Digital Continent Digital Continent_Template amended | Page 23

demonstrable by reason alone. Not only was eternal creation possible but our particular universe
was in fact eternal and could be proven to be so. Avicenna, for example, maintained that creation
never begun and that the universe had always existed. He considered the universe as created in
the sense that it depended for its existence upon God, the Necessary Being. However, in sharp
contrast to the prevalent Christian view, Avicenna held that God produced the world not freely
but out of necessity. This was clearly problematic for Christian philosophers, especially since
“the Church had reaffirmed her traditional teaching in clear and precise terms at the Fourth
Lateran Council in 1215: God had through His omnipotence created the world out of nothing at
the beginning of time.” 31
Moses Maimonides’ treatise Dux Dubitantium influenced most Latin scholastics. While
the eternity of the world was not central to Maimonides’ treatise, he was concerned with proper
understanding of the Scriptures. “He felt it was a mistake to base a proof of God’s existence on
31
Noone, "The Originality,” 278.
Page 13 of 62