When we think of creation of all things from nothing we think of something that happened in the past. We think we are here because of this past act of God. We forget that religion says that is far from adequate. It points out that God has to keep creating to keep us here. The idea is that we came from nothing so if God died or lost his power (he cannot but this is hypothetical) all would go back to nothing. This amounts to repeated creation. There is a creation every moment. This fresh creation matters more than any past.
Science however says that the universe needs no creating and is just there. It is a brute fact. The downside of creation is that you have no way of knowing if anything really existed a moment ago. Perhaps God just gave us a ready-made universe.
With creation the universe is just a seeming continuation of the one that existed a moment ago. As it would revert to nothing if God just stopped, he has to actually act to make it now. So it is indeed a seeming continuation and not a real one.
Science cannot function if we don't even know if reality is a real continuation or a seeming one. This is cemented over if reality is indeed only a seeming one.
The idea then of a loving creator is not really good for us.
Religion says that we know evil exists for God the creator of all opposes it - and works only and totally for good.
That is why it refers to evil as a problem for those who believe in an all good and all loving God. It says that if we say there is no God because evil exists then that makes no sense - that we are left with no way of knowing what we mean by good. In that light we should not even think evil is worth discussing.
So if you deny God over the problem of evil you end up with a new problem - the problem of good.
Then there are two problems. The problem of evil. The problem of good.
The problem of good presupposes that God in himself is pure goodness. The creation is clearly not as good as God so God is seen as the one who makes all things out of nothing so the creation is separate from him. That is to say, he did not turn himself into the creation. That would be making not creating.
Creating is to make something without using anything to make it from.
If creation is absurd then the problem of good is going to collapse with it.
All agree that something cannot come from nothing. Believers agree - but they say it can if God commands it to. But God has nothing to act on. He does not need to create so he cannot have the power to create. God being self-sufficient does not need this power. So God simply wants creation to happen and does nothing to make it happen. And it happens. That is pure magic. If something can come from nothing without being worked on by God then it can come if there is no God at all. What has commanding to do with creating? Commanding is not making or causing. Commanding something to exist is not creating. If something appears that is down to luck not to God. Think of it this way, to cause means to change. God cannot change nothing into something for there isn't anything there to change. Theologians do admit they do not mean what we normally mean by saying God caused the universe. But that is playing with words.
The fall of the creation doctrine means the fall of any notion that God helps with the problem of good. The believers regard the problem of evil as a blessing for it means God is condemning and hating evil and fighting it. That goes too. Paradoxically you have to resort to the evils of lying and magic in defence of good and God which shows they are not really good after all.
The doctrine of creation cannot be a basis for the problem of good for it is not a good doctrine.
APPENDIX - WHY RELIGIOUS DOCTRINES OF CREATION BY GOD ARE TOO BIASED TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY
Projection, Paradox, and the Illusion of a "Good" God
Humans don’t just believe in God — they often project themselves onto God.
Their values, fears, desires, and biases get wrapped in divine authority. God becomes not a mystery, but a mirror. And once that projection is reified — treated as an actual, knowable being — something dangerous happens: people begin to justify themselves through the God they've imagined.
This becomes especially clear when people encounter paradox in religion.
We often hear that paradoxes are signs of divine depth — that it’s okay when things don’t make sense, because God’s ways are higher. But we must be careful. A true paradox is not just nonsense wrapped in mysticism. It's a situation where something appears self-contradictory, but actually contains a deeper logic, or exposes a flaw in our assumptions.
But if we’re not careful, we start accepting contradictions as if they were paradoxes.
"God is creator"-and yet we hold that something cannot come from nothing
“God is love” — and yet eternal torture exists.
“God is just” — and yet injustice thrives, even blessed by His name.
“God is good” — even when evil is done in faith, and goes unpunished.
When these contradictions arise, instead of resolving them, people often project coherence onto them. They fill in the gap with what they want to be true: “There must be a reason. It’s a paradox.” But often, it’s not. It’s just contradiction. And projection steps in to sustain the illusion.
This confusion allows people to commit evil while believing they are righteous — because their imagined version of God still approves.
And worse, it leads to a disturbing outcome: a God being described as “good” must be viewed as complicit in evil, or outright indifferent — and yet still worshipped. Why? Because the paradox must somehow "make sense," even when it doesn't.
People project coherence onto chaos. They sanctify contradiction by calling it divine mystery.
In the end, many religious paradoxes aren't paradoxes at all — just contradictions mistaken for them, supported by projection and accepted without question. And this confusion isn’t innocent: it shapes how people justify harm, explain suffering, and imagine God.
We must learn to tell the difference. Otherwise, faith becomes a mirror of ourselves, and paradox becomes a shield for everything we refuse to confront.