Out of Nothing?

We discussed the Big Bang in the previous post. We inferred from Big Bang that the Universe had a beginning. If we agree that the Universe has a beginning, then we would naturally ask what causes it to begin. However, even the kind of beginning of the Universe would be interesting according to the Big Bang description.

We said previously that most people trust the Big Bang description of the Universe ever since a brief moment from the “Bang”. Specifically, 10^-43 second after the “Bang”. But actually, what is the “Bang”? As said before, our current understanding does not allow us to describe the “Bang” concretely. We call it a “singularity”. An implication of Big Bang is that everything in the universe can be traced to an original “singularity” from which it sprang. Quoting from a book written by physicists:

“At this singularity, space and time came into existence; literally nothing existed before the singularity, so, if the Universe originated in such a singularity, we would truly have creation ex nihilo”.

What is ex nihilo? It is a term commonly used to describe how the Creator in the bible creates the Universe. It is “from or out of nothing”. The biblical God creates the Universe out of nothing.

The first book of the bible is Genesis. After a quick look at the first chapter, you will notice that there is a pattern in the description of creation. The phrase “And God said” is recorded several times, and each time is followed by a description of what was created. For example, the bible says in verse 3, “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light”.

How did God create “light” as described in the bible? Just by “And God said”. It is created by just the words from God. No materials required. God creates “light” out of nothingness, that is, ex nihilo.

When I first read Genesis on how God creates the Universe, I had the impression that the Creation process as described in the bible was just like a dream of God. The whole process is out of nothingness, and totally effortless. It sounds unbelievable, does it? Well, Big Bang is telling us that it may not be as unbelievable as it seems.