Creation, in religion, refers to a special way of
relating
physical things, plants, animals, and persons to God.
All
believers in God hold that whatever exists depends
upon the nature of God,
and that the worship of God
is essential to supreme well-being. However,
believers
who use the word “creation” wish to defend
both the
supremacy of God, and the autonomy of persons.
The words in the Declaration of Independence
(1776): “... that
all men are created equal, that they
are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable
Rights,” involve the conviction that men,
free before
God, are responsible ultimately to Him. Believers in
“creation” do not themselves agree about what exactly
it means, although they intend the term to express their
conviction that
God is never identical with his creation,
and with persons in particular.
The most explicit ex-
pression of this view
takes the form of creatio ex nihilo
(“creation out of nothing,” hereafter referred to as
creatio) and this intention differentiates theists
from
religious monists or pantheists. Thus theists emphasize
that God
both transcends, and is immanent in, His
creation. Their view is best
understood in the context
of other religious, moral, and intellectual
concerns to
be considered below.
