous topic of discussion. The term also has specific meaning in military and [[computer science|computer-science]] contexts.
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== History of the the idea of ''creatio ex nihilo'' ==
 
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Before the last few centuries of the pre-Christian era, ancient Near Eastern [[mythology|mythologies]] envisioned the creation of the world as resulting from the actions of a god or gods upon already-existing primeval matter - the waters of [[Chaos (mythology)|chaos]].{{Fact|date=May 2009}} The Greek philosophers came to question this (on ''[[a priori]]'' grounds), discussing the idea that a primeval Being (not conceived as a god or as God in the Christian sense) must have created the world out of nothing.{{Fact|date=May 2009}} [[Philo of Alexandria]], a Hellenised Jew of the 1st century BC, melded together the Greek idea with the [[Book of Genesis]]'s idea of creation and initiated the idea that a supernatural being (the Hebrew God) equated to the Being of whom [[Plato]] had written{{Fact|date=May 2009}}; early Christian thinkers{{Who|date=May 2009}} later seized upon this identification and developed it into the idea of creation ''ex nihilo'' by their God.  Jewish thinkers then{{Fact|date=May 2009}} took up the idea, which became important to Judaism, to Christianity and, later, to Islam.<ref>
 
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{{cite web
 
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| url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04470a.htm
 
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| title = Creation
 
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| accessdate = 2008-09-30
 
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| author =
 
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| last = Siegfried
 
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| first = Francis
 
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| date =
 
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| year = 1908
 
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| work = The Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4
 
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| publisher = Robert Appleton Company
 
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| location = New York
 
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| archivedate =
 
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| quote = Probably the idea of creation never entered the human mind apart from Revelation. Though some of the pagan philosophers attained to a relatively high conception of God as the supreme ruler of the world, they seem never to have drawn the next logical inference of His being the absolute cause of all finite existence. [...] The descendants of Sem and Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob, preserved the idea of creation clear and pure; and from the opening verse of Genesis to the closing book of the Old Testament the doctrine of creation runs unmistakably outlined and absolutely undefiled by any extraneous element. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." In this, the first, sentence of the Bible we see the fountain-head of the stream which is carried over to the new order by the declaration of the mother of the Machabees: "Son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them: and consider that God made them out of nothing" (2 Maccabees 7:28). One has only to compare the Mosaic account of the creative work with that recently discovered on the clay tablets unearthed from the ruins of Babylon to discern the immense difference between the unadulterated revealed tradition and the puerile story of the cosmogony corrupted by polytheistic myths. Between the Hebrew and the Chaldean account there is just sufficient similarity to warrant the supposition that both are versions of some antecedent record or tradition; but no one can avoid the conviction that the Biblical account represents the pure, even if incomplete, truth, while the Babylonian story is both legendary and fragmentary (Smith, "Chaldean Account of Genesis", New York, 1875).
 
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}}
 
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</ref>{{Verify source|date=May 2009}}
 
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: ''Son, look upon heaven and earth, and all that is in them: and consider that God made them out of nothing.''<br> ({{bibleverse|2|Maccabees|7:28|NAB}}, [[100 BC]])
 
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== Creation of the universe ==
 
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=== Approaches favoring ''ex nihilo'' creation ===
 
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==== Biblical citations ====
 
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Some verses from the Christian [[Bible]] cited in support of ''ex nihilo'' creation by God include:
 
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* "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." <br> {{bibleverse||John|1:3|KJV}}
 
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* "... even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were." <br> {{bibleverse||Romans|4:17|KJV}}
 
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* "And 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" <br> {{bibleverse|1|Corinthians|1:28|KJV}}
 
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* "Through 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." <br> {{bibleverse||Hebrews|11:3|KJV}}
 
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* "My son, have pity on me; I carried you nine months in the womb and suckled you three years.... 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 in the same way. Do not fear this executioner, but prove yourself worthy of your brothers, and make death welcome, so that in the day of mercy I may receive you back in your brothers' company." <br> {{bibleverse|2|Maccabees|7:27-29|NAB}} Jerusalem Bible
 
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==== Logical approaches ====
 
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Not all ''ex nihilo'' thought specifies a divine creator.
 
