Does God still actively create

[JFJK]

What is the Catholic teaching on creation?
Did God create only in the beginning (in the seven days) or is God still actively creating today?
If we observe a new species evolving (like bacteria resistant to anti-biotics) is it really God who creates the new bacteria?

 

[Justin_Swanton]

Creation in the strict sense means producing something out of nothing. Things changing into something else is not creation in this sense, i.e. new bacteria don’t suddenly pop into existence where nothing was there before.

Granted this, it would seem that creation by God is not currently taking place, since everything new that appears has a physical or biological origin.

 

[Richca]

What is the Catholic teaching on creation?
Did God create only in the beginning (in the seven days) or is God still actively creating today?
If we observe a new species evolving (like bacteria resistant to anti-biotics) is it really God who creates the new bacteria?

God creates out of nothing the soul of every new human being on earth.

 

[Boulder257]

God creates out of nothing the soul of every new human being on earth.

Not only this, but he continues to manifest all creation through His will. God didn’t just “create” and then step away, he continues to hold all creation in existence. This is one of those things that amazes me every single time I think about it.

 

[edward_george]

Not only this, but he continues to manifest all creation through His will. God didn’t just “create” and then step away, he continues to hold all creation in existence. This is one of those things that amazes me every single time I think about it.

Exactly. To say that God put everything together and stepped away to watch is Deism at its finest. Creation is a continual act, as God’s will continues to unfold throughout history. Since his will is immutable, if he once willed to create, then he is always willing to create, and is thus always creating.

-ACEGC

 

[McDale721]

Not only this, but he continues to manifest all creation through His will. God didn’t just “create” and then step away, he continues to hold all creation in existence. This is one of those things that amazes me every single time I think about it.

Yes

 

[FaithInTheSon]

Does the ocean still make waves?

As far as I know the universe is not predicted to stop expanding any time soon.

There are as many stars in our galaxy (like the sun) as there are grains of sand on earth.

We have just acquired the knowledge that there are also as many galaxies as there are grains of sand on the earth.

In other words- you have been shown infinite creation.

From our perspective think about the scale of the 3 dimensional world. We can go infinitely smaller or infinitely larger.

The infinity of our dimensions combined with the infinity of the universe proves God(among other things).

Steven Hawking could truly use our prayers.

 

[JM3]

John 5:17 - But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working still, and I am working.”

 

[JDaniel]

What is the Catholic teaching on creation?
Did God create only in the beginning (in the seven days) or is God still actively creating today?
If we observe a new species evolving (like bacteria resistant to anti-biotics) is it really God who creates the new bacteria?

Welcome to CAF, JFJK:

Remember: God is timeless. Therefore, Creation is a singular event to God’s mind, while it appears to roll out to our minds (and senses). Think of God existing within the framework of a Now - then think of it as an Eternal Now. So, yes, God continues to roll out creation to us. Each and every new soul, and each and every new motion, or change, is “creational.”

God bless,
jd

 

[JDaniel]

God creates out of nothing the soul of every new human being on earth.

Richca:

No disrespect intended, but since you brought up, I’d like to say that it is my fervent prayer that all Christians - especially Catholics - stop uttering those words. They make it appear that there was some pre-existing matrix, or stuff, around (e.g., out there in space) “out of which” God could mold, or cause, to fashion into a universe.

The Catholic position is subtly different: God creates where there was absolutely nothing. This alters the meaning of the expression such that it represents “Creation,” rather than everyday “causation.” Although Creation is a kind of causation, it is a causation that does not require any kind of pre-existing matrix or stuff.

God bless,
jd

 

[surritter]

JD – I cheerfully propose that you’re kind of splitting hairs. The poster simply wrote that God created out of nothing, but not in the way that you imply. The intent was not that God took this “stuff” called nothing and built it up. Rather, the very definition of nothing is exactly that: nothing. God didn’t need any building blocks; if He did, then it wouldn’t be called nothing.
So you’re both saying the same thing.

An analogy: if I say, “That sound came out of nowhere” everyone understands that it didn’t really “come” from anywhere. It’s just an expression.

 

[Richca]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Richca
God creates out of nothing the soul of every new human being on earth.

