Creation myth

An origin belief is any story or explanation that describes the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe (cosmogony). Such beliefs can be derived from many different venues including scientific investigation, metaphysical speculation, or religious belief. As with any set of beliefs, opinions regarding the validity of particular origins beliefs differ — points of view on these subjects vary widely.

Creation myths

File:Raven-bill reid.jpg

Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and The First Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth. The Raven represents the Trickster figure common to many mythologies. The work is in the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.

Origin beliefs commonly refer to creation myths — mytho-religious stories which explain the beginnings of the universe as a deliberate act of "creation" by a supreme being. However, "origin beliefs" may be generalized to include non-religious claims and theories based in contemporary science or philosophy—the steady state theory, origin of life and panspermia fall into this category.

The term creation myth may be seen as offensive when used to describe stories which are still believed today, as the term myth may suggest ideas which are absurd or fictional. These beliefs and stories need not be a literal account of actual events, but express what are perceived to be truths of a mystical, symbolic nature. Author Daniel Quinn notes that in this sense creation myths need not be religious in nature, and they have secular forms in modern cultures.

Many accounts of creation share broadly similar themes. Common motifs include the fractionation of the things of the world from a primordial chaos; the separation of the mother and father gods; land emerging from an infinite and timeless ocean; and so on.

Some American religious groups assert that the Book of Genesis account of creation should be considered alongside, supersede, or even replace scientific facts, discoveries and accounts of the development of life and the cosmos. This assertion has been proposed in some American school districts' teaching agendas and textbooks, most recently in Kansas and Georgia. (see Creation and evolution in public education) Teaching the Genesis creation story as a factual, historical account has met with legal resistence from the American scientific community and from secularists. (see creation-evolution controversy)

Scientific observations

Science, strictly speaking, deals only with observable phenomena. Anything that cannot be observed (either directly or indirectly) is, by definition, not a subject of scientific investigation. Scientists look for patterns among observations, which give rise to hypotheses to be tested against further observations. If a hypothesis passes these tests, it is then called a scientific theory, which again is subject to amendment or rejection based on new observations.

Using verifiable observations science is able to measure some of the effects of past events of evolution of the early universe (for instance, via the microwave echo of the big bang) and interpret these observations within a scientific framework. By extrapolating the current observed state of affairs into the past, scientists seek to construct an accurate picture of the past. Those who are strict adherents to philosophical naturalism believe that such is all that is possible to know. This is not a universally accepted idea by any means, and there are many who promote other paths to knowledge which are not characterised as scientific inquiry.

In scientific theories supported by the mainstream scientific community, the universe and life is described as developing through solely natural causes, and the progress of science is hoped to continue to improve the explanation of things and events in the past.

Mainstream scientific theories

Graphical rendering of the expansion of the universe due to the Big Bang with the paradoxical singularity at the origin of time.

The Big Bang, the dominant cosmological theory about the early development and current shape and evolution of the universe, is supported by a collection of observed facts. It places origin of the Universe at about 13.7 +/-0.5 billion years ago. This widely accepted scientific dating contradicts many religious accounts of creation - for example, certain creationist accounts consider Universe to be only a few thousand years old. The preconditions for the Big Bang are currently a subject of developing theories (e.g. cosmic inflation theory).

The solar nebula which coalesced out of gas and dust about 4.3 billion years ago is considered the best planetary system formation model available for explaining the origin of the solar system. The Earth-moon system was formed out of this and there is evidence that the two bodies were formed after a collision between the proto-Earth and a Mars-sized object.

The modern evolutionary synthesis is the dominant biological theory about the origin of human life on Earth. This combines Charles Darwin's theory of the evolution of species by natural selection with Gregor Mendel's theory of genetics as the basis for biological inheritance.

The origin of life itself on Earth is more contested. Scientific conjectures, hypotheses, and observations pertaining to this topic are detailed in the article on the origin of life.

It should be pointed out that the above scientific theories are not ex nihilo beliefs, that is they do not start from nothing. They provide no mechanism for the origin ex nihilo of energy or matter. In this respect they are unlike the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beliefs which assert that the universe, Earth, and life originated in a unique creative act by God, or scientific speculations which propose an original cause of some other type. For a more precise understanding of modern science's concepts concerning "matter from vacuum" or "something from nothing" see virtual particle and vacuum energy.

Beliefs grounded in philosophical naturalism

Atomism is an ancient Greek philosophy supported by Democritus, Epicurus and Lucretius which held that events in the universe were not the consequence of any act by a Creator, but rather was the result of atoms moving about randomly. This philosophy was reformulated as determinism after the Enlightenment and still enjoys a following by some scientists, though the character of deterministic interactions in nature involving quantum mechanics is an outstanding question.

The Anthropic Principle and its more controversial derivative the Strong Anthropic Principle are explanations for the existence of humanity with respect to the conditions of the universe that we inhabit. The principle is used as a guide for some scientists to determine certain physical laws that have necessarily resulted in the existence of ourselves. In some sense, the Anthropic Principle is an empirical truism while the Strong Anthropic Principle is an idea that may defy falsification.

Deism was a popular belief of many scientists and philosophers of the post-enlightenment, including Newton, Leibnitz, and Thomas Jefferson that kept the formality of a creator, but allowed creation to function solely based on natural laws that were established at the time of creation. In this formulation, every interaction was completely deterministic.

The Many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the idea of parallel universes are ways of resolving questions of causality and determinism in the framework of probabilistic interactions. In this speculative interpretation, the universe that we inhabit is one of many possible universes that all simultaneously exist, but are independent of each other, and each universe bifurcates with every quantum mechanical "observation".

Creation ex nihilo

Creation ex nihilo (Latin: out of nothing) is at odds with our everyday experiences, in that nothing spontaneously comes into (or vanishes from) existence but instead matter and energy merely change forms. However, quantum mechanics allows for energy to be spontaneously created from the vacuum as long as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is not violated (usually, by the spontaneous annihilation of the created particles, e.g. the Lamb shift). This may give a means by which creation ex nihilo can be achieved, but nevertheless we are not currently able to explain creation ex nihilo, nor even to prove that it is required. Julian Barbour suggests that reality simply terminates on nothing at the alpha point, as a brute fact, in the same way that England abuts the sea at Land's End without requiring an explanation.

An explanation advanced by some theists is that God created the Universe out of nothing; some creationists hold also that life was created in something like its present state of variety, so that organisms were fully speciated from the beginning. While there are various attempts to square these ideas with available evidence and currently accepted theory, their explanatory utility, predictive power, and scientific standing are questioned by critics of creationism. Many scientists in the relevant fields, theist and otherwise, do not regard notions like divine power or divine will as playing genuine scientific roles in cosmology or biology.

The scientifically prevalent view is that life originated on Earth, although other views hold that organic compounds from comets may have been an important source of material for the appearance of life. The Miller-Urey experiment showed that amino acids could arise from a type of primitive environment. Nevertheless, while scientific research on abiogenesis is ongoing, there is no consensus on how life began.

Religious creation beliefs

Several religions have creation stories, some of which account for the existence and present form of the Universe by the act of creation by a supreme being or the Creator God. Most of these accounts depict one or several gods fashioning things out of themselves, or from pre-existing material (for example chaos or prakriti).

The scholastic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for the most part speak of creation ex nihilo. This is typified, for example, by the assumption that the first verse of the Christian Bible ("In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth") indicates the only self-existent entity is God with all other things deriving from God. 2 Maccabees 7:28 indicates that this philosophy may have been a common Jewish understanding of creation: "I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not ...". Similar to this is the language found in the Book of Hebrews, which states, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear". Some (notably Augustine of Hippo) also hold that God is altogether outside of time and that time exists only within the created universe.

