Single Idea 5977

[catalogued under 27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 3. The Beginning]

Full Idea

The fact that heaven and earth are there proclaims that they were created, for they are subject to change and variation; ..the meaning of change and variation is that something is there which was not there before.

Gist of Idea

Heaven and earth must be created, because they are subject to change

Source

Augustine (Confessions [c.398], XI.04)

Book Reference

Augustine: 'Confessions', ed/tr. Pine-Coffin,R.S. [Penguin 1961], p.256


A Reaction

It seems possible that the underlying matter is eternal (as in various conservation laws, such as that of energy), and that all change is in the form rather than the substance.