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A major argument for ''creatio ex nihilo'', the [[First cause argument]], states in summary:
 
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# everything that begins to exist has a cause
 
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# the universe began to exist
 
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# therefore, the universe must have a cause
 
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Another argument for ''ex nihilo'' creation comes from [[Claude Nowell]]'s [[Summum]] philosophy that states before anything existed, nothing existed, and if nothing existed, then it must have been possible for nothing to be. If it is possible for nothing to be (the argument goes), then it must be possible for everything to be.<ref>
 
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{{cite book
 
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| last = Ra | first = Summum Bonum Amen | authorlink = | coauthors = | editor = | others = | title = SUMMUM: Sealed Except to the Open Mind | origdate = | origyear = 1975 | origmonth = | url = http://www.summum.us/philosophy/ebook/ebook.htm | format = HTML | accessdate = 2006-12-15 | accessyear = | accessmonth = | edition = | date = | year = 2004 | month = | publisher = Summum | location = Salt Lake City | language = | id = | doi = | pages = | chapter = Chapter 2 | chapterurl = | quote =
 
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}}
 
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</ref>
 
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Other support for ''creatio ex nihilo'' belief comes from the idea that something cannot arise from nothing; that would involve a contradiction. Therefore something must always have existed. But (this account continues) it is scientifically impossible for matter to always have existed. Moreover, matter is contingent: it is not logically impossible for it not to exist, and nothing else depends on it. Hence one deduces a Creator, non-contingent and not composed of matter: God.
 
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==== Ancient Greek speculation ====
 
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[[Eric Voegelin]] detects in [[Hesiod]]'s [[chaos]] a ''creatio ex nihilo''.<ref>
 
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{{cite web
 
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| url        = http://www.artsci.lsu.edu/voegelin/EVS/Panel42001.htm
 
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| title      = Hesiod as Precursor to the Presocratic Philosophers: A Voeglinian View
 
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| accessdate  = 2008-12-04
 
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| author      = Richard F. Moorton, Jr.
 
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| first      = Richard F
 
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| quote      = First, says Hesiod, there came to be Chaos, and then Earth, Tartarus (which Voegelin curiously neglects in his account), and Eros. For Voegelin this is a creatio ex nihilo, which points the finger of questioning towards the yet undifferentiated beyond. If he is right, the Greek philosophers who followed were unanimous in retreating from this seeming violation of the principle of sufficient reason to the principle that ex nihilio nihil fit.[sic]
 
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}}
 
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</ref>
 
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==== Islamic views ====
 
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Several [[Qur'an]]ic verses explicitly state that God created man, the heavens and the earth, out of nothing.  The following quotations come from [[Muhammad Asad]]'s translation, ''[[The Message of The Qur'an|The Message of the Quran]]'':
 
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* 2:117: "The Originator is He of the heavens and the earth: and when He wills a thing to be, He but says unto it, 'Be' - and it is."
 
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* 19:67: "But does man not bear in mind that We have created him aforetime out of nothing?"
 
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* 21:30: "ARE, THEN, they who are bent on denying the truth not aware that the heavens and the earth were [once] one single entity, which We then parted asunder? – and [that] We made out of water every living thing? Will they not, then, [begin to] believe?"
 
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* 21:56: "He answered: 'Nay, but your [true] Sustainer is the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth - He who has brought them into being: and I am one of those who bear witness to this [truth]!'"
 
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* 35:1: "ALL PRAISE is due to God, Originator of the heavens and the earth, who causes the angels to be (His) message-bearers, endowed with wings, two, or three, or four. He adds to His creation whatever He wills: for, verily, God has the power to will anything."
 
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* 51:47: "It is We who have built the universe with (Our creative) power; and, verily, it is We who are steadily expanding it."
 
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==== Scientific views ====
 
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[[James Hartle]] and [[Stephen Hawking]] regard creation ''ex nihilo'' as possible from the [[Hartle-Hawking state]].{{Fact|date=November 2008}}
 
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=== Arguments against ''ex nihilo'' creation ===
 
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{{seealso|Parmenides|Nothing comes from nothing}}
 
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==== Opposition within the Christian theological tradition ====
 
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Believers within the Judaeo-Christian tradition can cite Genesis 1:1 as evidence for Divine creation out of nothing. The quotation, in (for example) the [[Authorized King James Version|King James Version]] English-language translation, reads: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."<ref>
 
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http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Genesis
 
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</ref>
 
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However, this translation fails to capture the inherent ambiguity{{Fact|date=May 2009}} in the Hebrew, which might translate with equal validity as "in the beginning God created...", and as "in the beginning of God's creation, the earth being..."{{Fact|date=May 2009}}
 
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, implying that God worked with pre-existing materials.
 
