The Baha’i answer to this debate, then, might surprise you: In fact, I can’t think of too many tougher questions than this one.
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I find it incredibly hard to conceive of a timeless universe without beginning or end, and I find it equally hard to imagine a complete void full of absolutely nothing. Kind of makes your head spin, doesn’t it? It sure does for me. Several Eastern religions-Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism-also support the eternalist point of view, their scriptures pointing out that the universe has no beginning. He said that a complete vacuum is a natural impossibility, and therefore nothingness cannot exist, and has never existed. He said that the very existence of motion in the universe means that things have always moved. He said “that generation should take place from nothing” was obviously impossible, since we know that matter comes, always, from a pre-existing cause or some other form of matter. On the other side of the debate, the chief eternalist, the great Greek philosopher Aristotle, made several compelling scientific and philosophical arguments for eternity. The revered Jewish theologian and philosopher Maimonides, probably the best known of the creationists, made strong arguments for this position, which he saw as Biblical in its absolute truth. They generally argue that God’s creation had to come into being at some point in time and that before God’s creation, by definition, nothing existed except God. Jewish, Christian and Islamic philosophers (with a few exceptions like the Muslim philosopher Averroes) and clergy have generally supported this position throughout history. Proponents of the eternalist theory say science has proven that something can never emerge from nothing, and that nature abhors a vacuum.įor the most part, the Creationism ex nihilo argument has come from traditional theologians and philosophers who believe in the existence of a God. Proponents of the Big Bang Theory, including Father Lemaître, the Catholic priest who first promulgated it in 1927, say that it fits the creationist model. No scientific explanation, including the Big Bang Theory, has ever conclusively proven one position or another. The other side maintains that the universe has always eternally existed. One side of the debate, often called “Creationism ex nihilo,” argues that a Creator brought the entire universe into being ex nihilo, or from nothing. In classical philosophy, no debate between two positions has gone on as long as this argument for eternity.
OK, ready for some true profundity? Here’s one of humanity’s oldest and deepest questions: How do you think the universe came into being-or did it? Did an all-powerful Creator, or perhaps energy and matter themselves, bring the universe into existence at some specific point in time-or has it always existed? Depending on how you answer those questions, you’re either a “creationist” or an “eternalist.” Let’s examine this essential conundrum, and you can decide for yourself. – Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. Man should continue both these lines of research and investigation so that all the human virtues, outer and inner, may become possible. This was the reason of the triumph and survival of their teachings and principles. Because they were interested in both natural and divine philosophy, furthering the development of the physical world of mankind as well as the intellectual, they rendered praiseworthy service to humanity. Today the philosophy and logic of Aristotle are known throughout the world. In their schools of teaching they discoursed upon the world of nature as well as the supernatural world. The philosophers of Greece - such as Aristotle, Socrates, Plato and others - were devoted to the investigation of both natural and spiritual phenomena.
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