However, in these traditions, the belief that God gave shape to pre-existing things was not unheard of, and that idea became more fully articulated especially under the influence of Greek philosophy. In both Judaism and Christianity, belief in creation "from nothing" began to dominate the traditions sometime in the second century C.E., in part as a reaction against classical philosophy. The following story from the Talmud illustrates this:

A philosopher said to R. Gamiliel: Your God was a great craftsman, but he found himself good materials which assisted him: Tohu wa-Bohu, and darkness, and wind, and water, and the primeval deep. Said R. Gamiliel to him: May the wind be blown out of that man! Each material is referred to as created. Tohu wa-Bohu: "I make peace and create evil"; darkness: "I form the light and create darkness"; water: "Praise him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters" -- why? -- "For he commanded, and they were created"; wind: "For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and created the wind"; the primeval deep: "When there were no depths, I was brought forth". BR 1.9, Th-Alb:8

Departing from this tradition, some modern scholars have argued that these statements and all others are still susceptible to ambiguous interpretation, so that creation ex nihilo may not be clearly supported by ancient texts, including the Bible. They point out the similarities of the biblical account, to other ancient religious beliefs that the universe was created by God or the gods out of pre-existing matter, as opposed to "out of nothing". Some scholars see evidence that the biblical account, like other ancient religious views, presumes pre-existence of some kind of raw material, albeit without form: "Now the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the waters." God then fashions the disordered material, to create the world.

Joseph Campbell wrote extensively on the subject and considered creative mythology a means to reconcile the waking consciousness to the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of this universe as it is. In his book The Masks of God: Creative Mythology he explains that the retelling of the creation myth would render an interpretive total image of creation to be known to contemporary culture. Renewing the act of the experience of creation the existence of adventure is renewed, “at once shattering and reintegrating the fixed already known, in the sacrificial creative fire of the becoming thing that is no thing at all but life, not as it will be or as it should be, as it was or as it never will be, but as it is, in depth, in process, here and now, inside and out.”

Limits to the ontology of creation

While many scenarios are proposed by religion and science to identify 'first cause' and the origin of creation (ontology), there are some fundamental limits to the knowledge of humankind that present a barrier to finding any definitive answer.

Post-modern philosophy currently holds that there is nothing that one can know for certain. Immanuel Kant's philosophy can be seen as a forerunner of this idea — that because we view the universe through the lens of the mind, which is 'shaped' by space, time, and the things embedded in space and time, it is not possible to see things-in-themselves (noumena) - the real objects that lie behind the subjective objects (phenomena) we recognise. If true, it is beyond the mind of humankind to perceive a condition that has no space or time. Many other philosophers, most recently Popper have all shown that there is precious little one can be sure of that would provide a starting point to determine the 'first cause' that led to creation.

Modern physics is an empirical science based on experiment and observation that characterizes how things happen through scientific theories and physical laws, but ultimately does not answer the question of 'why' things happen at the foundational (ontological) level. For example, the existence of the Big Bang is not predicated on a reason for its occurrence. What's more, the modern physics breaks down at the Planck time/Planck length, where both the influences of quantum mechanics and gravity are required to be combined in order to characterize the interactions that occur. As such, there is no model available that has been tested at this level, and so any attempt to theoretically probe beyond this regime in search of a more fundamental appreciation of the nature of the universe is hampered.

Religion has philosophy and oral testimony available to it to demonstrate a God or a separate "first cause" that called the universe into existence. As such it is dependent on faith in God or the specific "first cause" to which it ascribes.

Creation within various belief systems

Some creation beliefs are part of a named system of beliefs and are labeled as such below. Some creation beliefs seem to be better characterized according to time and/or place as they are part of a human culture in a time/place.

Ainu

The Ainu people of Hokkaido recount the demiurge with a cosmology consisting of six heavens and six hells where gods, demons, and animals lived. Demons lived in the lower heavens. Amongst the stars and the clouds lived the lesser gods. In highest heaven lived Kamui, the creator God, and his servants. His realm was surrounded by a mighty metal wall and the only entrance was through a great iron gate.

Kamui made this world as a vast round ocean resting on the backbone of an enormous trout. This fish sucks in the ocean and spits it out again to make the tides; when it moves it causes earthquakes.

One day Kamui looked down on the watery world and decided to make something of it. He sent down a water wagtail to do the work. By fluttering over the waters with its wings and by trampling the sand with its feet and beating it with its tail, the wagtail created patches of dry land. In this way islands were raised to float upon the ocean.

When the animals who lived up in the heavens saw how beautiful the world was, they begged Kamui to let them go and live on it, and he did. But Kamui also made many other creatures especially for the world. The first people, the Ainu, had bodies of earth, hair of chickweed, and spines made from sticks of willow. Kamui sent Aioina, the divine man, down from heaven to teach the Ainu how to hunt and to cook.

Apache

In the beginning nothing existed, only darkness was everywhere. Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc sat a small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above. When he looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He looked down and it became a sea of light. To the east, he created yellow streaks of dawn. To the west, tints of many colours appeared everywhere. There were also clouds of different colours. He also created three other gods: a little girl, a Sun-God and a small boy. Then he created celestial phenomena, the winds, the tarantula, and the earth from the sweat of the four gods mixed together in the Creator's palms, from a small round, brown ball, not much larger than a bean. The world was expanded to its current size by the gods kicking the small brown ball until it expanded. Creator told Wind to go inside the ball and to blow it up. The tarantula, the trickster character, spun a black cord and, attaching it to the ball, crawled away fast to the east, pulling on the cord with all his strength. Tarantula repeated with a blue cord to the south, a yellow cord to the west, and a white cord to the north. With mighty pulls in each direction, the brown ball stretched to immeasurable size--it became the earth! No hills, mountains, or rivers were visible; only smooth, treeless, brown plains appeared. Then the Creator created the rest of the beings and features of the Earth.

Australian Aboriginal

There is no single creation story among Aboriginal peoples, who have a diverse mythology. Some traditions hold that the Earth was created by one of the gods of the Dreamtime, others that particular creatures were created by particular gods or spirit ancestors.

Babylonian

The Babylonian creation myth is recounted in the "Epic of Creation" also known as the Enûma Elish. The Mesopotamian "Epic of Creation" dates to the late second millennium B.C.E.

In the poem, the god Marduk (or Assur in the Assyrian versions of the poem) is created to defend the divine beings from an attack plotted by the ocean goddess Tiamat. The hero Marduk offers to save the gods only if he is appointed their supreme unquestioned leader and is allowed to remain so even after the threat passes. The gods agree to Marduk's terms. Marduk challenges Tiamat to combat and destroys her. He then rips her corpse into two halves with which he fashions the Earth and the heavens. Marduk then creates the calendar, organizes the planets, stars and regulates the moon, sun, and weather. The gods pledge their allegiance to Marduk and he creates Babylon as the terrestrial counterpart to the realm of the gods. Marduk then destroys Tiamat's husband, Kingu using his blood to create mankind so that they can do the work of the gods. (Sources, Foster, B.R., From Distant Days : Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. 1995, Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press. vi, 438 p., Bottéro, J., Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. 2004, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. x, 246 p., Jacobsen, T., The Treasures of Darkness : A History of Mesopotamian Religion. 1976, New Haven: Yale University Press. 273.)

Bantu

The Bantu account of demiurge is as follows. Originally, the Earth was nothing but water and darkness. Mbombo, the white giant ruled over this chaos. One day, he felt a terrible pain in his stomach, and vomited the sun, the moon, and the stars. The sun shone fiercely and water steamed up in clouds. Gradually, the dry hills appeared. Mbombo vomited again, this time the trees came out of his stomach, and animals, and people , and many other things: the first woman, the leopard, the eagle, the anvil, monkey Fumu, the first man, the firmament, medicine, and lighting. Nchienge, the woman of the waters, lived in the East. She had a son, Woto, and a daughter, Labama. Woto was the first king of the Bakuba.

