Saadiah in his Emunoth Ve-deoth devotes the first chapter to the problem of the Creation. It is headed חדוש “Creation,” and examines thirteen different opinions as to the origin of the universe. In the conclusion of this chapter he makes the following remarks: “Perhaps some one might ask in what manner something was produced from nothing. To this we reply as follows: If we were able to understand this, we should not have ascribed the creative act to God alone. But we declare God as the only Creator, because we can form no idea as to the manner in which something is created from nothing. Those who desire us to show them how to do this, desire, in fact, that we should make them and ourselves creators. We only conceive in our mind the fact of the Creation, but cannot form an idea or image of the process itself.… There may be some who think little of the universe, and wonder that this should be the result of all the power and wisdom of God. We reply that He created as much as, according to His knowledge, would be within the range of man’s observation and perception, and would be sufficient to teach man the existence of God.… How can we conceive the idea that the universe counts only 4633 years? But the universe has been created, as we believe, and must have had a beginning at a certain time. Suppose we had been living in the year 100; we should then not have been surprised: why should we be surprised now?” The question as to the purpose for which the universe [[178]]was created, Saadiah makes three attempts to answer. Maimonides, however, in “The Guide,” more correctly, shows that the question is unanswerable and superfluous. For, whatever purpose we assume, we must always further inquire what is the purpose of this purpose, and so on ad infinitum, till we arrive at the answer, it was the Will of God. If the prophet declares that God “hath not created it in vain, but hath formed it for dwelling,” he likewise says implicitly it was the Will of God that the earth should be for a dwelling.
The question, however, arises whether the Biblical account of the Creation harmonises in all its parts with the results of scientific research. To prove the existence of harmony between the two discordant elements has been since days of old the task which theologians proposed to themselves; philosophic culture forced them to accept the doctrines of a certain school of thought as established truths, whilst religious feeling would not allow them to abandon the teaching of the inspired writers. But the search after this harmony was superfluous, and the harmony found was illusory. For, whilst the teaching of the Bible remains unchanged, the systems of philosophy and science, like everything human, have no claim to permanency; each system has its season; it begins to shine, and rises higher and higher; and when it has reached the zenith, it begins steadily to decline till it disappears beneath the horizon of science. So long as Aristotle and Ptolemy were dominant, theologians exerted themselves to show that the account contained in the first chapter of Genesis fully harmonises with Aristotle and Ptolemy. When these princes were dethroned, and their places were occupied by others, the old harmony was gone, and a new method had to be invented. Maimonides has clearly pointed out how the conflict between reason and faith, where it existed, could best be brought to a conclusion. [[179]]Such of the laws of nature as have been established by human acumen and human observation have been discovered in the phenomena of existing nature; but the phenomenon of creation has never been observed in nature from which we could learn the laws of creation.
In the seventeenth chapter of the Second Book of “The Guide” Maimonides says as follows: “Everything produced comes into existence from non-existence; even when the substance of a thing has been in existence, and has only changed its form, the thing itself which has gone through the process of genesis and development, after having arrived at its final state, has properties different from those which it possessed at the commencement of the transition from potentiality to reality or before that time.… It is quite impossible to infer from the qualities which a thing possesses after having passed through all the stages of its development what its condition was at the moment when this process commenced; nor does the condition of a thing at that moment show what its previous condition had been. If you make this mistake, and attempt to prove the nature of a thing in potential existence by its properties when actually existing, you will fall into great confusion; you will reject evident truth and admit false opinions.… If philosophers would consider this well, and reflect on it, they would find that it represents exactly the dispute between Aristotle and ourselves. We, the followers of Moses, our teacher, and of Abraham, our father, believe that the universe has been produced from nothing, and has developed in a certain manner, and that it has been created in a certain order. The Aristotelians oppose us, and found their objections on the properties which the things in the universe possess when in actual existence and fully developed. We admit the existence of these properties, but hold that these properties themselves have come into existence from absolute non-existence. [[180]]The arguments of our opponents are thus refuted; they have demonstrative force only against those who hold that the nature of things as at present in existence proves the Creation. But this is not my opinion.”
This reasoning holds good with regard to the modern theory of Evolution. We may be able to discover numerous facts in evidence of this theory, we may well conceive the idea of a protoplasm developing into a whole system of worlds, and yet our belief in the truth of the Biblical account of the Creation is not shaken in the least. The laws of Evolution are the result of the creative act of the Almighty, and not its causes; they include nothing that could disprove the correctness of the theory of Creatio ex nihilo.
