میر سعید موسوی کریمی

SUBJECT AND OBJECTIVES : The Big Bang theory and the standard cosmological models based on it imply the world’s temporal finitude. The temporally finite universe, most physicists believe, must have been created out of nothing. In order to avoid the theological and metaphysical implications of such an idea, the most important scenarios that have been proposed are: (1) The universe is not temporally finite, but rather is pre-eternal; (2) The creation of the universe out of nothing can be explained purely physically; (3) There is no correlation between the temporal finitude of the universe and having a temporal beginning, so the universe always existed; (4) The creation of the universe as a brute fact is a spontaneous uncaused origination ex nihilo. METHOD AND FINDING : In this essay, I aim to discuss and criticize scenario (2). To reach this aim, two important physical models, i.e: The Tryon-Vilenkin and Hawking-Hartle models, which have been formulated based on quantum fluctuation, will be explained. It will be shown that they are indeed explaining the creation of the universe, not out of nothing, but from something. CONCLUSION : No physical theory can ever explain the creation of the universe out of nothing by appealing to the physical phenomena or the laws of nature. The outcome of the paper is that creatio ex nihilo of the universe out of nothing can only be explained metaphysically by appealing to some external causes.

The idea of “ creatio ex nihilo ” entered the arena of natural science with the advent of modern cosmology in the mid-twentieth century. This idea, that is, the creation of the universe out of nothing, seems to be a consequence of the widely accepted Big Bang Theory which implies the temporal finitude of the world. In order to avoid the theological and metaphysical implications of such an idea, some scenarios and scientific models have been proposed. According to one of the scenarios, the creation ex nihilo of the world is a causal physical phenomenon, and, hence, can be explained scientifically by appealing to the laws of nature.In this essay, I aim to discuss and criticize this idea.To fulfill this aim, in the introduction some achievements of modern cosmology will be very briefly introduced. In the next three sections, the notions of existence and nothingness, creation,scientific explanation, and singularity will be explored.It will be shown that what philosophers mean by these notions isradically different fromthe naïve ideas of some scientists. Hence, applying these notions to physical models of the origin of the universe is completely misleading.This work concludes that no scientific explanation appealing to the laws of nature can possibly explainthe creation of the universe out of nothing.

SUBJECT AND OBJECTIVES: Mystical literature has provided an extensive area in which the nature of religious language, as a common topic of philosophy and religion, can be considered from a mystical point of view as well. In the meantime, the large collection of “Masnavi-ye Ma'navi” is a paradigm example of mystical texts that helps investigate the views of its creator, Jalalu-’d-din Mohammad Rumi on the nature of religious language. Rumi (Mawlawi, Mawlana) is one of the greatest Iranian poets and probably one of the most renewed poets in world literature. METHOD AND FINDING: This paper, which was conducted with the method of qualitative research and documentary review of Rumi poems, is organized as follows: First, the seven main theories about the nature of religious language will be explained briefly. Then, some paradigm examples of “Masnavi” in which Rumi has expressed his views about religious language will be interpreted. Finally, it will be shown that, according to Rumi, religious language is mainly symbolic, then analogous, followed by univocal, and lastly equivocal. CONCLUSION: In the conclusion of the research, there will be a brief explanation of the reason behind the aforementioned order, which shows why Muslim mystics, as one of the main four groups of Muslim scholars, have chosen such a view about religious language.