Creatio ex nihilo

"Creatio ex nihilo" means "creation out of nothing" in Latin. It is the idea that the universe and everything in it were not always there, but were made by a divine act. This belief helps answer the big question of how the universe began. It is different from other ideas, like "creatio ex materia," which means things were made from stuff that already existed.

Some people who believe in a divine creator support this idea. They think that nothing was around forever, and everything started because a powerful force made it happen. This is different from thinking that everything came from something that was already there, like pieces of older things coming together.

The phrase "ex nihilo nihil fit" means "nothing comes from nothing." It shows an older way of thinking where everything must come from something that already existed. But "creatio ex nihilo" says that the universe was made from nothing by a divine power.

Creatio ex materia

Main article: Creatio ex materia

Creatio ex materia is the belief that matter has always existed and that our world today is a reshaping of this ancient, formless material. It is often said that nothing can come from nothing.

In many old stories from the ancient Near East, the world began from a timeless, empty ocean. In Sumerian tales, this ocean was a goddess named Nammu who had always been there. In the Babylonian story Enūma Eliš, this ocean was made of fresh water called Apsu and salt water called Tiamat. From Tiamat, the god Marduk made the heavens and the earth. In Egyptian beliefs, the early chaos was a watery god named Nun, linked with darkness, who gave birth to the first land. In Greek traditions, the beginning of everything was sometimes a river named Oceanus, a place called Night, or water.

In Genesis

The story of creation in Genesis starts with the Hebrew words bereshit bara elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz. People have interpreted these words in different ways. Some think it means that everything began when God created the heavens and the earth. Others believe it describes the state of the world when God started creating, with the earth being empty and shapeless. Still, others see it as background information, showing that God spoke and brought light into the world.

While many today focus on how matter began, ancient cultures might have cared more about God giving purpose and shape to an empty space. This idea is similar to stories from ancient times near the Middle East.

Creatio ex nihilo in religion

Creatio ex nihilo is the idea that all matter was made by God from nothing. This belief says the universe began with a divine act. Some ancient thinkers, like Plotinus, thought the world came from God in a different way, but many Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinkers did not agree with this.

African traditions often believe the world was made from existing things, but some groups, like the Bakongo, share the idea of creatio ex nihilo. In Bakongo belief, the world started empty, and the god Nzambi created everything from that emptiness.

In Christianity, many believe God created the world from nothing. Early Christian writers like Theophilus of Antioch talked about this idea. Some other Christian groups, like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, believe God organized existing matter instead.

In Hinduism, some texts suggest the world was always present in a basic form. In Islam, most believe God created the world from nothing, similar to Christianity and Judaism. Jewish thinkers have also supported the idea of creation from nothing, though some see the Bible as allowing for existing matter that God shaped.

In modern science

Further information: Big Bang § Pre–Big Bang cosmology, and Cosmogony

The Big Bang theory is a scientific idea. Unlike some religious beliefs, it does not explain why the universe exists. Instead, it describes what happened during the very first moments of our universe's existence.