My personal view on creation

From my point of view, the conclusion that the narratives from the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis are only mythology and not the expression of reality prompts me to reject the theist creationist view on God. The world hasn’t been created in six physical days and not even in six longer periods of time, and we can know that for certain because the stories from the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis aren’t real. It isn’t only that the period of time proposed by the book of Genesis for creation is in total disharmony with the discoveries of the sciences, but very importantly the order of creation proposed by the Bible is contradictory and absurd therefore it cannot be upheld. 

In what concerns the theistic evolution view, I fully agree that nature became what it is through a process of evolution, starting with the less sophisticated forms of life and reaching a high level of development in human consciousness. 

 God is not the Creator in the sense in which He is presented by the Bible. We don’t know how God is involved in the generation of our universe and of humankind. The Bible doesn’t give us any revelation about the degree in which God is involved with the world. We can know how God is not connected with the origins of the universe and humankind and that is the way in which the Bible says that He created the universe. Any other way of creation can be possible until is proven impossible or improbable. The manner of creation described by the book of Genesis is highly improbable. 

At the same time, there is a huge problem when one tries to separate metaphysically in any way God and the world. The creationist view maintains that God is a necessary Reality while the world is only a contingent reality. God is also seen in the creationist view as transcendental to His creation and that allows for a degree of separation between God and the world which finally doesn’t leave any place for Him in the entire existence. 

In order to understand God, we necessarily need to operate with a larger concept than that of the universe. This concept is the concept of existence per se which includes all existing entities from all existing worlds or all existing universes. The cosmos contains a visible part and an invisible one but we know that the invisible part exists from its effects. Our world isn’t all that is because before the Big Bang it was another reality which made possible the existence of the singularity which caused our universe. In my view, the existence per se is infinite because absolute nonexistence, no space, no energy, no particles, no laws, cannot be said to exist. 

Absolute nonexistence cannot exist because from absolute nonexistence nothing can emerge hence the so-called “reality” which doesn’t produce anything at all is nothing. The existence of all realities can be perceived from the effects that they produce. Where there aren’t any effects of any kind, there we are confronted with nothingness. The existence of our universe is the undeniable proof that there never “was” a state of absolute nonexistence. If it “was” our universe couldn’t exist at all because absolute nothingness means absolute nothing, no space and no laws, no matter, no energy, no anything and that cannot produce anything. 

Absolute nothingness means a state in which nothing at all can be generated, hence we can know that such a situation didn’t exist from the existence of our universe. At the same time, theoretically we also know that absolute nonexistence cannot exist because it doesn’t have any attributes which qualify it for existence. If we define what existence means, we can also know what existence isn’t.

Our universe comes from a state of existence which necessarily comes from another kind of existence and so on. The existence per se is an extraordinary and unexplained reality. We don’t know the origins of existence per se and the possibility of an infinite reality opens the mind toward God’s existence. If existence per se is infinite, God also can be an infinite Reality and that Reality can be also of infinite complexity. The argument for complexity is an argument for the existence of God. An infinite Reality can also be infinite in complexity, not only in spatial extension. This infinite Reality cannot be other than God because this infinite complexity necessarily entails consciousness. 

Existence in the sense of the continuation of the presence of space is infinite. There aren’t any reasons to believe that space was generated from absolute nothingness, hence either space was generated from something else or it is eternal. Time and space form a unity which depends on the presence of matter in the ways described by Einstein. At the same time, space cannot be other than eternal if it wasn’t generated by anything else, something which can be demonstrated that exists in no space. A thing can exist only if it either directly occupies space or if it depends on something which is in space, for example, an idea depends on a brain. 

God cannot be seen as a reality beyond or anterior to existence per se because there isn’t such a thing as infinity before infinity or after infinity, there is only one infinity and this is the unifying principle of all reality. 

There never was and never will be a state of infinite nonexistence in the sense of infinite non-spatiality because non-spatiality doesn’t have any extension, hence cannot be infinite. Existence per se contains all that exists and God is included in it if He exists. If God is seen as the cause of the entire existence He necessarily must be understood as beyond existence because He couldn’t have created existence per se from inside of it. Nevertheless, God beyond existence doesn’t exist because everything beyond existence is out of existence. The existence of God “out of existence”, who would have created existence per se, is an absurd thesis. If God exists and if He is infinite the existence per se also must be infinite. 