Buddhist

Buddhism generally ignores the question regarding the origin of life. The Buddha regarding the origin of life has said "Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it." AN IV.77, and in regard to ignoring the question of the origin of life the Buddha has said "And why are they undeclared by me? Because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life. They do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are undeclared by me." MN 63. The Buddha also compared the question of the origin of life - as well as many other metaphysical questions - to the parable of the poison arrow: a man is shot with a poison arrow, but before the doctor pulls it out, he wants to know who shot it (arguing the existence of God), where the arrow came from (where the universe and/or God came from) why that person shot it (why God created the universe), etc. If the man keeps asking these questions before the arrow is pulled out, the Buddha reasoned, he will die before he gets the answers. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions like the origin of life, and more concerned with the goal of saving oneself and other beings from suffering by attaining Enlightenment, or Nirvana.

Cherokee

In the beginning, there was just water. All the animals lived above it and the sky was overcrowded. They were all curious about what was beneath the water and one day Dayuni'si, the water beetle, volunteered to explore it. He explored the surface but could not find any solid ground. He explored below the surface to the bottom and all he found was mud which he brought back to the surface. After collecting the mud, it began to grow in size and spread outwards until it became the Earth as we know it.

After all this had happened, one of the animals attached this new land to the sky with four strings. The land was still too wet so they sent the great buzzard from Galun'lati to prepare it for them. The buzzard flew down and by the time that he reached the Cherokee land he was so tired that his wings began to hit the ground. Wherever they hit the ground a mountain or valley formed.

The animals then decided that it was too dark, so they made the sun and put it on the path in which it still runs today.

Chinese

Main article: Chinese creationism

There are five major views of creation in China:

• The first, and most consistent historically, is that no myth exists. This is not to say there were none existing at all, only that there is no evidence showing an attempt to explain the world's origin.

• The second view is very indirect. It is merely based on a question of a dialog in an earlier reference. The idea in the question implies that the heavens and the earth separated from one another.

• The third view is the one perpetuated by Taoism by the nature of its philosophy. It appears "relatively" late in Chinese history. In it, Tao is described as the ultimate force behind the creation. With tao, nothingness gave rise to existence, existence gave rise to yin and yang, and yin and yang gave rise to everything. Due to the ambiguous nature of this myth, it could be compatible with the first myth (and therefore say nothing). But it could, like its antithesis, be explained in a way to better fit the modern scientific view of the creation of universe.

• The fourth view is the relatively late myth of Pangu. This was an explanation offered by Taoist monks hundreds of years after Laozi; probably around 200 CE. In this story, the universe begins as a cosmic egg. A god named Pangu, born inside the egg, broke it into two halves: The upper half became the sky, the lower half became the earth. As the god grew taller, the sky and the earth grew thicker and were separated further. Finally the god died and his body parts became different parts of the earth.

• The fifth view would be tribal accounts that vary widely and not necessarily connect to a system of belief.

Choctaw

The Choctaw who remain in Mississippi recount a narrative explanation of how they came to the land where they live now and of how Naniah Waiya Mound came to be. Chata and Chicksah, two brothers, led the original people from a land in the far west that had ceased to prosper. The people traveled for a long time, guided by a magical pole. Each night, when the people stopped to camp, the pole was placed in the ground and in the morning the people would travel in the direction in which the pole leaned.

After traveling for an extremely long time, they finally came to a place where the pole remained upright. In this place, they laid to rest the bones of their ancestors, which they had carried in buffalo sacks from the original land in the west. The mound grew out of that great burial. After the burial, the brothers discovered that the land could not support all the people. Chicksah took half the people and departed to the North and eventually became the Chickasaw tribe. Chatah and the others remained near the mound and are now known as the Choctaw.

Christian

Creation of Light, by Gustave Doré. The painting depicts a literal representation of Genesis 1:1 ("Let there be light").

Main articles: Creation (theology), Creation according to Genesis, and Creationism

According to the book of Genesis, God eternally pre-existed the created order. As Genesis' first recorded act in reference to the world we know today, "God created" (Gen. 1:1). All the created order, from the luminaries of the sky to the fish of the sea, to the mingling of dust and divine breath that is humankind (Heb. adam, covering both male and female humankind), were created by God to embrace and enjoy the optimal living environment that is earth. Man and woman were made to reflect God's authority, love and good government into the world as stewards, and to offer up the praises of creation back to God.

Unique in all the created order, humanity, male and female, are the sole bearers of the imago Dei, the image (Heb. tselem - as in a child in the image of a parent) of God among animate and inanimate creation. As image-bearers, human beings have a mandate to walk in community with God, community and care for one another, and as caretakers of this good world. Resisting the invitation to the "We" of community with God and one another, human beings chose to live in the "I" of individualism and self-actualization.

At this point in the Genesis origins narrative, human beings became, as Francis Shaeffer put it, "indisputably bent." This self-made isolation moves the human soul toward self-preservation and self-absorption. This "falling into shadow," has unleashed destructive patterns within and without the human race, and the need for a redemptive adam to choose to live a human life in community with God, thereby reversing the effects of the fall, was exposed.

In Christian belief, Jesus, the Christ of God, was the new adam sent to us "at the fullness of time." Humanity's search to return to the Eden of our origin will culminate in a new and amplified Eden in the age to come, manifest in a new heaven and a new earth.

On First Cause

References to God in the New Testament vary, however, overall they demonstrate an incorporation of the first cause. It should be noted, however, that the Christian conception of God, the holy trinity, is more complex. The following examples illustrate this:

Revelation 1:8 - I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end... that which is, which has been, and that which is yet to come, Almighty God.

John 1:1-4 - In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints believe that physical reality (space, matter and/or energy) is eternal, and therefore does not have an absolute origin. The Creator is an architect and organizer of pre-mortal matter and energy, who constructed the present universe out of the raw material (demiurge). In addition to the pre-mortal organization of the earth from existing matter, Joseph Smith taught that "there is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; we cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter." (Doctrine and Covenants 131:7,8)

Creek

The Creek believe that the world was originally entirely underwater. The only land was a hill, called Nunne Chaha, and on the hill was a house, wherein lived Esaugetuh Emissee ("master of breath"). He created humanity from the clay on the hill.

Digueno

The Digueno creation narrative tells of the beginning of creation with the male sky coming down upon the female Earth. The extant deities were weighed down by the sky being so close to the ground and all walked with a stoop. To combat this problem, a creator deity, Tu-chai-pai, separated the Earth from the heavens by blowing on rubbed tobacco three times. He had his brother, Yo-ko-mat-is, do the same, and then the two brothers placed the four cardinal directions at the ends of the Earth. Tu-chai-pai then proceeded to create hills, valleys, forests and lakes for the benefit of humanity. The brothers made men easily but had trouble making women. Initially, human beings were not subject to fatigue, but to prevent them from hurting themselves in the dark they were made to sleep at night. Tu-chai-pai then made the Sun and Yo-ko-mat-is made the moon to help humanity find the light they were instructed to race towards.

Egyptian

There were at least three separate cosmogenies in Egyptian mythology, corresponding to at least three separate groups of worshippers.

• The Ennead, in which Atum arose from the primordial waters (Neith), and masturbated to relieve his loneliness. His semen and breath became Tefnut (moisture) and Shu (dryness), respectively. From Shu and Tefnut, were born Geb (earth), and Nut (sky), who were born in a state of permanent copulation. Shu separated them, and their children were Ausare (Osiris; death), Set (desert), Aset (Isis; life), and Nebet Het (Nephthys; fertile land). Osiris and Isis were a couple, as were Nepthys and Set.
• The Ogdoad, in which Ra arose, either in an egg, or a blue lotus, as a result of the creative interaction between the primordial forces of Nu/Naunet (water), Amun/Amunet (air), Kuk/Kauket (darkness), and Huh/Hauhet (eternity). Ra then created Hathor, his wife, with whom they had a son, Hor (Horus; in the form known as Horus the Elder), who was married to Isis. This cosmogeny also includes Anupu (Anubis) as lord of the dead, amongst others.
• The third group, for whom Ptah was eternal and everlasting, and he spake the world and all the gods into existence, in a similar manner to Judao-Christian belief about their concept of God.

