Special creation

“ The first inquiry is, whether this hypothesis presents a true philosophic idea of special creation. The next inquiry is, whether it affords a satisfactory explanation of the phenomena of comparative embryologic development.
We must never lose sight of the one grand postulate of an infinite Creator. This postulate must be conceded to the believers in special creations, because any idea of creation implies a creating power. ”

“ The only question that interests me is, whether the objections propounded by this philosopher as an answer to the hypothesis of special creations present insuperable difficulties to one who does not depend upon the current theology for arguments, explanations, or means of judgment. ”

“ It is followed (Tome XIX.) by Albert’s Summa de creaturis, a presentation of God’s creation, omitting the special topics set forth in the De vegetabilibus and De animalibus. It treats of creation, of [Pg 431] matter, of time and eternity, of the heavens and celestial bodies, of angels, their qualities and functions, and the hierarchies of them; of the state of the wicked angels, of the works of the six days, briefly; and then of man, soul and body, very fully; of man’s habitation and the order and perfection of the universe. ”

“ We have seen, thus far, how there came into the thinking of mankind upon the visible universe and its inhabitants the idea of a creation virtually instantaneous and complete, and of a Creator in human form with human attributes, who spoke matter into existence literally by the exercise of his throat and lips, or shaped and placed it with his hands and fingers. ”

“ And here we have (as I think will be seen one day) the whole rationale of Creation—we have the conception which brings into line the phenomena of the visible and material world and their genesis, with the genesis of thoughts in our own minds, and their passage into visibility and expression; we have the conception which unites the mental and material, and which makes the whole Creation luminous with meaning. ”

“ But each separate step in the program of creation was a separate and distinct act of creation. The creation of the vegetable kingdom, with its innumerable species, was at every step a new act of creative activity, as was the creation of the animal kingdom. And man was as distinctive a creation as anything that preceded him, for, as we have seen, there was created in him that which had not existed in vegetable or animal, the plane of the spiritual, with its inmost receptacle of God to enable him to become the moral image and likeness of his Creator. ”

“ Offer to it the lightest suggestion, and there springs forth from that abyss a figure corresponding, or a dozen figures, or a whole procession! The mere delight of creation calls them forth. Could anything be more wonderful? What a strange glimpse it gives us of the possibilities of Creation. ”

“ Consequently the substances of the spiritual world, being in the constant endeavor to produce the image of the Creator, accomplish their effort according to the degree of the acting substance and the form in which the acting substance operates. Thus the Creator's vital action, through the successive discrete degrees in creation, in the mind of man produces love and wisdom in the human degree; in animals, their instincts; in plants, their life, and in matter, its varied properties. ”

“ Can’t you see that one is a story of the real creation; and the other is the human mind’s interpretation of the creation––an interpretation made according to the way the human mind thinks the creating ought to have been in matter? ”

“ In a word, they have not arrived at the conception of the Creator as infinite and eternal, and that his acts are in eternity, not in time. Nor have they a conception of a creation by law—a creation through the Logos—that eternal Reason, that all-providing Wisdom—whose hand stretched the line upon it, and whose right hand held the plummet; a scintilla of which enlightens every man that cometh into the world. ”

“ Because, also, the beauty of creation depends upon the variety of objects of which it consists. And the greatness of the Creator's power is shown by the diversity of ends accomplished by different means. ”

“ Should the believers in special creations consider it unfair thus to call upon them to describe how special creations take place, I reply, that this is far less than they demand from the supporters of the Development Hypothesis. They 379 are merely asked to point out a conceivable mode. On the other hand, they ask, not simply for a conceivable mode, but for the actual mode. ”

“ Thus creation is the process by which the Eternal Creator works out His own image, His own ideas, in and through that which is formless, that which has no name, which is nothing but possibility,—dead earth, namely, or Matter. ”

“ And thus we have before our mental vision the character and attributes of the great Creator. He is wise, just, loving and powerful; and the scope of his attributes is, of necessity, immeasurably wider than that of his grandest creation. ”

“ The beaver makes its hole, the bee makes its cell; man alone has the power of creating. The mason makes, the architect creates. In the same sense that we say God created the universe, we say that man is also a creator. The creation of the universe was the Eternal Thought taking reality. ”

“ HAPPINESS.
The evidence and fruit and reward of growth as involved in Altruism.
NATURE.
As commonly used, "nature" means creation apart from man. The accepted definition is "creation," and as such includes man and all created things, and also the processes of creation—generation, degeneration and regeneration—as involved in growth. The common use of the word "nature" is a convenient one, and hence let us make use of it as meaning creation other than man. ”

“ And what is the spiritual world, but an outbirth or derivation from the Divine Mind? Creation is, properly speaking, production,—a sending forth, as it were, by the Infinite God, of indefinitely various forms and existences from Himself. ”

“ Here we come to the first demand which the doctrine of creation makes on us by way of premises. In order that there may be creation there must be a primary Self-existent Spirit, whose will is supreme. ”

“ An account of creation is given, not with the idea of furnishing man with an epitome of geological science, but because it forms a fitting dress for the portrayal of the regeneration of man. As all Scripture is given in parables and for the sake of its spiritual teaching, a history of creation must be, in its essential meaning, a description of the creation and development of the spiritual nature within us. ”

“ In the present instance, as well as in many others, it evidently appears, that the Creator intends, in the course of his providence, by means of scientific researches, gradually to open to the view of the inhabitants of our world the wonders, the beauties and the sublimities of his vast creation, to manifest his infinite wisdom, and his superabundant goodness, and to raise our souls to the contemplation and the love of Him who is the original source of all that is glorious and beneficent in the scene of nature. ”

