The principle of causality can be understood as the idea that every event is

necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature 1. With
the eruption of the worldview brought on by the quantum theories, the classical principle
of strict causality was, to a certain degree, rejected. In order to respond to the paradoxes
of atomic physics, old and cherished ideas were to be renounced, including the idea
that natural phenomena obey exact laws the principle of casuality 2. It must be said,
however, that not all physicists conceded this point: Max Planck and Albert Einstein
were drawn close together in opposition to the new wave 3. Whats more, some
physicists, most notably David Bohm, have created an alternative interpretation known as
the hidden variable theory, which restores determinism and definiteness to microreality4, and likewise the validity of perennial principles such as causality.
That said, we must be quick to clarify the idea of causality. Divine causality
and created causality radically differ in kind and not only in degree 5. Hawking himself
once wrote: the usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot
answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe. Why
does the universe go to all the bother of existing?6 Whether the principle of causality is
useful for certain models of physics or not is a different matter than whether we can
dispose or not of such principle on the metaphysical or theological level. Thus, if we are
to accept the rejection of causality on a physical letter (not a given position), I believe, we
may continue to speak of causality because we are speaking on two different levels.
This distinction allows us to recognize two dangers: that of wanting to derive
creation ex nihilo from the laws of nature7 Take, for example, Pope Pius XIIs
questionable statement: Creation, there, in time, and therefore, a Creator; and
consequently, God8. The other is the applying metaphysical or theological categories to
physical ones. For example, some have drawn analogies between the creation of virtual
particles from vacuums as a sort of evidence that things can begin to exist without a
cause. Tipler and Barrow responder however saying: It is, of course, somewhat
inappropriate to call the origin of a bubble Universe in a fluctuation of the vacuum
'creation ex nihilo,' for the quantum mechanical vacuum state has a rich structure which
resides in a previously existing substratum of space-time, [...] Clearly, a true 'creation ex
1 HOEFER,C.,CausalDeterminsim,inZALTA,E.N.,ed.,StanfordEncyclopediaofPhilosophy,
2010Spring2010Edition,http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2010/entries/determinismcausal.
2 AGAR,J.,Scienceinthe20thCenturyandBeyond,17aprile2013Kindle,126.
3 Ibid.,128.
4 HOEFER,C.
5 INTERNATIONALTHEOLOGICALCOMMISSION,CommunionandStewardship:HumanPersonsCreated
intheImageofGod[accesso1.8.2015],
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20040723_communion
stewardship_en.html.

6 HAWKING,S.W.SAGAN,C.,ABriefHistoryofTime:FromtheBigBangtoBlackHoles,Torontoetc.
1marzo1988,174.
7 HALVORSON,H.KRAGH,H.,CosmologyandTheology,inZALTA,E.N.,ed.,StanfordEncyclopedia
ofPhilosophy,2013Fall2013.
8 PONTIFICIAACCADEMIADELLESCIENZE,PapalAddressestothePontificalAcademyofSciences1917
2002andtothePontificalAcademyofSocialSciences19942002,VaticanCity2003,141.

nihilo' would be the spontaneous generation of everything--space-time, the quantum

mechanical vacuum, matter--at some time in the past.9.

9 BARROW,J.D.TIPLER,F.J.,TheAnthropicCosmologicalPrinciple,Oxford25agosto19881edition.