Over time, the rival groups gradually merged, Ra and Atum were identified as the same god, making Atum's mysterious creation actually due to the Ogdoad, and Ra having the children Shu and Tefnut, etc. In consequence, Anubis was identified as a son of Osiris, as was Horus. Amun's role was later thought much greater, and for a time, he became chief god, although he eventually became considered a manifestation of Ra.

For a time, Ra and Horus were identified as one another, and when the Aten monotheism was unsuccessfully introduced, it was Ra-Horus who was thought of as the Aten, and the consequent cosmogony this inspired. Later, Osiris' cult became more popular, and he became the main god, being identified as a form of Ptah. Eventually, all the gods were thought of as aspects of Osiris, Isis, Horus, or Set (who was by now a villain), indeed, Horus and Osiris had started to become thought of as the same god. Ptah eventually was identified as Osiris.

Evolutionary Spirituality

see The Great Story

Greek (Classical)

Plato, in his dialogue Timaeus, describes a creation myth involving a being called the demiurge.

Hesiod, in his Theogony, says that Chaos existed in the beginning, and then gave birth to Gaia (the Earth), Tartarus (the Underworld), Eros (desire), Nyx (the darkness of the night) and Erebus (the darkness of the Underworld). Gaia brought forth Ouranos, the starry sky, her equal, to cover her, the hills, and the fruitless deep of the Sea, Pontus, "without sweet union of love," out of her own self. But afterwards, Hesiod tells, she lay with Heaven and bore the World-Ocean Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and the Titans Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and Phoebe of the golden crown and lovely Tethys. "After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire." Cronos, at Gaia's urging, castrates Ouranos. He marries Rhea who bears him Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Zeus and his brothers overthrow Cronos and the other Titans, then draw lots to determine what each of them will rule. Zeus draws heaven, Poseidon draws the sea, and Hades draws the underworld. The Earth was contested and no one of them had absolute sovereignty over it, as shown by Poseidon's anger when Zeus forced him to leave the battlefield in the Iliad.

Hermeticism

In Hermeticism, the origin belief is not taken literally, but an attempt is made to understand it metaphorically. Not all Hermeticists understand it in the same way, and it is mainly up to personal understanding. The tale is given in the first book of the Corpus Hermeticum by God's Nous to Hermes Trismegistus after much meditation. Also, not all Hermeticists put much weight on the symbolic texts, and may be unaware of the story.

It begins as God creates the elements after seeing the Cosmos and creating one just like it (our Cosmos) from its own constituent elements and souls. From there, God, being both male and female, holding the Word, gave birth to a second Nous, creator of the world. This second Nous created seven powers (often seen as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun and the Moon) to travel in circles and govern destiny.

The Word then leaps forth from the matterializing elements, which made them unintelligent. Nous then made the governors spin, and from their matter sprang forth creatures without speech. Earth then was separated from Water and the animals (other than Man) were brought forth from the Earth.

The Supreme Nous then created Man, hermaphroditic, in his own image and handed over his creation. Man carefully observed the creation of his brother, the lesser Nous, and received his and his Father's authority over it all. Man then rose up above the spheres' paths to better view the creation, and then showed the form of God to Nature. Nature fell in love with it, and Man, seeing a similar form to his own reflecting in the water fell in love with Nature and wished to dwell in it. Immediately Man became one with Nature and became a slave to its limitations such as gender and sleep. Man thus became speechless (for it lost the Word) and became double, being mortal in body but immortal in spirit, having authority of all but subject to destiny.

The tale does not specifically contradict the theory of evolution, other than for Man, but most Hermeticists fully accept evolutionary theory as a solid grounding for the creation of everything from base matter to Man.

Hindu

The Mahaa-Vishnu, into whom all the innumerable universes enter and from whom they come forth again simply by His breathing process, is a plenary expansion of Krishna. Therefore I worship Govinda, Krishna, the cause of all causes. (Brahma-samhitaa 5.48)

In Hindu philosophy, the existence of the universe is governed by the Trimurti of Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Sustainer) and Shiva (the Destroyer). The sequence of Avatars of Vishnu- the Dasavatara (Sanskrit: Dasa—ten, Avatara—incarnation) is generally accepted by most Hindus today as correlating well with Darwin's theory of evolution, the first Avatar generating from the environment of water.

Hindus thus do not see much conflict between creation and evolution. An additional reason for this could also be the Hindu concept of cyclic time, such as yugas, or days of Brahma in approximately 4.3 billion year cycles (unlike the concept of linear time in many other religions). In fact, time is represented as Kaala Chakra — the Wheel of Time.

In Hinduism, nature and all of God's creations are manifestations of Him. He is within and without his creations, pervading the entire universe and also observing it externally. Hence all animals and humans have a divine element in them that is covered by the ignorance and illusions of material or profane existence.

In earlier Vedic thinking, the universe was created by Hiranyagarbha (here interpreted as 'the golden embryo') or by Prajapati who was born from the Hiranyagarbha (here interpreted as 'the golden womb'). Prajapati was later identified with the puranic Brahma. Other gods are credited with acts of creation, primarily the act of propping apart the sky and the Earth - gods who are said to have done this include Indra, Varuna and Vishnu. Another myth which began in late Rig-Vedic times with the Purusha Sukta hymn was the story of the creation of the universe from the remains of the primaeval cosmic male Purusha, who had sacrificed himself or been sacrificed by other primaeval beings (not the most popular Vedic gods because they were said to have been born from Purusha after the sacrifice) at the Purushamedha yajna. According to HINDU MYTHOLOGY creation happened gradually. The universe in primitive form was made up of ISHWAR TATTVA, the ISHWAR TATTVA primarily spread homogeneously throughout the universe. SARVESHAKTIMAN and SARVEVYAPAK, were some other names of ISHWAR TATTVA. PURUSHA and PRAKRITI identifies as energy and matter, mixing of these two in different ratios resulted in SATTVA, RAJAS and TAMAS. SATTVA having great amount of energy and little matter, TAMAS having less energy and big matter, RAJAS being in between, are basic building blocks of our Universe. Presently they can be interpreted as Electron, Proton and Neutron. These three basic Gunas in different ratio made five elements, named as Ether, Air, Fire, Water and Earth. These five elements present in the universe can be observed directly by our Ten INDRIYAS, five Gyanendriyans and five Karmendriyans.

Hopi

The Elders say that the first Hopi had chosen to live in the barren desert so that they would always need to pray for rain. Thus, they would not lose faith in their ceremonies, which maintain their bond with the Mother Nature and Creator. They said that the True Hopi people represent the Red race through the authority vested in them by the Creator, Maasaw.

Hmong

According to Hmong tradition, a long time ago the rivers and ocean covered the Earth. A brother and sister were locked in a yellow wooden drum. The Sky People looked out and saw the Earth. Everything was dead. Only a yellow wooden drum was left on the water.

"Punch holes in the Earth so the water will drain away," said the King above the Sky.

The water went down. Finally, the drum bumped against the ground. The brother and sister came out of the drum and looked around. Everything was dead.

"Where are the people?" asked the sister.

But the brother had an idea. "All the people on Earth are gone. Marry me, we can have children."

"I can't marry you, we are brother and sister."

But he asked her again and again and she said, "No."

Finally the brother said, "Let's carry the grindstones up the hill and roll them into the valley. If the stones land on top of each other, then you shall marry me."

The sister rolled her stone and then, as soon as the brother rolled his stone he ran as fast as he could down the hill and stacked the stones on top of each other.

When the sister saw the stones she cried. Finally she said, "I will marry you, because it was meant to be."

A year later the wife gave birth to a baby, but the baby was not a real baby. It had no arms or legs. It was just round like a pumpkin. The husband cut it up and threw the pieces away. One piece fell on the garden and it became the "Vang" clan because "Vang" sounds like the word for "garden" in Hmong. One piece fell on the goat house. Some pieces fell on the leaves and grass and they became the other Hmong clans. The Nhia, Mhoua, Pao, Ho, Xiong, Vue, and so on.

The next morning the village was full of houses. Everyone came to the husband and wife and said, "Mother and father, come have breakfast with us."

