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Creator deity

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A creator deity is a deity responsible for the creation of the world (or universe). In monotheism, the single God is necessarily also the creator deity, while polytheistic traditions may or may not have creator deities. A number of monolatristic traditions separate a secondary creator, from primary transcendent being, identified as a primary creator.[1]

Polytheism

In polytheistic creation myths, the world often comes into being organically, e.g. sprouting from a primal seed, sexually, by hierosgamos, violently, by the slaying of a primeval monster, or artificially, by a divine demiurge or "craftsman". Sometimes, a god is involved, wittingly or unwittingly, in bringing about creation. Examples include

Platonic demiurge

Main article: demiurge
Further information: Neoplatonism and Gnosticism and Great Architect of the Universe

Plato, in his dialogue Timaeus, describes a creation myth involving a being called the demiurge (δημιουργός "craftsman"). This concept was continued in Neoplatonism and Gnosticism. In Neoplatonism, the demiurge represents the second cause or dyad, after the monad. In Gnostic dualism, the demiurge is an imperfect spirit and possibly evil being, transcended by divine Fullness (Pleroma). Unlike the Judeo-Christian God, Plato's demiurge is unable to create ex-nihilo.

Monolatrism

See also: Brahma

Monolatristic traditions would separate a secondary creator, from primary transcendent being, identified as a primary creator.[1] According to Gaudiya Vaishnavas the four-faced Brahma is the secondary creator and not the supreme.[4] Vishnu is the primary creator. According to the Vaishnava belief he creates the basic universal shell and provides all the raw materials and also places the living entities within the material world, fulfilling their own independent will. Brahma is the secondary creator. He works with the materials provided by Visnu to actually create what are believed to be planets in Puranic terminology, and he supervises the population of them.[5]

Monism

Further information: Hindu Creationism
Further information: Jainism and non-creationism

Monism has its origin in Hellenistic philosophy as a concept of all things deriving from a single substance or being. Following a long and still current tradition H.P. Owen (1971: 65) claimed that:

"Pantheists are ‘monists’...they believe that there is only one Being, and that all other forms of reality are either modes (or appearances) of it or identical with it."

Although, like Spinoza, some pantheists may also be monists, and monism may even be essential to some versions of pantheism (like Spinoza's), not all pantheists are monists. Some are polytheists and some are pluralists; they believe that there are many things and kinds of things and many different kinds of value.[6] Not all Monists are Pantheists. Exclusive Monists believe that the universe, the God of the Pantheist, simply does not exist. In addition, monists can be Deists, Pandeists, Theists or Panentheists; believing in a monotheistic God that is omnipotent and all-pervading, and both transcendent and immanent. There are monist pantheists and panentheists in Hinduism (particularly in Advaita and Vishistadvaita respectively), Judaism (monistic panentheism is especially found in Kabbalah and Hasidic philosophy), in Christianity (especially among Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglicans) and in Islam (among the Sufis, especially the Bektashi).

Hindu

In Advaita Vedanta, Brahman is the abstract notion of "the Absolute" from which the universe takes its origin from golden ege(may be big bang), and at an ultimate level, all assertions of a distinction between Brahman, other gods and creation are meaningless (monism).

"The Vedanta-sutra begins by declaring that the Absolute Person is the original source of all creation (janmady asya yatah [SB 1.1.1]). One may ask whether Lord Brahma is the Supreme Absolute Person. No, the Supreme Absolute Person is Krishna. Brahma receives his mind, intelligence, materials and everything else from Krishna, and then he becomes the secondary creator, the engineer of this universe. In this regard we may note that the creation does not take place accidentally, because of the explosion of a chunk. Such nonsensical theories are not accepted by Vedic students. The first created living being is Brahma, who is endowed with perfect knowledge and intelligence by the Lord. As stated in Srimad-Bhagavatam, tene brahma hrida ya adi-kavaye: although Brahma is the first created being, he is not independent, for he receives help from the Supreme Personality of Godhead through his heart. There is no one but Brahma at the time of creation, and therefore he receives his intelligence directly from the Lord through the heart. This has been discussed in the beginning of Srimad-Bhagavatam.

Lord Brahma is described in this verse as the original cause of the cosmic manifestation, and this applies to his position in the material world. There are many, many such controllers, all of whom are created by the Supreme Lord, Vishnu. This is illustrated by an incident described in Caitanya-caritamrita. When the Brahma of this particular universe was invited by Krishna to Dvaraka, he thought that he was the only Brahma. Therefore when Krishna inquired from His servant which Brahma was at the door to visit, Lord Brahma was surprised. He replied that of course Lord Brahma, the father of the four Kumaras, was waiting at the door. Later, Lord Brahma asked Krishna why He had inquired which Brahma had come. He was then informed that there are millions of other Brahmas because there are millions of universes. Krishna then called all the Brahmas, who immediately came to visit Him. The catur-mukha Brahma, the four-headed Brahma of this universe, thought himself a very insignificant creature in the presence of so many Brahmas with so many heads. Thus although there is a Brahma who is the engineer of each universe, Krishna is the original source of all of them."

