in its primary import, signifies the bringing into being something which did not before exist. The term is therefore generally applied to the original production of the materials out of which the visible world was composed. It is also used, in a secondary or subordinate sense, to denote those subsequent operations of the Deity upon the matter so produced, by which the whole system of nature, and all the primitive orders of things, received their form, qualities, and laws.

For the alleged discrepancies between the results of geology and the account of the creation in Genesis, see Theology and Geology.