The husband said to his wife, "I asked you to marry me because all the people on Earth were dead. Now these people are our family -- our sons and daughters."

Inca

File:Manco-copac-small.png

Hand drawn image of Manco Capac, founder of the Incan empire and, according to Incan custom, created along with the world.

The Incan account of creation is known based on what was recorded by priests, from the iconography on Incan pottery and architecture, and the myths and legends which survived amongst the native peoples. According to these accounts, in the most ancient of times the earth was covered in darkness. Then, out of a lake called Collasuyu (modern Titicaca), the god Con Tiqui Viracocha emerged, bringing some human beings with him. Then Con Tiqui created the sun (Inti), the moon and the stars to light the world. It is from Inti that the Sapa Inca, emperor of Tawantin Suyu, is descended. Out of great rocks Con Tiqui fashioned more human beings, including women who were already pregnant. Then he sent these people off into every corner of the world. He kept a male and female with him at Cusco, the "navel of the world."

Con, the Creator; was in the form of a man without bones. He filled the earth with good things to supply the needs of the first humans. The people, however, forgot Con's goodness to them and rebelled. So he punished them by stopping the rainfall. The miserable people were forced to work hard, drawing what little water they could find from stinking, drying riverbeds. Then a new god, Pachacamac, came and drove Con out, changing his people into monkeys. Pachacamac then took earth and made the ancestors of human beings..

The founder of the first dynasty of the kingdom of Cuzco was Manco Capac. In one legend he was brought up from the depths of Lake Titicaca by the sun god Inti. In another he was the son of Tici Viracocha. However commoners were not allowed to speak the name of Viracocha, which is possibly an explanation for the need for two foundation legends.

In one myth Manco Capac was the brother of Pachacamac, both were sons of the sun god Inti who is also known as Apu Punchau. Manco Capac himself was worshiped as a fire and sun god. According to the Inti legend, Manco Capac and his siblings were sent up to the earth by the sun god and emerged from the cave of Pacaritambo carrying a golden staff, called ‘tapac-yauri’. They were instructed to create a Temple of the Sun in the spot where the staff sank into the earth, they traveled to Cusco via underground caves, and built a temple in honor of the sun god Inti, their father. During the journey to Cuzco, one of Manco’s brothers, and possibly one of his sisters, were turned to stone (huaca). In another version of this legend, instead of emerging from a cave in Cuzco, the siblings instead emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca.

In the Tici Virachocha legend, Manco Capac was the son of Tici Viracocha of Pacari-Tampu (today Pacaritambo, 25 km south of Cuzco). He and his brothers (Ayar Anca, Ayar Cachi and Ayar Uchu) and sisters (Mama Ocllo, Mama Huaco, Mama Raua and Mama Cura) lived near Cuzco at Paccari-Tampu, and united their people and ten ayllu they encountered in their travels to conquer the tribes of the Cuzco Valley. This legend also incorporates the golden staff, which is thought to have been given to Manco Capac by his father. Accounts vary, but according to some versions of the legend, the young Manco jealously betrayed his older brothers, killed them, and became the sole ruler of Cuzco.

Inuit

The traditional account of the Inuit people is that the trickster in the form of Raven created the world. When the waters forced the ground up from the deep Raven stabbed it with his beak and fixed it into place. This first land was just big enough for a single house occupied by a single family: a man, his wife and their son, Raven who had fixed the land. The father had a bladder hanging over his bed. After much pleading by Raven the father allowed the boy to play with it. While playing Raven damaged the bladder and light appeared. The father not wanting to have light always shining took the bladder from the boy before he could damage it further. This struggle is the origin of day and night.

Iroquois

The Iroquois account of demiurge is that in the beginning there was no earth to live on, only a watery abyss, but up above, in the Great Blue, there was a community called the Sky World including a woman who dreamed dreams.

One night she dreamed about the tree that was the source of light. The dream frightened her, so she went and asked the men in the Sky World to pull up the tree. They dug around the trees roots to make space for more light, and the tree fell through the hole and disappeared. After that there was only darkness. Distraught, they pushed the woman through the hole as well. The woman would have been lost in the abyss had not a fish hawk come to her aid using his feathers to pillow her.

The fish hawk could not keep her up all on his own, so he asked for help to create some firm ground for the woman to rest upon. A helldiver went down to the bottom of the sea and brought back mud in his beak. He found a turtle, smeared the mud onto its back, and dove down again for more. Ducks also brought beaksful of the ocean floor and to spread over the turtle's shell. The beavers helped build terrain, making the shell bigger. The birds and the animals built the continents until they had made the whole round earth, while the woman was safely sitting on the turtle's back. The turtle continues to hold the earth on its back.

After this, one of the Spirits of the Sky World came down and looked at the earth. As he traveled over it, he found it beautiful, and so he created people to live on it and gave them special skills; each tribe of the Iroquois nation was given special gifts to share with the rest of humanity.

Islam

The calligraphic representation of the name of Allah, identified as the one true creator God in Islam.

In Islam all creation is attributed to Allah (the name for God in Arabic), the one and only God for Muslims. He is clearly identified as the "first cause" at numerous places in the Qur'an. Three instances follow:

(13:16) … Say: Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the Supreme

(57:3) … He is the First and the Last and the Manifest and the Hidden, and He is Knower of all things

(112:1) … Say: He, Allah, is One

(112:2) … Allah is He on Whom all depend

Referring to the first cause argument the Qur'an addresses the non-believers:

(52:35) … Or were they created without a (creative) agency? Or are they the creators?

(52:36) … Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Nay, they are sure of nothing.

Also, the Qur'an has been interpreted to explain the creation of the universe similar to the Big Bang. It also describes the essential role that water plays in life:

(21:30) … Do not those who disbelieve see that the heavens and the earth were closed up, but We have opened them; and We have made of water everything living, will they not then believe?

Japan

The god Izanagi and goddess Izanami churned the ocean with a spear to make a small island of curdled salt. Two deities went down to the island, mixed there, and bore main islands, deities, and forefathers of Japan. See the creation myth section of the article on Japanese mythology.

Jainism

According to Jain beliefs, the universe was never created, nor will it ever cease to exist. It is eternal but not unchangeable, because it passes through an endless series of cycles. Each of these upward or downward cycles is divided into six world ages (yugas). The present world age is the fifth age of one of these "cycles", which is in a downward movement. These ages are known as "Aaro" as in "Pehela Aara" or First Age, "Doosra Aara" or Second Age and so on. The last one is the "Chhatha Aara" or Sixth Age. All these ages have fixed time durations of thousands of years.

When this reaches its lowest level, even Jainism itself will be lost in its entirety. Then, in the course of the next upswing, the Jain religion will be rediscovered and reintroduced by new leaders called Tirthankaras (literally "Crossing Makers" or "Ford Finders"), only to be lost again at the end of the next downswing, and so on.

(see: universe history section in the Jainism article.)

Judaism

Main articles: Creation according to Genesis and Creation (theology)

While the scriptural narrative for the creation account in Judaism is contained in the first chapters of Genesis, the notion of "Tzimtzum", or God's retraction to make way for space and time, is a core element to the Jewish approach to the First Cause notion, as explored by Rabbi Moses Maimonides.

Lakota

The Lakota recount in their version of demiurge that the gods lived in the heavens and humans lived in an underworld without culture. Creation was initiated by Inktomi ("spider"), the trickster, who conspired to cause a rift in the heavens between the The Sun God Takushkanshkan ("something that moves") and his wife, the Moon. Their separation marked the creation of time. Some of Inktomi's co-conspirators were exiled to the Earth where the gods of the four winds were scattered and created space.

To populate the Earth, Inktomi traveled to the underworld in the form of a wolf and met with humanity, telling them about a paradisical world aboveground. Inktomi convinced a man named Tokahe ("the first") to travel to the surface for a brief visit. When Tokahe emerged through a cave (Wind Cave in the Black Hills), he found the world to be strikingly beautiful. Returning to the underworld, Tokahe persuaded other families to accompany him to the surface, but upon arrival they discovered that the Earth was full of hardship. Inktomi had by this time prevented humanity from returning below ground, so the families had no choice but to scatter and eke out their livelihoods.

