God And Empty Space

Empty space, like the laws of logic, would exist in the absence of God and possesses a necessity not in itself, like logical axioms and other logical truths, but a necessity reliant on reason.  Without logical truths, nothing could be true, but it is true by necessity that there would still be vast, unoccupied space where matter could go even if God had never created anything physical.  Even if God ceased to exist or had never existed, there would still be this nonphysical place that could have held matter if only a deity had brought it into being, though it too relies on logical possibility and necessity for its own existence.  Space is certainly more fundamental to reality than the universe itself in one sense, and as diverse as the physical cosmos is (at least on the level of our subjective perception), even it in its entirety it is nowhere near the size of what would otherwise be the empty space that stretches on endlessly.

The universe would have to be omnipresent, like reason and God, to match metaphysical space in this regard.  This means it could not expand, for there would be no unfilled space for it to expand into.  Still, as the direct or indirect handiwork of the uncaused cause, the universe is in many ways a demonstration of sheer power from the supreme being.  Though it cannot create, change, or nullify logical truths, this God can bring matter forth or manipulate it in any way that is logically possible.  Matter, then, is dependent on reason (as are all things) for its very possibility and more, on space to even have a place to exist, and on God for the act of creation that established its existence.

It is empty space, and not this majestic cosmos with its behaviors and structures that stretch from a galactic scale to a seeming quantum one, that would still be in existence had God never created.  The Bible itself is consistent with this rationalistically verifiable truth about metaphysics.  Genesis 1:1 only says that God created "the heavens and the earth," progressively shaping them in what the text would suggest are consecutive days, even if there were millions or billions of years between the initial creation of matter and the specific events of each of the subsequent seven creation days (whether they were literal days or not).  Nowhere does Genesis say God created space itself, as opposed to outer space, and it would be demonstrably false in this regard if it said so.

John 1's expanded details about the creation of matter are also consistent with all of this, adding that Jesus created along with Yahweh and that "without him nothing was made that has been made" (John 1:3).  Neither part of the Bible claims that nothing at all existed before creation, and they even clearly say that both Yahweh and Christ preceded creation, with the laws of logic and empty space being the only default existing things.  Still, only logical truths exist in themselves without any dependence on something else even for their possibility, unlike even empty space or the divine creator himself, supreme among all beings for being more metaphysically fundamental than any being or creature of any kind.  To emphasize the point once again, without God, empty space would still be devoid of the universe in all of its expansiveness and complexity, a potential, nonphysical storage area whose function is not being utilized.

If metaphysical space, however--not the outer space of the physical universe with its nebulas and asteroids, but the nonphysical, infinite area in which matter is or could be held--has a quality that even God does not in that it is by nature an uncreated thing that would exist in his absence, does this make space more foundational or otherwise significant than God?  First, the laws of logic, more central and grand than space, are more fundamental than all and are necessarily true in themselves.  Even God could not exist and nothing could be true about God without logical axioms and more already being true; they alone do not depend on anything else for their veracity and very existence.  Space could not exist, and nothing would or could be true about, it if it was not logically possible or necessary.  This is true of God as well, but God is a conscious being, a being that can create and experience and, if it has a moral nature, that grounds objective goodness and beauty themselves.

God is thus more metaphysically significant all around, with only the laws of logic being more central to reality (they dictate and constrain all things and could not have been any more foundational or vital).  Metaphysical space is only a prerequisite to the existence of matter, not to the God who created matter and could dispell it with a thought if only he willed.  It also lacks the utter importance of logical truths that it ironically shares uncreated existence with.  Empty space, as an uncreated and logically necessary existent that is necessary in light of reason and not in itself as is true of reason, does paradoxically have a quality that God does not--but God eclipses it nonetheless.  Oh, how the nature and nuances of reality, both when it comes to strictly logical truths, general metaphysics, and Biblical theology, are not what so many would expect them to be!