Richca:

No disrespect intended, but since you brought up, I’d like to say that it is my fervent prayer that all Christians - especially Catholics - stop uttering those words. They make it appear that there was some pre-existing matrix, or stuff, around (e.g., out there in space) “out of which” God could mold, or cause, to fashion into a universe.

The Catholic position is subtly different: God creates where there was absolutely nothing. This alters the meaning of the expression such that it represents “Creation,” rather than everyday “causation.” Although Creation is a kind of causation, it is a causation that does not require any kind of pre-existing matrix or stuff.

God bless,
jd

Hello JDaniel,
Yes, God creates where there was absolutely nothing. However, that could possibly be construed to mean that there was a time when God didn’t exist, a time of absolute nothingness. Though, I don’t think this is what you mean. I don’t see the difference in saying “God creates out of nothing” or “God creates from absolutely nothing.” Nothing is nothing, I don’t believe you have to say “absolutely nothing.”

Peace, Rich

 

[HansTrappist]

What is the Catholic teaching on creation?
Did God create only in the beginning (in the seven days) or is God still actively creating today?
If we observe a new species evolving (like bacteria resistant to anti-biotics) is it really God who creates the new bacteria?

I would argue that God does still actively create. I would argue that miracles are evidence of this.

As to a bacteria evolving a resistance to antibiotics, this is actually one of the few demonstrations of what Darwininan (random) mutation is capable of doing at the molecular level. Some examples of this would be: the development of resistance in the malaria parasite to certain drugs, mosquito resistance to DDT, and the development of what amounts to an anti-freeze protein in the blood of the Antartic notothenioid fish. These are examples of what Random (Darwinian) evolution can do in Nature. But there is in fact a mathematical limit to what Darwinian evolution can do in nature. Anything beyond that limit appears to be the province of Design. Of course, this Design was built into Nature from the beginning and allowed to develop over time.

 

[JDaniel]

JD – I cheerfully propose that you’re kind of splitting hairs. The poster simply wrote that God created out of nothing, but not in the way that you imply. The intent was not that God took this “stuff” called nothing and built it up. Rather, the very definition of nothing is exactly that: nothing. God didn’t need any building blocks; if He did, then it wouldn’t be called nothing.
So you’re both saying the same thing.

An analogy: if I say, “That sound came out of nowhere” everyone understands that it didn’t really “come” from anywhere. It’s just an expression.

Surritter:

I don’t have a problem with your interpretation, but, I disagree. The problem is, too many Catholics don’t understand it as you’ve just proposed it. So, whenever a person says, “God created out of nothing,” people like Lawrence Krauss intimate that it is fundamental particles that do that, as “nothing” is really a “soup” (of particles), and so God is not needed (and, therefore, does not exist). I wonder how many young minds have been taken in by that logic? I think, quite a few from the looks of our losses!

God bless,
jd

 

[JDaniel]

Hello JDaniel,
Yes, God creates where there was absolutely nothing. However, that could possibly be construed to mean that there was a time when God didn’t exist, a time of absolute nothingness. Though, I don’t think this is what you mean. I don’t see the difference in saying “God creates out of nothing” or “God creates from absolutely nothing.” Nothing is nothing, I don’t believe you have to say “absolutely nothing.”

Peace, Rich

Richca:

OK. Then remove that troublesome word, but leave the rest of them!

(See my post immediately above.)

God bless,
jd

 

[surritter]

Well that I guess you are thinking on a higher plane of philosophy or existential physics than the average person. It’s really doubtful that “too many Catholics” think about “fundamental particles”!
When someone says that it came from nothing, the average person would actually think that it came from nothing.
But your point is taken

 

[ReapReason]

What is the Catholic teaching on creation?
Did God create only in the beginning (in the seven days) or is God still actively creating today?
If we observe a new species evolving (like bacteria resistant to anti-biotics) is it really God who creates the new bacteria?

I am sorry that people gave such poor answers.

In the context of your question. There are two kinds of acts. There is the distinct way that a particular nature behaves according to laws, and then there is also the act of its reality.

Act: The Act Of Reality

When speaking about the act of reality, every new thing is an actualisation of potential. That which is only potential has no existence (accept as an abstraction in Gods mind) and since out of nothing comes nothing that potential therefore cannot become objectively actual without that which is the supreme act of reality (God). Even when a new thing becomes actual, there is still an objective distinction between its act (existence or esse) and its nature (essence). An essence never becomes its own intrinsic act of reality since it is by definition contingent upon supreme reality in order to be real, and therefore must always remain contingent upon it. It cannot be its own act. Only God is his own act of reality and that is why God is eternal.