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The accepted translation of the Hebrew by Judaism is currently:
 
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<blockquote>
 
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When God began to create heaven and earth, and the earth then was welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God's breath hovering over the water, God said, "Let there be light." And there was light. And God saw the light, that is was good, and God divided the light from the darkness...
 
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</blockquote>
 
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[http://www.jewishpub.org  The Jewish Publication Society Version ] which is clearly describes pre-existing materials, opposed to ''creatio ex nihilo''.
 
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Gen:1:8-9 also says, <blockquote>Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together so that dry land will appear</blockquote>
 
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... again showing pre-existing materials (''the deep'' exists, prior to God begining to create heaven and earth, and also ''land'' exists (as opposed to ''earth''.)<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=pKHRaOIpAnsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Five+Books+of+Moses#PRA1-PA17,M1</ref>, <ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=pKHRaOIpAnsC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+Five+Books+of+Moses#PRA1-PA17,M1</ref>, <ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=QMLGGh0MxYkC&dq=Everett+Fox&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=Yji2_yjL1w&sig=vgS_ymBJg2_IrbwEJQvKAPuSGMc&hl=en&ei=3nscSoGiHYHAtwei9Y37DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10</ref>, [[Everett Fox]]
 
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[[Thomas Jay Oord]] (born 1965), a Christian philosopher and theologian, argues that Christians should abandon the doctrine of creation ''ex nihilo''. Oord points to the work of biblical scholars, such as [[Jon D. Levenson]], who point out that the doctrine of ''creatio ex nihilo'' does not appear in [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]].  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.<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=DsPwO1YDeNIC&pg=PA240&dq=Thomas+Jay+Oord&lr=</ref>  Oord shows that God can create all things without creating from absolute nothingness.<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=DsPwO1YDeNIC&pg=PA240&dq=Thomas+Jay+Oord&lr=</ref>
 
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Oord offers nine objections to ''creatio ex nihilo'':
 
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# Theoretical problem: One cannot conceive absolute nothingness.
 
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# Biblical problem: Scripture – in Genesis, 2 Peter, and elsewhere – suggests creation from something (water, deep, chaos, etc.), not creation from absolutely nothing.
 
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# Historical problem: The [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]]s [[Basilides]] and [[Valentinus (Gnostic)|Valentinus]] first proposed ''creatio ex nihilo'' on the basis of assuming the inherently evil nature of creation, and in the belief that God does not act in history.  Early Christian theologians adopted the idea to affirm the kind of absolute divine power that many Christians now reject.
 
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# Empirical problem: We have no evidence that our universe originally came into being from absolutely nothing.
 
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# Creation-at-an-instant problem:  We have no evidence in the history of the universe after the big bang that entities can emerge instantaneously from absolute nothingness.  As the earliest philosophers noted, out of nothing comes nothing (''ex nihilo, nihil fit'').
 
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# Solitary power problem: ''Creatio ex nihilo'' assumes that a powerful God once acted alone.  But power, as a social concept, only becomes meaningful in relation to others.
 
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# Errant revelation problem: The God with the capacity to create something from absolutely nothing would apparently have the power to guarantee an unambiguous and inerrant message of salvation (for example: [[Biblical inerrancy|inerrant Bible]]).  An unambiguously clear and inerrant divine revelation does not exist.
 
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# Evil problem: If God once had the power to create from absolutely nothing, God essentially retains that power.  But a God of love with this capacity appears culpable for failing to prevent genuine evil.
 
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# Empire Problem: The kind of divine power implied in ''creatio ex nihilo'' supports a [[theology of empire]], based upon unilateral force and control of others.
 
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A few early Jewish and Christian theologians and philosophers, including [[Philo]], [[Justin Martyr|Justin]], [[Athenagoras of Athens|Athenagoras]], [[Hermogenes]], [[Clement of Alexandria]], and, later, [[Johannes Scotus Eriugena]] made statements that seem to indicate that they did not hold to the concept of the creation-out-of-nothing. Philo, for instance, postulated pre-existent matter alongside God.
 
