43. God is the cause of the world.

God is the cause of the world.

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 43

Ave Maria series

43.  Is the world a product of chance?

No.  God, not chance, is the cause of the world.  Neither in its origin nor with respect to its intrinsic order and purposefulness is it the product of factors working “aimlessly”.  [295-301, 317-318, 320]

The Milky Way rising above Highway B between Boulder Junction and Land O' Lakes, WI. …..303

Christians believe that they can read God’s handwriting in his creation.  To scientists who talk about the whole world as a random, meaningless, and aimless process, Pope St. John Paul II pointed out in a reply in 1985, “Given a universe in which there is such a complex organization of its elements and such a wonderful purposefulness in its life, talking about chance would be equivalent to giving up the search for an explanation of the world as it appears to us.  In fact it would be tantamount to accepting effects without cause.  It would be an abdication of human reason, which in this way would be refusing to think and to search for a solution to problems.”  49

For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.  (Revelations 4:11)

“We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.  Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.”  Pope Benedict XVI, April 24, 2005

295-301, 317-318, 320

THE MYSTERY OF CREATION

God creates by wisdom and love

295 We believe that God created the world according to his wisdom.( Compare Wisdom 9:9.)¹⁴¹ It is not the product of any necessity whatever, nor of blind fate or chance. We believe that it proceeds from God's free will; he wanted to make his creatures share in his being, wisdom and goodness: "For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."( Revelation 4:11.)¹⁴² Therefore the Psalmist exclaims: "O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all"; and "The LORD is good to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made."( Psalm 104:24; Ps 145:9.)¹⁴³ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

God creates "out of nothing"

296 We believe that God needs no pre-existent thing or any help in order to create, nor is creation any sort of necessary emanation from the divine substance.( Compare  Dei Filius, can. 2-4: Dger-echonmetzernzinS 3022-3024.)¹⁴⁴ God creates freely "out of nothing"(Lateran Council IV (1215): Denzinger-Schonmetzer 800; compare DS 3025.)¹⁴⁵ --CCC

 If God had drawn the world from pre-existent matter, what would be so extraordinary in that? A human artisan makes from a given material whatever he wants, while God shows his power by starting from nothing to make all he wants.( St. Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum II, 4: Patrologia Graeca 6,1052.)¹⁴⁶ --CCC

297 Scripture bears witness to faith in creation "out of nothing" as a truth full of promise and hope. Thus the mother of seven sons encourages them for martyrdom:

I do not know how you came into being in my womb. It was not I who gave you life and breath, nor I who set in order the elements within each of you. Therefore the Creator of the world, who shaped the beginning of man and devised the origin of all things, will in his mercy give life and breath back to you again, since you now forget yourselves for the sake of his laws. . . Look at the heaven and the earth and see everything that is in them, and recognize that God did not make them out of things that existed. Thus also mankind comes into being.( 2 Maccabees 7:22-21,28.)¹⁴⁷ –CCC

298 Since God could create everything out of nothing, he can also, through the Holy Spirit, give spiritual life to sinners by creating a pure heart in them,( Compare Psalm 51:12.)¹⁴⁸ and bodily life to the dead through the Resurrection. God "gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist."( Romans 4:17.)¹⁴⁹ And since God was able to make light shine in darkness by his Word, he can also give the light of faith to those who do not yet know him.( Compare Genesis 1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:6.)¹⁵⁰ --CCC

God creates an ordered and good world

299 Because God creates through wisdom, his creation is ordered: "You have arranged all things by measure and number and weight."( Wisdom 11:20.)¹⁵¹ The universe, created in and by the eternal Word, the "image of the invisible God", is destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the "image of God" and called to a personal relationship with God. (Colossians 1:15, Genesis 1:26. )¹⁵² Our human understanding, which shares in the light of the divine intellect, can understand what God tells us by means of his creation, though not without great effort and only in a spirit of humility and respect before the Creator and his work.( Compare Psalm 19:2-5; Job 42:3.)¹⁵³ Because creation comes forth from God's goodness, it shares in that goodness - "And God saw that it was good. . . very good"(Genesis 1:4,10,12,18,21,31.)¹⁵⁴- for God willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him. On many occasions the Church has had to defend the goodness of creation, including that of the physical world.( Compare Denzinger-Schonmetzer 286; 455-463; 800; 1333; 3002.)¹⁵⁵ --CCC

God transcends creation and is present to it.

300 God is infinitely greater than all his works: "You have set your glory above the heavens."( Psalm 8:1; cpmpare  Sirach 43:28.)¹⁵⁶ Indeed, God's "greatness is unsearchable".(Psalm 145:3.)¹⁵⁷ But because he is the free and sovereign Creator, the first cause of all that exists, God is present to his creatures' inmost being: "In him we live and move and have our being."( Acts of the Apostles17:28.)¹⁵⁸ In the words of St. Augustine, God is "higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self".(St. Augustine, Conf. 3,6,11: Patrologia Latina 32,688.)¹⁵⁹ --CCC

God upholds and sustains creation.

301 With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence:

For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living.( Wisdom 11:24-26.)¹⁶⁰ --CCC

 IN BRIEF

317 God alone created the universe, freely, directly and without any help. --CCC

318 No creature has the infinite power necessary to "create" in the proper sense of the word, that is, to produce and give being to that which had in no way possessed it (to call into existence "out of nothing") (Compare Denzinger-Schonmetzer 3624). --CCC

320 God created the universe and keeps it in existence by his Word, the Son "upholding the universe by his word of power" _{(Hebrews 1:3)}, and by his Creator Spirit, the giver of life. --CCC