Creatio ex Nihilo: a Christian creation doctrine including physics

At first glance, physics seems like a fairly straightforward field. Maths is the language that explains how everything in the universe behaves in a particular way. But the more you delve into the field, the more you realise that it actually intersects with all other fields - biology, neuroscience, philosophy, religion, etc. The example covered in this article is the creation of the universe. 

One of the subfields of physics is cosmology - the study of the universe, or cosmos, including its origin, development and fate. The most famous piece of modern work to come out of this field is the Big Bang theory. This is the suggestion that 13.8 billion years ago, the universe started out as a very hot, very dense point smaller than the size of an atom before it suddenly and rapidly expanded - bang!

Out of this came everything. Every atom for all known and unknown things in the universe, all of the laws of time and space, literally everything came into existence in a big explosion of energy.

How do we know this? Well, there is evidence of the Big Bang theory all over the universe, as far as physicists can tell. Particles flying about the universe can provide information about where they came from. For example, if we study the light from other galaxies we can see that the light is ‘red-shifted’ - meaning that as the galaxies move away from us, it shows up differently on the light spectrum then it would if it was very close. 

Think of it like when you drop a stone in the middle of a pond. The ripples start out very close together, but as they move away from the center they stretch out. Light does the same thing and physicists can use this to determine how celestial objects are moving, which is how we know the universe continues to expand.

Such evidence not only tells us a lot about the universe as it is now, but it also allows us to theorise about the universe’s beginning. 

Unfortunately, this then begs the question…what caused the Big Bang? Better yet, what was there before the Big Bang? Nothing? Perhaps, but then how did everything in the universe come into being from nothing?

It is questions like these that create an opportunity for other fields to join the conversation. 

One suggested answer to this particular question comes from the long-held Christian doctrine ‘creatio ex nihilo’, which is Latin for creation from, or out of, nothing. This concept is found in Genesis 1:1, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’

The suggestion is that first, there was nothing (which physics cannot prove or disprove). Then, God the Creator began the act of creation, which physics describes as the Big Bang. Physics cannot prove or disprove God as Creator either. Therefore, the argument is that the creatio ex nihilo doctrine is technically a valid possibility.

Regardless of whether these theories are true or not, the topic of creation is an example of how physics works with other fields like religion or philosophy. Physics cannot necessarily answer all of the big questions, but it can certainly help provide information about the universe we live in.

Written by Amber Elinsky

Related article: The Anthropic Principle- Science or God?