Maasai

The Maasai of Kenya in their creation narrative recount the origin of humanity to be fashioned by the Creator deity from a single tree or leg which split into three pieces. To the first father of the Maasai, he gave a stick. To the first father of the Kikuyu, he gave a hoe. To the first father of the Kamba, he gave a bow and arrow. Each son survived in the wild. The first father of the Maasai used his stick to herd animals. The first father of the Kikuyu used his hoe to cultivate the ground. The first father of the Kamba used his bow and arrow to hunt.

Mandaeism

According to the traditions of Mandaeism creation proceeds from a supreme formless Entity, the expression of which in time and space is creation of spiritual, etheric, and material worlds and beings. Production of these is delegated by It to a creator or creators who originated in It. The cosmos is created by Archetypal Man, who produces it in similitude to his own shape. Inherent to this creation is Dualism, taking the forms of a cosmic Father and Mother, Light and Darkness, Right and Left, syzygy in cosmic and microcosmic form. Instead of a large pleroma, the Mandaeans believe in a discrete division between light and darkness. The ruler of darkness is called Ptahil (similar to the Gnostic Demiurge), and the originator of the light (i.e. God) is only known as "the great first Life from the worlds of light, the sublime one that stands above all works". When this being emanated, other spiritual beings became increasingly corrupted, and they and their ruler Ptahil created our world.

Mandinka

The traditional creation narrative of the Mandinka people of southern Mali begins with Mangala, a singular, powerful being who is perceived to be a round, energetic presence. Within Mangala existed four divisions, which were symbolic of, among many things, the four days of the week (time), the four elements (matter), and the four directions (space). Mangala also contained two sets of dual gendered twins. Mangala was tired of keeping all of this matter inside, so the god removed it and compiled it into a seed. The seed was his creation of the world. The seed however did not hold together well and blew up. Mangala was disappointed with this and destroyed the world he created.

Mangala did not lose hope; the creator began again, this time with two sets of twin seeds. Mangala planted the seeds in an egg shaped womb where they gestated. Mangala continued to put more sets of twin seeds in the womb until he had 8 sets of seeds. In the womb, the gestating seeds transformed themselves into fish. The fish is considered a symbol of fertility in the Mande world. This time, Mangala's creation was successful. This is important, because it illustrates the idea of dual gendered twinship, an idea that permeates Mande culture.

Mangala tried to maintain this perfect creation, but chaos crept in; one of the male twins became ambitious and tried to escape from the egg. This chaotic character is called Pemba. He is a trickster figure whose first trick was to steal a piece of the womb's placenta and throw it down. This action made the earth. Pemba then tried to refertilize what was left of the womb, committing incest against his mother, the womb.

Mangala decided to sacrifice Pemba's brother Farro to save what was left of his creation. He castrated him and then killed him in order to raise him from the dead. Mangala took what was left of the placenta and transformed it into the sun, thus associating Pemba with darkness and the night. Farro was transformed into a human being and was taught the language of creation by Mangala. Farro's knowledge of words is very powerful and the tool he used to defeat Pemba's mischief. Farro and his newly created twins came to Earth and got married (not to each other). This is the basis for the foundation of exogamy in Mande.

Next, a being named Sourakata arrived from the sky with the first sacred drum, hammer, and the sacrificed skull of Farro. Sourakata began to play on the drum and sang for the first rain to come. Sourakata is a magical being who can control nature, and he taught Farro and his followers.

Mansi

The traditional account of creation by the Mansi people of Siberia involved two loons which dove to the bottom of primeval waters to retrieve a piece of the bottom and placed it on top of the water. From there the Earth grew. After a time, at the behest of his daughter, the spirit of the sky ordered his brother, the spirit of the lower world to create humanity. His brother made seven earthy, clay figures and which were quickened by the gods' sister, Mother Earth.

Mayan

The Maya of Mesoamerica creation story is recounted in the book "Popol Vuh". In the beginning there is only sky and sea, personified as a trinity of gods called Heart-of-Sky. They decide that they want someone to praise them. They begin by saying "Earth", which appears on demand from the sea. This is followed by mountains and trees, and Heart-of-Sky establish that "our work is going well". Next for creation are the creatures of the forest: birds, deer, jaguars and snakes. They are told to multiply and scatter, and then to speak and "pray to us". But the animals just squawk and howl. They are consequently humbled and will become servants to whoever will worship Heart-of-Sky. So Heart-of-Sky try to make some more respectful creatures from mud. But the results are not great, and they allow the new race to be washed away. They call upon their grandparents, who suggest wood as an appropriate medium. But the wooden people are just mindless robots, so Heart-of Sky set about the destruction of this new race by means of a rain-storm. This causes the animals to turn against the wooden people; even their pots and querns rebel, and crush the peoples' faces. The wooden people escape to the forests and are turned into monkeys. Heart-of-Sky then make yet another attempt at creating a suitably respectful race, and finally succeed by fashioning humans out of maize-corn dough.

Māori

The Māori creation myth tells how heaven and earth were once joined as Ranginui, the Sky Father, and Papatuanuku, the Earth Mother, lay together in a tight embrace. They had many children who lived in the darkness between them. The children wished to live in the light and so separated their unwilling parents. Ranginui and Papatuanuku continue to grieve for each other to this day. Rangi's tears fall as rain towards Papatuanuku to show how much he loves her. When mist rises from the forests, these are Papa's sighs as the warmth of her body yearns for him and continues to nurture mankind.

Mongol

There is no singular Mongol account of the creation and the beginning of the world, but from a variety of accounts from Mongol tribes of Central Asia, a general outline can be made. The creation of the world is attributed to a lama named Udan who is sometimes also conflated with God or Buddha Sakyamuni by the tribes influenced by Tibetan Buddhism. The primordial world is usually described as being covered in darkness with no separation between earth and sky. The construction of the cosmos proceeds in a variety of fashions. One account describes ninety-nine golden columns holding apart the sky and earth. In this description the world has three stories, the upper one being heaven where gods and goddesses live, the middle one being earth where man dwells, and the lower one being the place where man goes after death; heaven (sky) is the father and earth is the mother of man, animals, etc. Another narrative recounts that when the creator divided the heaven and earth he created a nine-story heaven, a nine-story earth, and nine rivers. In some accounts, the world first was a vast ocean, but dust and sand rose to cover the ocean surface and become earth. In another account, the land is placed on the back of a golden frog who was pierced with arrows causing fire and water to spew from him at various places

After the creation of the Earth itself, the first male and female couple were created out of clay. They would become the progenitors of all humanity. The various tribes and peoples were placed there with different characteristics. In the north, the men were paired with ewes as sexual mates and this was the spawn of the Mongol ethnicity while the Han Chinese were the spawn of hens while the Dorbed and the Buryat recount that they are the descendants of a coupling between hunters and Swan Maidens.

Another account tells that in the beginning, seven suns rose in the sky so that the rivers and vegetation on earth dried up, so the people asked the archer Erkei-Mergen to shoot the suns out of the sky. The archer shot down six, but while he was taking aim at the seventh a martin flew in front of the sun and was shot in the tail. From then on, the martin had a forked tail and there was a single sun remaining in the sky. The archer was so distressed that he fled to the steppe, cut off his thumbs in shame, and became the ancestor of the marmot.

