Several religions believe that the universe was created by a supreme being or creation deity[?].
Within the Judeo-Christian tradition, this creation is taken to be ex nihilo (Latin: out of nothing). Some Biblical scholars have argued that this comes from a mistranslation of the biblical account in the book of Genesis.
Many ancient religions believed by contrast that the universe was created by God or the gods out of pre-existing matter. Some observers see evidence of this view in the biblical account, which appears to presume the pre-existence of some form of matter, albeit without form: "Now the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the waters." The Genesis account appears to presume the pre-existence of water, which God then transformed to create the world. Others would highlight the very first verse of the Bible "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth", in which no presumption of pre-existing matter is required.
Yet again, others held that the universe was eternal and had always existed.
Scientists have advanced a number of scientific theories, including the Big Bang theory, which theorizes that the universe is of finite age, but has no opinion on the issue of its creation by a deity. The Big Bang theory is currently the most popular scientific creation theory, as it has passed a number of experimental tests, including measurements of the anisotropy of the cosmic background radiation, that could not have been known at the time the theory was first proposed.
Most modern atheists hold that the universe came into existence a finite time ago through purely natural causes.
Belief that a supreme being created the universe does not require adoption of any particular view on the issue of evolution; see creationism for further discussion.
See also:
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump