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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
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    Creation ex nihilo is impossible — Carmelics
    Statements
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    Home/Natural Theology
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    Creation ex nihilo is impossible

    Against an attribute of GodNatural Theology
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.We constantly observe things being produced through lengthy processes of development rather than instantaneous manifestation
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    • 2.Instantaneous manifestation would be far easier and involve less suffering than lengthy developmental processes
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    • 3.God would not cause things to come about through lengthy, suffering-involving processes (such as childbirth and growth to maturity) if He could simply make them exist from nothing
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The inference from observed developmental processes to divine inability commits a category error: God's omnipotence is not constrained by natural regularities.
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    • 2.Al-Razi's argument presupposes that the 'easier' path for God would be instantaneous creation, but Leibnizian and Thomistic traditions hold that God's goodness may require mediated processes for creatures to participate in their own perfection.
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    • 3.If developmental processes serve intrinsic goods—such as allowing creatures to be genuine secondary causes—then their existence is compatible with, not evidence against, creation ex nihilo.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.The Kalām cosmological argument, developed by al-Kindi and later Aquinas, establishes that an actually infinite regress of prior material causes is logically impossible, requiring an uncaused first cause that produces being from non-being.
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    • 2.If no prior material substrate is logically available at the absolute origin of the universe, then creation ex nihilo is not merely possible but metaphysically necessary to avoid an infinite regress.
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    Topics

    Natural TheologyAgainst an attribute of God

    Connections

    2 topics

    Problem of Evil3 linkedAgainst a future action of God1 linked

    Related

    Al-Razi's argument presupposes that the 'easier' path for God would be instantan...God would not cause things to come about through lengthy, suffering-involving pr...If developmental processes serve intrinsic goods—such as allowing creatures to b...If no prior material substrate is logically available at the absolute origin of ...
    +5 moreShow less
    Instantaneous manifestation would be far easier and involve less suffering than ...The Kalām cosmological argument, developed by al-Kindi and later Aquinas, establ...

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: abu-bakr-al-razi
    View source passageHide passage
    As for matter, time, and place, these principles are required in order that the universe may be created at all (for an overview see Fakhry 1968). First, al-Rāzī thinks that there must already be some material before the cosmos exists, out of which it is constructed. As Nāṣir-e Khosraw (NK: 75) complains, al-Rāzī believed that creation ex nihilo was impossible. He argued for this on the grounds that we constantly see things being produced through lengthy processes of development, even though inst
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    The inference from observed developmental processes to divine inability commits ...
    Therefore, God cannot make things exist from nothing
    We constantly observe things being produced through lengthy processes of develop...
    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit