Why Something Out of Nothing? A Defense of Creatio ex Nihilo
Per request from a member of my philosophy Discord server (link to which is in the above description of my blog), I will provide a brief defense of the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo , the doctrine that the act of creation lacks a material cause, drawing primarily from St. Thomas' Summa Contra Gentiles . Ultimately, the reason it must be true is God's nature as actus purus , so, the first order of things is to establish the existence of God as actus purus , and I will do this through my own rendition of Aquinas's First Way which gives a metaphysical analysis of change. It is certain and evident to the senses that there is motion in the world, motion meaning change, but change analyzed with respect to being or ens can only be understood as an actualization of potential, for act and potency are the principles of being. Now, whatever potential is actualized must be actualized by something already actual. Thus, something actually hot has the capacity to make somethi