Every form of existence enters the general concept of existence per se. God either belongs to existence per se or He doesn’t exist, there isn’t any other option. It is logically impossible for something to be out of existence and existent at the same time. There isn’t any intermediary phase between existence per se and absolute nonexistence, and a potential for existence is in existence. 

God “beyond” existence is a concept used by some philosophers who try to make sense of how He could have created all that is without being a part of it, but it doesn’t make any sense. 

Our universe isn’t the only reality in an infinite cosmos and many speak of multiverses which can be formed by countless universes. For this reason, it is not enough to speak about our universe when we want to establish a relationship between God and the world. The relationship has to be established between God and the existence per se. If we affirm that God had created existence per se from “above” it, we also necessarily say that God doesn’t possess existence but existence is His most fundamental attribute. 

All the metaphysical speculations cannot prove that God exists but they can open the minds to the possibility of His existence. Neither philosophy nor science can prove God’s existence, the only possible proof is given by a personal relationship with Him. Nevertheless, both philosophy and science are necessary to understand the framework in which God’s existence can be approached, because both of them make sense of the reality. In my opinion, metaphysics and scientific discoveries indicate toward the probability of God’s existence. 

God is not the Creator of the cosmos in the way described by the book of Genesis but He could have influenced the apparition of our universe in another way, for example, through fine tuning, and that could have caused the emergence of humankind through evolution. 

In my view, God is the Consciousness of the entire existence or of the infinite multiverse. He is able to cause important movements from top to bottom therefore He had the means to influence our universe and the way in which life evolved on our planet, and also in other places but we don’t have any proof that He did it or that He needed to do it. 

God can leave nature to follow its course and realise its potential. He can use nature as a tool or a working medium in order to attain His aims. God didn’t directly create humankind or Satan and He isn’t responsible for the evil in the world. God didn’t commit genocide in killing 99.99% of the human beings through the Flood. Many are happy to defend such an alleged action but the extermination of so many people indiscriminately is indefensible. God would never have done what the O.T. claims that He did in killing entire populations in order to make a place for the Jewish people in the Promised Land. At the same time, we should take into consideration that Satan is the ruler of our world, as Jesus said, and he is confined in our universe which he wants to dominate. 

In opposition to the mind-body dualism I believe in a multipolar way of understanding reality in which all entities include physical and intelligent aspects. From the smallest elementary particle to the complexity of the cosmos, every aspect of reality entails intelligence. The presence of intelligence in the cosmos opens the door for the understanding of the possibility that an incomparable high level of intelligence guides the entire existence per se. 

Beside the rejection of theist creationism and the dualism which sees God as different and opposed to the world, I also have to distance myself from deism. Unlike deism, I believe in miracles and God’s revelation which don’t have anything to do with absurd statements. Rationality is the only tool given to humankind in order to make sense of every miracle and revelation. 

I don’t consider the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis to have been inspired by God therefore they aren’t divine revelation but only mythology. Nevertheless, God has revealed Himself to humankind in the Person of Jesus Christ and continues to give to believers countless personal revelations. Jesus is alive today, being with the Father, and He guides the faithful directly from his or her consciousness. 

My views are close to the pane theistic view about God but with some qualifications. God didn’t create existence per se because He is consubstantial with the entire existence, being the Consciousness of it. He isn’t only the God of our universe because He couldn’t have influenced the beginning of our universe from inside of it. God is eternal and existence per se is infinite. 

God hadn’t been created by anything or anyone and He didn’t create existence per se meaning He didn’t create the space, the energy, or the matter which are the basic elements for existence. There isn’t any place for the dualism between God and the world because there is only one reality and existence per se contains space, matter, and energy but also “mind” or intelligence. 

God didn’t create our universe ex nihilo. Matter and energy are eternal but they transform continuously from one form of existence to another. As the Consciousness of the entire existence God can both directly influence the apparition of a certain world or He can leave the nature work, alone following its laws and producing the results. Where all necessary conditions are gathered the apparition of life can be generated by the natural dynamic of reality without any supernatural intervention. 

At the same time, God being the Consciousness of all existence controls everything which happens in the existence per se and also He establishes the level of this control. He can allow nature to develop to its full potential or He can guide closely a certain development in order to reach a specific purpose. 

    God didn’t create humankind as the book of Genesis says, in His likeness or in His image because human beings evolved from much less developed beings. Only when the universal Consciousness dwells in the human beings and becomes one with their consciousness can those human beings be like Him in His image, completing their evolution in the spiritual realm. God invested a special attention in humankind and He sent His Son Christ to be embodied in a human being.