Navajo

Holy Supreme Wind being created by the mists of lights arose through the darkness to animate and bring purpose to the myriad Holy People, supernatural and sacred in the different three lower worlds. All these things were spiritually created in the time before the earth existed and the physical aspect of man did not exist yet, but the spiritual did. In the first world the insect people started fighting with one another and were instructed by the Holy People to depart. They journeyed to the second world and lived for a time in peace. Eventually they fought with each other and were instructed to depart. In the third world the same thing happens again and they are forced to journey to the fourth world. In the fourth world, they found the Hopi living there and succeeded in not fighting with one another or their neighbors, and their bodies were transformed from the insect forms to human forms. First man and First woman physically appear in the narrative here by being formed from ears of white and yellow corn, but they were also created back in the beginning. There is a separation of male and female humans because each did not appreciate the contributions of the other, and this laid the ground work for the appearance of the Monsters that would start to kill off the people in the next world. Coyote, the trickster, also appears and steals the baby of water monster, who brings a great flood in the third world which primarily forces the humans as well as Holy People to journey to the surface of the fifth world through a hollow reed. Some things are left behind and some things are brought to help the people re-create the world each time they entered a new one. Death and the Monsters are born into this world as is Changing Woman who gives birth to the Hero Twins, called "Monster Slayer" and "Child of the Waters" who had many adventures in which they helped to rid the world of much evil. Earth Surface People, mortals, were created in the fourth world, and the gods gave them ceremonies, which are still practiced today.

Norse

The Voluspa opens with the Norse account of the creation of the present universe :

Old tales I remember | of men long ago. I remember yet | the giants of yore [...] Of old was the age | when Ymir lived; No Sea nor cool waves | nor sand there were; Earth had not been, | nor heaven above, Only a yawning gap, | and grass nowhere.

In the beginning there was nothing except for the ice of Niflheim, to the north, and the fire of Muspelheim, to the south. Between them was a yawning gap (the phrase is sometimes left untranslated as a proper name: Ginnungagap), and in this gap a few pieces of ice met a few sparks of fire. The ice melted to form Eiter, which formed the bodies of the hermaphrodite giant Ymir and the cow Auðumbla, whose milk fed Ymir. Auðumbla fed by licking the rime ice, and slowly she uncovered a man's hair. After a day, she had uncovered his face. After another day, she had uncovered him completely: Búri.

Ymir fathered Thrudgelmir, as well as two humans, one man and one woman. Búri fathered Borr. Borr had three sons, Vili, Ve, and Odin, who killed the giant Ymir. In the vast flood of Ymir's blood, both the primordial man and woman died. Thrudgelmir was also drowned, although not before he had fathered Bergelmir. Bergelmir hid in a hollow tree trunk and survived. Odin and his brothers used Ymir's body to create the universe : they ground his flesh into dirt, and the maggots that appeared in his flesh became the dwarves that live under the earth. His bones became the mountains, and Odin strew his brains into the sky to create the clouds. The universe comprises of nine worlds, of which this earth (Mannheim) is central.

They placed the four dwarves Nordri (North), Sudri (South), Austri (East), and Vestri (West) to hold up Ymir's skull and create the heavens. Then using sparks from Muspelheim, the gods created the sun, moon and stars. As Odin and two others (the Eddas say Hœnir and Lóðurr, these are thought to be kennings for Vili and Ve) walked along the beach, they found two pieces of driftwood. From these, they created the 'first' human beings (the previous two having drowned in the flood of Ymir's blood), Ask and Embla. Ymir's eyebrows were used to create a place where the human race could live in; a place called Midgard.[1]

The gods regulated the passage of the days and nights, as well as the seasons. Sol is the goddess of the sun, a daughter of Mundilfari, and wife of Glen. Every day, she rides through the sky on her chariot, pulled by two horses named Alsvid and Arvak. This passage is known as Alfrodull, meaning "glory of elves," which in turn was a common kenning for the sun. Sol is chased during the day by Skoll, a wolf that wants to devour her. Solar eclipses signify that Skoll has almost caught up to her. (It is fated that Skoll will eventually catch Sol and eat her at the end of the world; however, she will be replaced by her daughter.) Sol's brother, the moon Mani, is chased by Hati, another wolf. The earth is protected from the full heat of the sun by the dwarf Svalin, who stands between the earth and Sol. The flaming manes of Arvak and Alsvid provide the light for the earth.

Ojibwe

When the Earth was young it had a family. The moon, or Grandmother and the sun, called Grandfather. The Earth was a woman - Mother Earth - because from her came all living things. Mother Earth was given four directions - East, South, West, and North, each with physical and spiritual powers.

When Mother Earth was young Creator, or Gichi-Manidoo as Ojibwe people call him, filled her with beauty. He sent singers in the form of birds and swimmers in the water. He placed plants, trees, insects, crawlers and four-legged animals on the land.

Gichi-Manidoo then blew into four parts of Mother Earth using the sacred megis shell. From the union of these four and his breath, two-leggeds or man, was born. Thus, man was the last form of life to be put on Earth. From this original man came the Anishinaabe - or The Original People.

Orok

The Oroks traditionally interpret the presence of sundogs such as this to be evidence that three distinct suns used to reside in the sky. The remaining present-day sun is located outside of the picture to the right.

The traditional creation narrative of the Orok people of Sakhalin begins with three suns shining in the sky. The earth was completely liquid, but the liquid was slowly diminishing and the earth was hardening. Under the heat cliffs and stones boiled. At that time, on earth there were no living creatures except the family of a man named Hadau. When the earth hardened, Hadau shot arrows at two suns first killing the older sister sun with one arrow, and then the younger sister sun with another leaving only the middle sun. Sundogs are said to be the visible shadows of the two earlier suns, as if imprints of one or each side. After this, Hadau created a family of eagles and a family of ravens. Therefore upon seeing an eagle on a hunt, the Oroks call him their elder (grandfather). The flight of these birds allowed people to be dispersed across the Earth.

Polynesian

(see Polynesian mythology)

Hawaiian

See Māui (mythology) and Kumulipo.

Randomness

Some philosophers like Hakim Bey and occultists like Peter Carroll think randomness, chaos or the Uncertainty principle is the prime mover according to science, and should accordingly be treated as divine.

Seminole

The Seminole recount that when the Creator, the Grandfather of all things, created the earth, he made all animals and birds and put them in a large shell. When the earth was ready, he set the shell along the backbone (mountains) of the earth. "When the timing is right," he told the animals, "the shell will open and you will all crawl out. Someone or something will crack the shell and you must all take your respective places on the face the earth." The Creator then sealed up the shell and left, hoping the Panther (his favorite animal) would be first to emerge.

Time went along, and nothing happened. Alongside the shell stood a great tree. As time passed, the tree grew so large that its roots started encircling the shell. Eventually a root cracked the shell. The Wind started enlarged the crack and reached down to help the Panther take its place on earth. Next to crawl out was the Bird. The Bird had picked and picked around the hole, and, when the time was right, stepped outside the shell. Bird took flight immediately. After that, other animals emerged in different sequences: Bear, Deer, Snake, Frog, Otter. There were thousands of others, so many that no one besides the Creator could even begin to count them all. All went out to seek their proper places on earth.

Sikh

The following is an excerpt from the Sikh holy text (Guru Granth Sahib):

For millions upon millions, countless years was spread darkness,

When existed neither earth nor heaven, but only the limitless Divine Ordinance.

Then existed neither day or night, nor sun or moon;

As the Creator was absorbed in an unbroken trance.

Existed then neither forms of creation, nor of speech; neither wind nor water.

Neither was creation or disappearance or transmigration.

Then were not continents, neither regions, the seven seas, nor rivers with water flowing.

Existed then neither heaven or the mortal world or the nether world;

Neither hell or heaven or time that destroys.

Hell and heaven, birth and death were then not--none arrived or departed.

Then were not Brahma, Vishnu or Shiva:

None other than the Sole Lord was visible.

Neither existed then female or male, or caste and birth--

None suffering and joy received.

Unknowable Himself, was He the source of all utterance; Himself the unknowable unmanifested.

As it pleased Him, the world He created;

Without a supporting power the expanse He sustained.

Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva He created and to maya-attachment gave increase.

(To a rare one was the Master's Word imparted.)

Himself He made His Ordinance operative and watched over it:

Creating continents, spheres and nether worlds, the hidden He made manifest.

Creating the universe Himself, He has remained unattached.