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[[Process theology|Process theologians]] argue that humans have always related a God to some “world” or another.{{Fact|date=November 2008}}
 
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The doctrine may{{Or|date=March 2009}}, as the quotation from Maccabees (above) illustrates, have arisen to explain the creative action of a God whom Judaeo-Christian tradition usually refers to in male terms, a [[patriarchy|patriarch]]al God even. Males do not gestate living things in the way normally capable of observation, so theology had to explain creation in a different sense.
 
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Critics{{Who|date=November 2008}} also claim that rejecting ''creatio ex nihilo'' provides the opportunity to affirm that God has everlastingly created and related with some realm of non-divine actualities or another (compare [[continous creation]]). According to this alternative God-world theory, no non-divine thing exists without the creative activity of God, and nothing can terminate God’s necessary existence.
 
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[[Joseph Smith, Jr.|Joseph Smith]], founder of the [[Latter Day Saint movement]], dismissed creation ''ex nihilo'', and introduced [[revelation]] that specifically countered this concept.<ref>
 
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{{lds|Doctrine and Covenants|dc|93|29}}; {{lds|Doctrine and Covenants|dc|131|7-8}}; {{lds|Abraham|abr|3|24}}
 
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</ref><ref>
 
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[http://en.fairmormon.org/index.php/Creatio_ex_nihilo Creatio ex nihilo - FAIRMormon<!-- Bot generated title -->]
 
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</ref>
 
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[[The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] teaches that matter is both eternal and infinite and that it can be neither created nor destroyed.<ref>
 
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{{Cite web
 
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| url        = http://lds.org/portal/site/LDSOrg/menuitem.3933737ad2ff28132eb22a86942826a0/?vgnextoid=bbd508f54922d010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&index=3&sourceId=c81d0bbce1d98010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____
 
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| title      = Gospel Topics: Creation
 
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| accessdate  = 2009-01-08
 
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| quote      = Creation
 
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Under the direction of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ created the heavens and the earth (see [[Book of Mosiah|Mosiah [[3:8; [[Book of Moses|Moses]] 2:1). From scripture revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, we know that in the work of the Creation, the Lord organized elements that had already existed (see [[Book of Abrahan|Abraham]] 3:24). He did not create the world "out of nothing," as some people believe.
 
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}}{{Verify source|date=January 2009}}
 
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</ref>
 
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[[Latter-day Saint]] apologists have commented on Colossians 1:16 that the "Greek text does not teach ex nihilo, but creation out of pre-existing raw materials, since the verb ''ktidzo'' 'carried an architectural connotation...as in ''to build'' or ''establish'' a city....Thus, the verb presupposes the presence of already existing material.'"<ref>
 
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[http://en.fairmormon.org/index.php/Creation_in_Colossians_1:16 Creation in Colossians 1:16 - FAIRMormon<!-- Bot generated title -->]
 
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</ref>
 
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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.{{Fact|date=March 2009}}
 
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==== Cosmological arguments ====
 
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Physicists [[Paul Steinhardt]] (Princeton University) and [[Neil Turok]] (Cambridge University) offer an alternative o ''ex nihil'' creation. Their proposal stems from the ancient idea that space and time have always existed in some form. Using developments in [[string theory]], Steinhardt and Turok suggest the [[Big Bang]] of our universe as a bridge to a pre-existing universe, and speculate 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. However, this view does not take into account{{Fact|date=May 2009}} the problems of [[infinite regression]].
 
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==== Hindu views ====
 
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The [[Vedanta]] schools of [[Hinduism]] reject the concept of creation ''ex nihilo'' for several reasons:
 
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# both types of revelatory texts (''[[śruti]]'' and ''[[smṛti]]'') designate matter as eternal although completely dependent on God — the Absolute Truth (''param satyam'')
 
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# believers then have to attribute all the evil ingrained in material life to God, making Him partial and arbitrary, which does not logically accord with His nature
 
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# creation ''ex nihilo'' directly violates the perceivable principle of the [[Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy|law of conservation of mass-energy]], and therefore logically remains unsustainable
 
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The [[Bhagavad Gita]] (BG) states the eternality of matter and its transformability clearly and succinctly: "Material nature and the living entities should be understood to be beginningless. Their transformations and the modes of matter are products of material nature." ([http://vedabase.net/bg/13/20/en Bhagavad Gita 13.19 or 20]) The opening words of Krishna in BG 2.12-13 also imply this, as do the doctrines referred to in BG 16.8 as explained by the commentator Vadiraja Tirtha.<ref>
 
