World

The world is a living creature fashioned by a divine craftsman who looked to the eternal Forms as his model.

The world is eternal and uncreated, moved by an unmoved mover who is its final cause but did not make it.

The world is an accidental concurrence of atoms in the void, without design, without gods, without purpose.

The world emanates from the One in a continuous overflow of being; matter is the lowest degree of reality, not an independent substance.

God created the world from nothing, freely and in time; the world is good but fallen, and time itself began with creation.

The world is created by God from nothing but could, for all reason shows, have existed eternally; that it began in time is known only by faith.

The world is an extended substance governed by mechanical laws; God set it in motion, but all natural phenomena follow from matter and motion alone.

The world is governed by universal mathematical laws, but the order of the system points to the design of an intelligent Creator.

The world as we know it is structured by the mind's own categories; whether the universe is finite or infinite, created or eternal, reason cannot determine.

The world is the self-manifestation of Spirit in history; nature and mind are not opposed but are stages in the Absolute's coming to self-knowledge.