“ He should disabuse his own mind of prejudices and superstitions at variance with nature, and study natural organization to learn the intention of the Creator; learn the nature of plants, the organization of the earth, its components how formed, and of what—all animal creation—the mechanism of the universe, its motions—the exact perfection of every creation for the design of that creation ”

“ The work of creation in time, he held, which did but reflect the process by which the Father begets the eternal Son, involved two elements, the purely spiritual or angelic, represented by heaven or the light, on the one hand, and the material and animal on the other, represented by the earth. ”

“ BEAUTY AND HARMONY IN DIVERSITY October 28th
The Creator of all is One God.
From this same God all creation sprang into existence, and He is the one goal, towards which everything in nature yearns. This conception was embodied in the words of Christ, when He said, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end’. Man is the sum of Creation, and the Perfect Man is the expression of the complete thought of the Creator—the Word of God. ”

“ The works of Nature, both of mind and matter, are full of evidence of design, and from this we infer that the Creator is an intelligent cause.
The infinite variety and extent of creation are evidences of the wonderful power of their Author. The fact that all the contrivances of matter and mind are clearly designed to produce enjoyment, while pain is merely the result of a violation of laws which, if obeyed, would secure only happiness—this is evidence of the benevolence of the Creator. ”

“ I. God as Creative Love. The Creature’s True and False Self; True and False Love. 1. Creation, an overflow of Goodness.
First, then, we will take the sayings about Creation, and the original, substantially indelible character of all created beings. ”

“ I know no better symbol of creation than the regularity and causality of the creation of ideas in us, which no will and no mind can regulate and create, for any such arrangement and intention would presuppose the unborn idea. ”

“ Of course, creation was to them an open book of symbols, in which they read mental processes, spiritual principles, and divine ends, as we read ideas in words, with scarcely more thought of the things than we have of the words on the printed page, from which we seek only the meaning. ”

“ This wonderfully intimate relationship of the innumerable forms of living creatures, properly considered, is calculated to elevate our conception of the creation, and of man himself; while, to the glory of the Creator, it is held out to us as another "bow of promise"—another assurance of the certainty of the universal reign of law. ”

“ Till then I hold by my antiquated tenets, that our world, nay, the whole material universe, was created about six or seven thousand years ago, and that in a state of physical excellence of which we have in our present fallen world only the ‘vestiges of creation.’ I conclude by mentioning that this view I have held now for nearly thirty years, and, amidst all the vicissitudes of the philosophical world during that period, I have never seen cause to change it. ”

“ Nor is there a single object in nature, however minute, in which this resemblance may not be traced; for nothing exists which does not contain in itself something analogous to love and wisdom, and to their conjunction. Creation, therefore, from its highest spiritual to its lowest natural constituents, consists of a succession of forms produced from the united activity and operation of Divine love and wisdom,—forms, therefore, in which these may exist as in their created and finite receptacles. ”

“ This is not a question of the mode in which the Creator has chosen to manifest his power for the purpose of making it more impressive in the eyes of his intelligent human creatures or more palpable to their perceptions. ”

“ The definition given to our English verb "create," in its [Pg 140] primary and philosophical sense, is: "To produce," "to bring into being from nothing"; "to cause to exist." "Creation," as a noun expressing the act described by the verb, is defined as "the act of creating: the act of causing to exist, and especially, the act of bringing this world into existence." ”

“ If it were possible for the object to form the subject, it would be an inevitable fact that creation made the Creator. Whatever service nature renders in forming the senses, which truly is great, there is yet something back of nature. ”

“ The fact that He employs means, that creation is an infinite web of causes and effects, constantly weaving, excites our curiosity, awakens our interest, makes us familiar with His thought and methods, and we feel at home in His universe. ”

“ A mode of conception which is conspicuous throughout the entire series of these creation stories is the constantly repeated presentation of the creative act not in the form of spiritual fiat, but of a purely natural process of generation. ”

“ And when we see that the tendency of all the arrangements which we can comprehend is to support the existence, to develope the faculties, to promote the well-being of these countless species of creatures; we shall have some impression of the beneficence and love of the Creator, as manifested in the physical government of his creation. ”

“ The infinite hath no beginning, and this word “beginning” is employed to signify the first, because the eternal fact of creation, when Spirit is the creator. The creative Principle is God, Life, Truth, and Love. There is but one Creator and one creation. The unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, forever embraced in the infinite Mind, and being reflected through time and eternity, is creation. These ideas range from a blade of grass upward to the Elohim, or sons and daughters of God, Spirit. ”

“ I said deliberately "from the creation of the world," and not "from the creation of mankind," because inanimate creation itself appears to me to bear witness to a purpose, from the first, that this visible world should help its future tenants to imagine things invisible. ”

“ A scheme of the creation which, if held in its entirety, shows curious lacunæ in the Creator’s mind, only to be bridged over by that faith which in itself makes all men equal, that is, of course, when they experience it and recognize its charm. ”

“ Others he formed out of the earth, with life, sense, and instinct, but destitute of reason, designing them to be subservient to the necessities or conveniences of a higher order of beings. Besides these he created other beings of a middle rank, partaking of an earthly part, fashioned with infinite skill and art, of exquisite symmetry, and adorned with great external beauty; and of a spiritual part akin to angels, and but little inferior to them, being in their constitution a compound of the animal and angelic natures. ”