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See [http://dvaita.info/pipermail/dvaita-list_dvaita.info/2007-April/002780.html Sri Vadiraja's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita]
 
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</ref>
 
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==== Scientific views ====
 
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In the early part of the twentieth century, Albert Einstein (1879–1955) demonstrated that matter and energy represent two forms of the same "thing". He showed that matter can change into energy and that energy can change into matter, as expressed in his equation [[E=mc squared]] (1905). See [[conservation of mass]] and [[conservation of energy]].
 
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== Computer science ==
 
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Some computing environments{{Which?|date=March 2009}} use the tag ''ex nihilo'' to describe various techniques for creating data structures or objects. In [[prototype-based programming]] languages, a programmer sets up an object "ex nihilo" if it does not use another object as its prototype.
 
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== Military organization ==
 
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A unit raised ''ex nihilo'' forms without the use of significant components from other units.  Thus, when a military authority sets up a unit composed entirely of personnel transferred as individuals from other units, one can speak of raising ''ex nihilo''.  Alternatives to this method, (also known as "cutting a unit from whole cloth") include expanding a skeleton (cadre) unit, assembling a large unit from components taken from other units, and the splitting of an existing unit into two or more skeleton units for subsequent filling out with additional personnel.  German-speakers call this last-named method "calving" (''das Kalben'').  French-speakers refer to it as "doubling" (''dédoublement''), but only, as the name suggests, when forming two new units on the framework of one old one.
 
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== See also ==
 
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* [[Natural theology]]
 
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* [[M-theory]]
 
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* [[Big Bang]]
 
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* [[Nihilism]]
 
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* [[James Ussher|Archbishop Ussher]], whose [[Ussher chronology]] calculated a time for a Genesis ''creatio ex nihilo''
 
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* [[Frederick Hart (sculptor)#Gallery]]
 
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== Notes ==
 
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<references />
 
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== Suggested reading ==
 
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* Thomas Jay Oord, Science of Love: The Wisdom of Well-Being (Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation Press, 2005), especially chapter 2.
 
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* 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).
 
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* Sjoerd L. Bonting, Chaos Theology: A Revised Creation Theology [Ottawa: Novalis, 2002].
 
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* James Edward Hutchingson, Pandemoneum Tremendum: Chaos and Mystery in the Life of God [Pilgrim, 2000].
 
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* David Ray Griffin, "Creation out of Chaos and The Problem of Evil" in {{cite book
 
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|editor= Stephen T. Davis
 
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|title= Encountering Evil: Live Options in Theodicy
 
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|publisher= Westminister John Knox Press
 
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* Catherine Keller, The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming [Routledge, 2003].
 
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* {{cite book
 
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|title= Thy nature and thy name is love: Wesleyan and process theologies in dialogue
 
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|publisher= Kingswood
 
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|location= Nashville
 
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* {{cite book
 
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|last= Theissen
 
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|first= Gerd
 
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|authorlink= Gerd Theissen
 
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|coauthors= translated by John Bowden
 
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|title= The shadow of the Galilean: the quest of the historical Jesus in narrative form
 
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|origyear= 1987
 
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|year= 2007
 
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|publisher= Fortress Press
 
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|location= Minneapolis, MN
 
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|isbn= 9780800639006
 
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[[Category:Latin words and phrases]]
 
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[[Category:Latin legal phrases]]
 
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[[Category:Christian cosmology]]
 
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[[Category:Nothing]]
 

Revision as of 07:24, 30 October 2016

The Latin phrase ex nihilo means "out of nothing". It often appears in conjunction with the concept of creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning "creation out of nothing" — chiefly in in philosophical or theological contexts, but also occurs in other fields.

In theology, the common phrase creatio ex nihilo ("creation out of nothing"), contrasts with creatio ex materia (creation out of some pre-existent, eternal matter) and with creatio ex deo (creation out of the being of God).

Ex nihilo when used outside of a religious/metaphysical context also refers to something coming from nothing. For example, in a conversation, one might raise a topic "ex nihilo" if it bears no relation to the previous topic of discussion. The term also has specific meaning in military and computer-science contexts.

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