Something From Nothing

Creationists claim that when it comes to the origin of the universe we non-believers think that something (or everything) came from nothing, as if it was somehow magic.

First of all, something can come from nothing. No, not any all-powerful deity's, but "simple" things like electrons.

Secondly, the origin of the universe and the big bang are two separate things. The big bang is about the universe expanding, not exploding, from a very hot and dense event around 13.3 to 13.9 billion years ago. It's how space, time, and our universe began but is not the ultimate origin of the universe.

And thirdly, cosmology and evolution are separate, although the universe has and still is evolving. So many wrongly think that the theory of evolution encompasses everything from the big bang to the formation of galaxies and solar systems to life on Earth. Only the last one is true. The theory of evolution concerns what happened after the origin of life on Earth and how it has changed since then. And no, it's not "just a theory." A theory in science is not the same as the everyday meaning of the word, which is a belief or a guess about something. Scientific theories have evidence behind them. And to be thorough, abiogenesis is the scientific study of the origin of life on Earth by natural processes.

Now, with all that out of the way, let's get back to that whole something from nothing business.

The origin of the universe is a great mystery, maybe the greatest, and science does not have a definitive theory for it yet. But to claim that this somehow proves God created the universe is absurd. All that is does is use God to fill in the blanks of our own ignorance. It's a belief that is based on faith, not facts.

The irony of it all is that there are plenty of times when something magically pops into existence from nothing in the Bible. Let's take a look...

1. Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

It doesn't say what God created the Earth with, but if the following verses are any clue, then he created it using a whole lot of nothing.

2. Genesis 1:3: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

This light isn't the sun, we'll get to that later. Perhaps this light was like a lamp for God so that he could see what he was doing while he was busy making things pop into existence from thin air, just like he did with this light.

3. Genesis 1:6-7: (6) And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. (7) And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

This firmament comes from out of nowhere. Again, something from nothing.

4. Genesis 1:14-16: (14) And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: (15) And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. (16) And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Finally, we get to the sun popping into existence 93 million miles away from Earth. Maybe God should have made it before that lamp of his he made poof into being. I wonder what happened to that lamp. And did you catch God making the stars? All the stars in the universe, far too numerous to count, are confined to just five words. They were created as an afterthought and from nothingness apparently.

5. Genesis 1:20-21: (20) And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. (21) And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

6. Genesis 1:24-25: (24) And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. (25) And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

All those animals from... you got it, nothing. In other versions of the Bible (the verses I am using are from the King James Version) verse 21 says "great sea monsters" instead of "great whales."

That's a lot of something from nothing. Creationists will probably counter that God is all-powerful and can create things out of thin air if he wants to. A God speaking things into existence from out of nowhere certainly sounds like magic to me. And creationists wonder why they aren't taken seriously by non-believers and scientists? They can blame it on men rebelling against God, but that isn't it at all. It's because their creation story is a 4000 year old fairy tale, full of magic and absurdities, that they are trying to pass off as historical and scientific fact when it clearly isn't. The Biblical creation story is just one of many creation myths and obviously earlier man's beliefs and explanation of how things came to be.

Perhaps Christian creationists should ask themselves if they would believe the creation story from another religion. I'm sure its adherents could point to evidence they see as being the work of their deity or deities. It might even be more convincing than the evidence offered by creationists. But, considering they dismiss other Gods and religions as mere mythology, I don't think they would be convinced of any other creation stories being true. So what makes theirs more valid than the ones they dismiss out of hand? If they don't find arguments for the others plausible, why should anyone believe theirs? Doesn't each creation story have about as much merit as the next?

Just because a story is believed by many people doesn't make it true. If you don't have facts and evidence to back up your claims then all you have is a story and nothing more, no matter how long and loud you protest to the contrary.

Ultimately, all of the creationist's claims hinge on one major assumption: that God exists. That brings me to my final point: where did God come from? It would seem he magically popped into existence all on his own, just like creationists delight in saying the universe did. As people who believe in something so fervently will always do, they find a way to rationalize things. They claim God has always existed and that he doesn't have a creator, or that he somehow exists outside of space and time. But these are clearly their made-up answers to questions that they don't have the real answers to.

How did life begin on Earth? How did the universe originate? I don't know. But I highly doubt that the gods created long ago in the minds of men had anything to do with either, nor do they deserve the credit for them.

I conclude this post with the following quote:

"It is easier to suppose that the universe has existed for all eternity than to conceive a being beyond its limits capable of creating it." -- Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (1792-1822)