Philosophy, Religion

Creatio Ex Nihilo is Logically Impossible

I’m sorry about the lack of new posts, but I’m completely swamped with coursework, thesis research, and my “day job.”

A few days ago, two Christians who run a YouTube channel called Indefatigable Theist posted a video attempting to defend the traditional Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, or creation–by God–from absolutely nothing. This, of course, is logically impossible, and I explain why in this video.

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4 thoughts on “Creatio Ex Nihilo is Logically Impossible”

  1. Logically impossible? Really. Let’s face it, you don’t have a degree in logic. And even if you did, you don’t know everything.

    For you to suggest that a being such as God – truly Divine – does not have the power to do things you don’t understand, is beyond arrogant, it is insane.

    • Thanks for commenting :) .

      There is a fallacy in your mode of thinking known as “special pleading,” in which you attempt to make an unjustified special case for God (“everything is bound by the rules of logic, except God, he’s a special case.”). It is fallacious because there is no good reason to except God from logical laws.

      Furthermore, the laws of logic are literally unbreakable; things that fall outside them are illogical, they literally make no sense. For instance, it is impossible for a square circle or a married bachelor to exist, because the definition of “circle” excludes the possibility of squareness, and the definition of “bachelor” excludes the possibility of marriage. Not even God–if such a being were hypothetically to exist–could create square circles or married bachelors, because such concepts are incoherent, literally nonsensical.

      In the same way, the concept of “creatio ex nihilo” is equally nonsensical, as the very definition of “cause” implies both an affector (an “efficient cause”) and something to be affected (a “material cause”). Without (at least) these two things, causality is impossible. In the case of creatio ex nihilo, there is an efficient cause (God) but no material cause, because “nothing” is not a thing and hence cannot be affected. Such an idea is literally nonsensical, akin to square circles and married bachelors. Because of this, to say that “God caused the universe to begin existing from nothing” is incoherent and therefore logically impossible.

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