Therefore God is always creating insofar as God is required in-order to actualize all pending potential.

We must maintain this distinction at all times in-order to understand what it means for God to conserve a new nature in existence; because if God merely creates essences with there own intrinsic act of reality, it then becomes meaningless to speak of God conserving or sustaining them in reality since they have already been given their own act of reality and thus do not need to be conserved in it.

Act: The Act Of Behaviour

When speaking of act in the sense of “behaviour”; we can understand evolution as a natural expression of the attributes intrinsic to physical natures insofar as laws and principles are concerned. God does not interfere with these events and neither does he have to, since he has already put laws and principles in place to define their behaviour when they become actual beings. In other-words while it is true that it is God that makes them actual animates them, it is however not true that God interferes with their particular kinds of natural behaviour insofar as what happens to be true of their nature.

The only time God gets involved with natural behaviour is when human ensouled beings call upon or invoke God in reference to their eschatological destiny. He may also get involved in a very intimate manner if it benefits our salvation, such as the “Christ-Event”.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

What is the Catholic teaching on creation?
Did God create only in the beginning (in the seven days) or is God still actively creating today?
If we observe a new species evolving (like bacteria resistant to anti-biotics) is it really God who creates the new bacteria?

" All that exists outside God was in its whole substance, produced out of nothing by God ( De fide, Vatican 1). " The time expressed here is past tense which corresponds to the Genesis account that " in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So creation of the universe of time, space, and limited beings was " in the beginning " completed once and for all.

The phrase " out of nothing " means that before the universe came into being, there existed only God, that from the moment of the cration event there existed two separate realities, God on the one hand and the universe of His creation on the other hand.

So the " creation " of the limited beings has been completed according to the account in Genesis. Except that God continues to create a new soul for each new human being that comes into the world.

So Catholics must believe that " creation " proper is once and for all completed.

However philosophers such as St. Thomas speak of the activity of God in maintaining the universe of limited beings in existence as a continuation of God’s creative act.

That new limited beings have appeared since God’s creation act is not the result of a " new " creation of limited beings. It is the causal activity of already existing beings acting through already existing matter through the primary, continued causal activity of God.

This causal actity is a production out of prior existing matter whereas creation was a first universal production of all limited being from no prior existing matter. Nor is this production to be understood as being the production of limited beings from God’s own Substance. The universe of limited being is not a part of God’s substance as has been proposed by some.

The universe of limited being is not a " part of God " in any way. Nor is God a part of the universe, He is radically " other than " the universe. He is, to phrase it a different way, totally and absolutely outside the universe of space, time, and limited being. Yet He acts upon it by an out flow of power that cannot be understood, which derives in some manner from His intellect and will but is in no sense physical. It is a power that is understood by God only and can never be understood by our limited intellects.

 

[NeoScotist]

What is the Catholic teaching on creation?
Did God create only in the beginning (in the seven days) or is God still actively creating today?
If we observe a new species evolving (like bacteria resistant to anti-biotics) is it really God who creates the new bacteria?

well, God is preserving creation. The universe is not like a watch that works by itself (that the universe is like a machine is an assumption dating from the 16th Century), if God stopped sustaining the universe it would vanish
PS Sustaining the universe is the same as re-creating it continuously.

 

[belorg]

well, God is preserving creation. The universe is not like a watch that works by itself (that the universe is like a machine is an assumption dating from the 16th Century), if God stopped sustaining the universe it would vanish
PS Sustaining the universe is the same as re-creating it continuously.

If God stopped sustaining the universe, then it would become nothing? Think for a moment what you are claiming here. If a universe, without any aid, can suddenly (or gradually for that matter) vanish, that is, nothing at all would be left of it, theh why couldn’t the universe pop into existence from nothing without any aid?
The Thomistic idea of the universe needing a sustainer is based on a poor understanding by Aquinas (and by Aristotle) of basic physics. Aristotle and Aquinas thought that objects were constantly being ‘pushed’ or ‘attracted’. Nowadays it is understood that an object in motion will stay in motion forever, and that there can never again be a state of absolute nothingness.