Rabbi S. R. Hirsch, in his “Commentary on Genesis” (i.) says: “The word בראשית ‘in the beginning,’ teaches that nothing preceded the act of Creation; that there was a Creatio ex nihilo. This truth forms the foundation of the faith which the Divine Law is intended to establish in our hearts. The opposite theory is the doctrine of the eternity of the substance, a theory which leaves to the Creator nothing but the function of giving form to the substance that has existed already from eternity, and which has been the basis of the heathen belief up to the present day.… The first word of the Torah dispels the darkness of this false belief; and the words, ‘The opening of thy word giveth light’ (Ps. cxix. 130), have in the Midrash correctly been applied to the word בראשית. Everything, the matter and the form of all beings, is the result of the free will of the Creator, who continues to rule matter and form, and to determine both the natural forces and the laws of their action. For it is His free will that created matter, endowed it with certain forces, and fixed the laws by which the forces impress the different forms on it.” [[181]]
The idea of development and evolution is not entirely excluded from the account of the Creation. Not in one moment or in one day was the universe produced, but in six days by successive creations of a systematic order. In Mishnah Aboth (v. 1) this is expressed in the following way: “By ten words (מאמרות) the universe was created, although this could have been done by one word.” Commentators have variously attempted to explain this fact, and to show that the order observed in the Creation was determined by the nature of the things themselves. Thus Ibn Ezra believes that the successive creations were the results of the continued action of light and heat.[17] But it is by no means necessary to reconcile the Biblical account with every theory that happens to be considered by some scholar or school as the right one. There may be found in nature and in the working of the natural laws some facts analogous to certain acts of the creation; but a perfect equality of two such incongruent things as the creation from nothing and development of created beings is impossible. By forcing the text of the Bible into such harmony we deprive the account of its poetry and beauty, and weaken the force of its teaching.
Science teaches that millions of millions of years must have elapsed before the earth received its present form; that it took millions of years before the light of certain stars could reach the earth. In all these calculations one important factor is ignored, viz., that for every development something must be given, which is subject to the process of developing; to determine in what condition that something was, when it passed from the passive state of creation to the active state of developing, is a problem for the solution of which there is no analogy in nature. He who could create a germ endowed with all the natural forces required for [[182]]development and differentiation into the great variety of forms which we perceive at present, must certainly have been able to create the things actually endowed with these forms. Thus, also, the various strata of the earth, whatever forms they contain, cannot with certainty be described as the results of development; they may just as well have come directly from the hand of the Creator.
Maimonides (The Guide, xxx.) says in reference to this question: “You should also know the dictum of our Sages—‘All the beings of the work in the beginning (מעשה בראשית) were created in their full height, their fully developed reason, and endowed with the best of properties.’ Note this, for it involves an important principle.—The work of the Creation went on for six days; every day brought to light a new force, a new result of a creative action, but on the seventh day ‘God declared[18] the work which He had done as finished,’ as endowed with the properties and forces required for their further development” (The Guide, I. lxvii.).
Science has proved, it is maintained, that the earth does not form the centre of the universe, and that man does not form the principal object in nature, in opposition to the teaching of the Scriptures that the earth is the centre round which the whole universe revolves, and that man on earth is the lord of the creation. Whatever view the authors of the Biblical books held as regards the systems of the universe, whether they placed the earth in the centre or not, whether all the stars and systems of stars existed, in their opinion, only for the sake of the earth or for the benefit of man, their object was to address man, to instruct him, and to teach him the omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness of God. For [[183]]this reason the account of the Creation is given in such a manner that man should be able to reproduce in his mind the work of each day of the Creation, to view it from his standpoint, and to recognise the benefits each day’s work bestowed on him. The fact that other beings are benefited at the same time, and that the benefit they derive is likewise part of the Creator’s design, is by no means denied by those who believe that the well-being of man was included in the design of the Creator. It is part of our duty of gratitude to ascribe the benefits we enjoy to their Author. The prophets and the inspired singers knew well the place which weak and mortal man occupies in the universe; but they did not ignore the dignity and importance with which the Creator endowed him in spite of all his weakness and apparent insignificance. “What is man,” exclaims the Psalmist, “that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? And yet thou hast made him a little lower than angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour” (Ps. viii. 5, 6).
On the Fifth Principle, p. 44.