The compassionate Lord too has made the holy center [the human being].

Combining air, water, and fire, He created the citadel of the body.

The Creator fashioned the Nine Abodes [of sensation];

In the Tenth [the superconscious mind] is lodged the Lord, unknowable, limitless.

The illimitable Lord in His unattributed state of void assumed might;

He, the infinite One, remaining detached:

Displaying his power, He himself from the void created inanimate things.

From the unattributed void were created air and water.

Raising creation, He dwells as monarch in the citadel of the body.

Lord! In the fire and water [of the body] exists Thy light;

In Thy [original] state of void was lodged [unmanifest] the power of creation.

Surat Shabda Yoga

Surat Shabda Yoga cosmology depicts the whole of creation (the macrocosm) as being emanated and arranged in a spiritually differentiated hierarchy, often referred to as eggs, regions, or planes. Typically, eight spiritual levels are described above the physical plane, although names and subdivisions within these levels will vary to some extent by mission and Master. (One version of the creation from a Surat Shabda Yoga perspective is depicted at the Sant Ajaib Singh Ji Memorial Site in “The Grand Scheme of All Creation”.) All planes below the purely spiritual regions are subject to cycles of creation and dissolution (pralya) or grand dissolution (maha pralya).

The constitution of the individual (the microcosm) is an exact replica of the macrocosm. Consequently, the microcosm consists of a number of bodies, each one suited to interact with its corresponding plane or region in the macrocosm. These bodies developed over the yugas through involution (emanating from higher planes to lower planes) and evolution (returning from lower planes to higher planes), including by karma and reincarnation in various states of consciousness.

Taoism

Tao is the nameless void, the mother of the Ten Thousand Things. Tao is considered by Laozi to be that which eternally gives without being depleted, and eternally receives without being filled. That which does not exist for its own sake is able to endure.

Tlingit

According to Tlingit tradition, creation proceeded with help from the trickster figure of the raven. At the time there was no light or water. Raven had to steal light from where it was hoarded in the house of a rich man far up the Nass River, which was dry at the time. He accomplished this by making himself small and getting the daughter of the house to swallow him and become pregnant. When the child was born, it cried for the bundles of light hanging on the wall of the house. Finally, the family gave the raven a bundles of stars and the moon to soothe him each of which he let escape through the chimney and to scatter across the heavens. He left with a box of daylight which was the last bit of light the family owned.

Raven then proceeded to trick the man who owned the everlasting spring of water into giving him a drink, but before he could escape through the chimney, the man made a fire and blackened raven to his current color. First, he spit out water creating the Nass Stikine, Taku, Chilkat, the Alsek, and all the other large rivers. Smaller drops created the salmon creeks.

Raven then proceeded to a town that had never seen daylight. The people of the town quarreled with him, so raven decided to scare them by opening his box of daylight. Upon seeing the Sun, the villagers scattered, some to the ocean where they became sea creatures and some to the forest where they became forest creatures.

Raven made the winds, the races, and dogs who were human beings that Raven cursed to walk on all fours.

Voodoo

Veve of Damballa

Damballah (Sky-serpent loa and wise and loving Father archetype) created all the waters of the earth. In the form of a serpent, the movement of his 7,000 coils formed hills and valleys on earth and brought forth stars and planets in the heavens. He forged metals from heat and sent forth lightning bolts to form the sacred rocks and stones.

When he shed his skin in the sun, releasing all the waters over the land, the sun shone in the water and created the rainbow. Damballah loved the rainbow's beauty and made her his wife, Aida-Wedo. (Aida-Wedo represents the sky powers and is symbolized by the rainbow; wife of Damballah, she shares his function as cosmic protector and giver of blessing.)

The revelations of the loa (deity) descended upon the first faithful in Ifé, a legendary city located in Nigeria. Therefore, everything in life and all spiritual strength comes from Ifé. The homeland of all voodoo devotees, where Ifé is located, is Ginen, from where they were forced to flee in the African Diaspora. In death, the higher soul will return to Ginen (the world of the dead, said to be under the water below the earth) to reside with the loa and the ancestral spirits. Because of this, all practitioners of voodoo refer to themselves as ti guinin, sons or daughters of Ginen.

Wicca

Modern Wicca arose relatively recently, and due to a lack of agreed doctrine creation myths are not shared universally. The following is one of the more common myths associated with the faith; some followers believe in a scientific explanation and combine it in various forms with creation myths.

Some followers of the Wicca religion believe the demiurge began from a nothingness out of which Spirit drew together and created the Goddess of Wicca. She gave birth to all of nature and set forth its rhythmic movements as a dance. Her breath formed the colors and beauty of nature, her tears formed water, and her laughter formed the sounds of water.

Spirit created for the Goddess a companion God (or the "Lord"), half-spirit and half-animal who is represented as wearing the antlers of a stag, as her lifemate and companion. Together, the Lord and Lady gave birth to all life. To protect and guide humanity, the Lord and Lady created the angels and power spirits as invisible energies.

The Lord and Lady then drew forth energy from the realm of the angels, the realm of the power animals, and the realm of the humans to create Witches who could tap the wisdom of the Lord and Lady, had the ability to heal, and knew the art of magick.

Yoruba

The Yoruba creator is called Olurun or Olodumare and is often assisted by the lesser god, Obatala. In the beginning, there was only water and chaos. The supreme being sent Obatala or Orishanla down from the sky to create some land out of the chaos. He descended on a long chain (umbilical cord) and brought with him a rooster, some iron, and a palm kernel. First, he put the metal on the earth and the rooster on top of that. The rooster scratched the metal and spread it out to create land. Then he planted the palm seed and from it grew the earth's vegetation. Olurun named earth "Ife" and the first city "Ile-Ife." Orshilana created humans out of the earth and got Olurun to blow life into them.

Zen

Everything and nothing are all interconnected, inseparable, a whole. Zen denies that the person is the first cause. If it speaks of origins at all, it says that the ground of being is the real first cause.

Zoroastrianism

The Zoroastrian story of creation has Ahura Mazda creating 16 lands, one by one, such that each would be delightful to its people. As he finished each one, Angra Mainyu applied a counter-creation, introducing plague and sin of various kinds. The dualistic idea of two primordial spirits, called twins by Zoroaster, goes back to an Indo-European prototype.

Zulu

The Ancient One, known as Unkulunkulu, is the Zulu creator. He came from the reeds and from them he brought forth the people and the cattle. He created everything that is: mountains, streams, snakes, etc. He taught the Zulu how to hunt, how to make fire, and how to grow food.

See also

• Abrahamic religions
• Biblical cosmology
• Cosmogony
• Cosmological argument
• Cosmology (disambiguation)
• Creation evolution controversy
• Category:Creationism
• Creationism
• Creation (theology)
• Creator god
• Dating Creation
• Day-Age Creationism

• Deism
• Evolution
• Existence
• Gap Creationism
• Intelligent design
• Mythical origins of language
• Natural theology
• Old Earth creationism
• Theism
• Theistic evolution
• Timeline of the Big Bang
• Ultimate fate of the Universe
• Young Earth creationism

References

• Rouvière, Jean-Marc, Brèves méditations sur la création du monde L'Harmattan, Paris (2006), ISBN 2-7475-9922-1.
• Leeming, David Adams, and Margaret Adams Leeming, A Dictionary of Creation Myths. Oxford University Press (1995), ISBN 0-19-510275-4.

External links

• Indian cosmology
• Japanese Creation Myth
• Norse Creation Myth
• Popul Vuh
• "Masks of God: Creative Mythology" by Joseph Campbell
• Dictionary of the history of Ideas: Creation in Religion
• The Qur'an and Earth, an Islamic perspective of creation.
• The Scientific Facts Revealed in the Glorious Qur'an, an article about examples of Islamic references in the Qur'an to some scientific findings.
• Understanding Evolution: History, Theory, Evidence, and Implications Deals with different explanations of origins
• 'Of Men and Mud' - an article on dirt and mud in creation myths