How did God create things?
If one believes that God created "things" as is taught, then perhaps it is incumbent upon the inquirer to ask God how He did it. Neither science nor religion can supply any fine detail as regards the method in which Divine power gave rise to the earth, the creatures on it, and to man himself. Only generalities can be gathered. Certainly God, in his omnipotence, could have merely willed everything into existence. No proof is needed for that. Only faith.

If one wishes to know the details in the truth, and discover them here on this side of the veil instead of having to wait to cross over to find out, there are two paths one might walk toward the light of knowledge. One is to follow a religious route and seek inspired answers in detail. Read, listen to speakers, ask questions and beseech His help. The other path is the one that investigates the way in which the natural world works. Use that gift of intellect that He has so generously served up. If God is the Creator, wouldn't He have the option of using natural methods to advance His plan? Perhaps some truth can be found by walking that path. And, because the two paths lead to the same place (and have yet to show divergence - the braying of a few zealots aside), some bold adventurers may even trek onward with a foot on each one.

Answer

We dont know.

Answer

The question assumes that God was the creator, so we should look for an answer in the Bible. There are 3 biblical sources of information on the creation of the world: 2 in Genesis and a fragmentary one in Psalms. Because the third one is fragmentary, I will ignore it in favour of (1) Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a ; and Genesis 2:4b to 2:15.

- First Genesis account

In Genesis 1:1 to 2:4a ( up to first sentence of 2:4) there was a pre-existing watery chaos. The ocean was already present and a wind moved across the surface. The seas rested on the dry land, which appeared on day 3 when God gathered the waters together. The order of creation was as follows:

(Day 1) light (day); (2) the firmament, which was believed to separate the waters of the heavens from the lower waters; (3) By gathering the lower waters in one place the land appeared. Grasses and trees; (4) sun; moon and stars - the lights in the firmament; (5) fish, land creatures and fowl; (6) man, both male and female. Notice that the light of day was not yet understood to have originated from the sun, although the sun was universally understood to rule the day. That is why it was possible to have grass and trees before the sun was created.

- Second Genesis account

Genesis 2:4b to 2:15 is actually the older account in the Judaic religion and says that there was pre-existing dry land, but Yahweh had yet to make it rain for plants to grow. A spring arose and God took some moist clay and made Adam.
The King James Version contains a translation that is so obscure that few probably try to understand it fully. However, there are clearer translations that are also closer to the original Hebrew, one being the (Catholic) New American Bible which provides a clearer translation of the original Hebrew verses 2:4-6:

Such is the story of the heavens and the earth at their creation. At the time when the LORD God made the earth and the heavens - while as yet there was no field shrub on earth and no grass of the field had sprouted, for the LORD God had sent no rain upon the earth and there was no man to till the soil, but a stream was welling up out of the earth and was watering all the surface of the ground ...

The order of creation in the second creation story is that God made man before he created the creatures in his domain. There is no mention at all of God creating the sun, moon and stars.

- Man

In the first account, man (both male and female) were created together as the last creations, on the sixth day. There is no explanation of how they were made, but it seems implied that more than just two persons were created.

In the second account, a man (male) seems to be the first thing that God created - afterwards he made plants and animals. God made the man (Adam) out of moist dirt and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. He then made each animal in turn because Adam needed company. Finally, he made Eve from a rib that he removed from Adam.

- Summary

Both Genesis accounts make it clear that not everything was created by God. And in both cases, the order in which creation took place no longer makes sense.

The second account is older and more primitive than the first. In this, the second account, God could not make man from nothing - he needed moist soil to start with. In the same way, God could not make Eve from nothing, but needed a rib from Adam, although why he could not just use some more moist earth is not explained.

More information can be found in Anchor Bible Series: Genesis (Speiser) and Middle Eastern Mythology (Hooke).

According to what we can read in the Bible he merely spoke them into existance.

 

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