cphil_creation
THE PROBLEM OF CREATION
by Ray Shelton
I. INTRODUCTION
How is God related to the world? The Scrptures teach that the world has been created by God (Gen. 1:1, etc.). How is this relation to be interpreted? Does all forms of theism take God to be the creator of the universe? The answer is “No”, if the word “creator” means the being who makes the world out of nothing (ex nihilo). In the theology of the Greek philosophers, there is no concept of a God who creates out of nothing. In fact, the Greek philosophers denied that the world was created out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo) asserting that “Out of nothing, nothing comes” (ex nihilo nihil fit). According to Aristotle and in traditional theism, God is considered to be related to the world as the cause to an effect.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
II. HISTORY
A. ANCIENT THEORIES
The Greeks had two different views of the relation of God to the world, neither of which involved creation. One of these relations may be called transformation and the other emanation. These stand in contrast to the Biblical view.