Originally Posted by andrewcriddle

I found an interesting passage in Aquinas' Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, concerning the Six Days of Creation. (In Penguin Classics Thomas Aquinas Selected Writings).

Aquinas is discussing whether the World was created instantantaneously by God or in a literal 144 hours. He gives as his opinion that although the text of Scripture supports creation in a literal six days, one should prefer to follow here the scientific/philosophical arguments in favour of instantaneous creation rather than the literal sense of Genesis.

Among the arguments for instantaneous creation given by Aquinas is that it is difficult to see how water and earth can have existed for several days before the creation of the heavenly bodies.

Andrew Criddle

Originally Posted by Malachi151

Yes, but Aquinas is hardly typical, nor representative of traditional Catholic views. The arguments he was making there, as with most cases, were rehashings of Aristotelean arguments.

Originally Posted by Malachi151

Yes, but Aquinas is hardly typical, nor representative of traditional Catholic views. The arguments he was making there, as with most cases, were rehashings of Aristotelean arguments.