Religion in an Age of Science by Ian Barbour
Chapter 5: Astronomy and Creation
IV. Theological Implications
2. Ex Nihilo and Continuing Creation
bifurcations of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, random mutations in evolution, and freedom in human life.) We have seen that quantum phenomena played a role in the very early history of the Big Bang. The cosmos is a unique and irreversible sequence of events. Our account of it must take a historical form rather than consisting of general laws alone. The most important questions are not about beginnings but about subsequent historical events.
Of course, many scientists today are atheists or agnostics and confine themselves to strictly scientific questions. Yet wider reflection on
cosmology seems to be an important way of raising what the theologian David Tracy calls "limit questions."45 At the personal level,
cosmologists often express a sense of mystery and awe at the power unleashed in the Big Bang and the occurrence of phenomena at the limits of our experience, language, and thought. If there was an initial singularity, it appears to be inaccessible to science. At the philosophical level, cosmology encourages the examination of our presuppositions about time and space, law and chance, necessity and contingency.
Above all, the intelligibility of the cosmos suggests questions that arise in science but cannot be answered within science itself.
must contribute. He may, indeed must, strive to make his
theology and his cosmology consonant in the contributions they make to this world-view. But this consonance (as history shows) is a tentative relation, constantly under scrutiny, in constant slight shift.46
As possible examples of consonance, I suggest theological parallels with the four kinds of contingency mentioned earlier.
1. The contingency of existence corresponds to the central religious meaning of creation ex nihilo. In both the scientific and the theological contexts the basic assertions can be detached from the assumption of an absolute beginning. On the scientific side, it now appears likely that the Big Bang was indeed an absolute beginning, a singular event, but if there is new evidence for a cyclic universe or infinite time, the contingency of existence would remain. On the theological side, we have seen that Genesis portrays the creation of order from chaos, and that the ex nihilo doctrine was formulated later by the church fathers to defend theism against an ultimate dualism or a monistic pantheism. We still need to defend theism against alternative philosophies, but we can do so without reference to an absolute beginning.
With respect to the central meaning of creation ex nihilo (though not with respect to continuing creation) I agree with the neo-orthodox authors who say that it is the sheer existence of the universe that is the datum of theology, and that the details of scientific cosmology are irrelevant here. The message of creation ex nihilo applies to the whole of the cosmos at every moment, regardless of questions about its beginning or its detailed structure and history. It is an ontological and not a historical assertion.
In terms of human experience, ex nihilo expresses the sense of wonder and mystery typical of numinous experience -- and sometimes
experienced by astronomers in reflecting on the cosmos. In its
theological articulation, ex nihilo has served to assert the transcendence, power, freedom, and purposefulness of God, and to express our
dependence on God. It also expresses the eternal aspect of God as beyond time and related equally to every point in time. I believe these attributes must be expressed theologically. However, I think classical theism overemphasized transcendence and power; God was understood as the omnipotent sovereign who predestined all events, and other biblical themes were neglected.47
2. The contingency of boundary conditions also expresses the message of ex nihilo without requiring an absolute beginning. If it turns out that past time was finite, there was indeed a singularity at the beginning, inaccessible to science. Such a beginning was assumed by the church fathers in the classical ex nihilo doctrine, even though it was not their chief concern. As Aquinas said, such a beginning would provide an impressive example of dependence on God. On the other hand, if time were infinite, we would still have contingent boundary conditions;
scientists could not avoid dealing with situations or states that they would have to treat as givens. In neither case could it be said that our particular universe was necessary.
3. The contingency of laws can be identified with the orderly aspect of continuing creation. Traditionally, creation has been identified with the provision of order. Such order, it was assumed, was introduced at the beginning, though it had to be continually sustained by God. By the eighteenth century, the order of nature seemed to be all-embracing, mechanical, and self-sustaining. In deism, God’s role was simply to design and start the mechanism. But now we know that the history of the cosmos involves both law and chance, both structure and novelty.
Here the findings of science are indeed relevant.
I will argue in the next chapter that the laws applicable to emergent higher levels of reality are not reducible to laws governing lower levels.
New and more complex forms of order have emerged in successive eras.
Life and mind would not be possible without these underlying structures going back to the early cosmos, but they cannot be explained by the laws of physics. Yet cosmology adds its own grounds for wonder at the order, intelligibility, and aesthetic simplicity of the universe. We can still say that this order is not necessary and can be understood only by observing it.
4. The contingency of events corresponds to the novel aspect of
continuing creation. We can no longer assume the static universe of the Middle Ages, in which the basic forms of all beings were thought to be unchanging. Coming-to-be is a continuing process throughout time, and it continues today. Nature in all its forms must be viewed historically.
Here astrophysics adds its testimony to that of evolutionary biology and other fields of science. Time is irreversible and genuine novelty appears in cosmic history. Ours is a dynamic world with a long story of change and development.
On the theological side, continuing creation expresses the theme of God’s immanence and participation in the ongoing world. God builds on what is already there, and each successive level of reality requires the structures of lower levels. Here I find the insights of process philosophy particularly helpful. For Whitehead and his followers, God is the source of both order and novelty. This is one of the few schools of thought that takes seriously the contingency of events, from indeterminacy in
physics to the freedom of human beings. In this "dipolar" view, God is both eternal and temporal: eternal in character and purpose, but
temporal in being affected by interaction with the world. God’s knowledge of the world changes as unpredictable events occur.48 The God of process thought is neither omnipotent nor powerless.
Creation occurs throughout time and in the midst of other entities. God does not predetermine or control the world but participates in it at all levels to orchestrate the spontaneity of all beings, in order to achieve a richer coherence. God does not act directly, and nothing that happens is God’s act alone; instead, God acts along with other causes and
influences the creatures to act. God does not intervene sporadically from outside but is present in the unfolding of every event. Creative
potentialities are actualized by each being in the world, in response both to God and to other beings. The process view emphasizes divine
immanence, but it by no means leaves out transcendence. If it is carefully articulated, I believe that it can express the ideas that in the past have been represented by both the ex nihilo and the continuing creation themes (see chapter 8).