In a comment on our article titled "’Dark Knight’ Evokes Interesting Philosophical, Theological ideas," Mike Tooney presents some highly enlightening thoughts on what the act of creation truly requires, and what it says about human ambitions and abilities.
Creation, Destruction, and Human Ambition
By Mike Tooney
"He is not a creator, however, but exclusively a destroyer."
I think we use the term "creator" rather too loosely these days—as in "Chris Carter, creator of ‘The X-Files.’"
I think a case can be made for the lack of true creativity in any human endeavor–a grim assessment, I know.
To truly create involves starting with nothing ("no thing") and producing something.
"Creators" throughout history have never been able to do that.
They have had to start with preexisting materials and/or ideas formed in their brains (which are themselves also preexisting materials) and rearrange them into something "new."
Like mankind, Satan himself was a created being and by definition incapable of God-like creativity; he could only rearrange what God had already created, in his case destructively. Like Satan, the Joker can’t create or even uncreate; he can only disarrange the created order. Satan cannot dissolve a single atomic particle of God’s creation, only cause chaos in the cosmos; similarly, the Joker can only threaten to destabilize the established social order—what could be called the "cosmopolis" (the "world of people")—which is admittedly, from the purely human perspective, bad enough, but from God’s perspective no real threat.
Broadly speaking, true creation is impossible for humankind.
Physics, chemistry, and biology all deal with preexistent materials; rearranging matter and energy may produce something "new" to human experience, but never something out of nothing.
The time for creation ab initio has passed and may never return.
If a scientist claims to have produced "life" or a new type of matter, don’t believe him. He’s just gratifying his ego, indulging in a fantasy just as strong but diametrically opposite to the Joker’s. Neither the scientist nor the Joker can ever achieve such goals.
But I’ve gone off on a tangent, I see.
Leave it to you find unexpected insights in a Hollywood film of which even the producers may be unaware.
“Human actions are the very image of creation ex nihilo.” I can’t see how. And does that include ALL human actions–genocide, for instance?
“Our greatest action is to form or bring good things into being which did not exist before.” I return to my original thesis: that nothing humankind can fabricate is true creation, only a rearrangement of preexisting materials. Mankind can deploy, disarrange, deconstruct, deflect, and deform every God-made thing, but he cannot synthesize something from nothing. (Indeed, “synthesis” necessarily implies combining two or more things that already exist; “genesis” necessarily implies starting with nothing–and that includes thoughts as well as matter/energy.)
“… our actions are contingent, but that is what images are.” True enough, but God’s actions are contingent only on His own sovereign will activated by love; He wills that all should be saved, but coerces no one into it. The world we see around us is at least one step removed from the empyrean realm described in Scripture; the image of a thing is not the equivalent of that thing.
Too bad Schaeffer changed his mind; he was right to start with.
“Augustine”: Is that Augustine of Hippo, the Neoplatonist theologian (“studier of God”)? The guy who believed the Bible was wrong about six days of creation? The man who wrote: ”Salus extra ecclesiam non est”? The church father who believed that Mary never lost her virginity, and that sex was automatically evil?
Or do you mean Al Augustine of Toledo, who once bummed a double sawbuck off me and never paid it back. (Are you reading this, Al?)
Best regards,
Mike Tooney
Ah, Francis Schaeffer–one of my very favorite writers! Thanks for mentioning him.
I appreciate your thoughts on this, and quite agree that having the right perspective is all.
The late Francis Schaeffer once held back from using the word creator, also for the reason that there is only one Creator.
He changed his mind and I can see why.
Human actions are the very image of creation ex nihilo. Our greatest action is to form or bring good things into being which did not exist before. True, our actions are contingent, but that is what images are.
As such, the limit of creativity is respected by not conflating the original with the imitation (an quisquam se faciendi erit artifex?–Augustine). Severing the two is a terrible alienation.
My apologies–I’m not familiar “Dark Night” and haven’t read the earlier post.
Sam:
Thanks for featuring my letter; it was dashed off in something of a rush. I would add one phrase to it, though:
“The time for creation ab initio and ex nihilo has passed and may never return.”
Best regards,
Mike