Buddhism

Some gods in Buddhism have the view that they are creators of the world. For example, Baka Brahma. However, Buddha pointed out to them that they do not know the whole extent of the universe (he said they have no knowledge of some of the highest heavens), and further, the spiritual power of the Buddha was greater than the spiritual power of these gods who thought they created the world. One of the Suttas dealing with this subject is the Kevaddha Sutta.

Also, Buddha said (in DN1 - the Brahmajala Sutta or The Net of Views) that their view of being the creator of the world is a misconception, and that these Brahma-gods actually have a cause which lead their origination (taking birth as a Brahma-god). Buddha even tells how the views concerning 'creator gods' originate in the world - through junior Brahma-gods (with a more limited life-span) who, on their passing away, get reborn as a human, and through practicing meditation are able to remember their previous life as a junior god to a Brahma god.Then, he starts to preach this view of a 'creator god' to others (see DN1 - the Brahmajala Sutta). Jainism similarly believes in "craftsman" deities responsible for the physical world, which are however transcended by a static and uncreated universe.

Monotheism

Christianity, Judaism, Sikhism and Islam teach that creation is believed to be the origin of the universe by the action of God.

Among monotheists it has historically been most commonly believed that living things are God's creations, and are not the result of a process inherent in originally non-living things, unless this process is designed, initiated, or directed by God; likewise, sentient and intelligent beings are believed to be God's creation, and did not arise through the development of living but non-sentient beings, except by the intervention of God.[7]

Judaism

Further information: Genesis creation myth

Orthodox Judaism historically affirms that one incorporeal God (self-identified to Moses as Yahweh) is the creator of all things (many references available, see Job 38-41, for example)[8] , and that this same one created Adam and Eve personally (directly)[9]. They affirm that this Being is an indivisible one, incomparable to any created thing, and immutable.

Christianity

It is a tenet of Christian faith (Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant) that God is the creator of all things from nothing, and has made human beings in the Image of God, who by direct inference is also the source of the human soul. Within this broad understanding, however, there are a number of views regarding exactly how this doctrine ought to be interpreted.

  • Some Christians, particularly Young Earth creationists and Old Earth creationists, interpret Genesis as a historical, accurate, and literal account of creation.
  • Others, in contrast to both these views of acts of the Creator, may understand any of these to be, not statements of historic fact, but rather spiritual insights more vaguely defined.

While the synoptic gospels do not address the question of creation, the Gospel of John famously begins:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being ... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth" <John 1:1-3 and 1:14>.

See Christ the Logos for interpretations of this passage.

The Epistle to the Hebrews, a book of the New Testament, contains another reference to creation:

"For by faith we understand the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible" <Hebrews 11:3>.[10]

Thus, in Chalcedonian Christology, Jesus is the Word of God, which was in the beginning and, thus, is uncreated, and hence is God, and consequently identical with the Creator of the world ex nihilo.

The Roman Catholic Church allows for both a literal and allegorical interpretation of Genesis, so as to allow for the possibility of Creation by means of an evolutionary process over great spans of time, otherwise known as theistic evolution. It believes that the creation of the world is a work of God through the Logos, the Word (idea, intelligence, reason and logic):

"In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was God...all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made."

The New Testament claims that God created everything by the eternal Word, Jesus Christ his beloved Son. In him

"all things were created, in heaven and on earth.. . all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.[11]

Surrounded by a pervasive culture of rationalism, relativism and secularism, the Catholic Church has asserted the primacy of reason in Christian Theology. In a 1999 lecture at the University of Paris, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said:

The question is ... whether reason, being a chance by-product of irrationality and floating in an ocean of irrationality, is ultimately just as meaningless; or whether the principle that represents the fundamental conviction of Christian faith and of its philosophy remains true: "In principio erat Verbum" — at the beginning of all things stands the creative power of reason. Now as then, Christian faith represents the choice in favor of the priority of reason and of rationality. [...] there is no ultimate demonstration that the basic choice involved in Christianity is correct. Yet, can reason really renounce its claim to the priority of what is rational over the irrational, the claim that the Logos is at the ultimate origin of things, without abolishing itself?
Even today, by reason of its choosing to assert the primacy of reason, Christianity remains "enlightened," and I think that any enlightenment that cancels this choice must, contrary to all appearances, mean, not an evolution, but an involution, a shrinking, of enlightenment.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and others within Mormonism, 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-existent matter and energy, who constructed the present cosmos out of the raw material through natural means.

Creationism

Main article: Creationism

Christian fundamentalism in the USA since the 1930s has pursued Biblical literalist doctrines of "Creationism" as a counter-hypothesis opposing the scientific community, with concepts such as flood geology, creation science and intelligent design proposed as syntheses of Christian creation beliefs and scientific method.

Islam

According to Islam, God, known in Arabic as Allah, is the all-powerful and all-knowing Creator, Sustainer, Ordainer, and Judge of the universe. Islam puts a heavy emphasis on the conceptualization of God as strictly singular (tawhid). God is unique (wahid) and inherently one (ahad), all-merciful and omnipotent. According to tradition there are 99 Names of God (al-asma al-husna lit. meaning: "The best names") each of which evoke a distinct attribute of God. All these names refer to Allah, the supreme and all-comprehensive divine name. Among the 99 names of God, the most famous and most frequent of these names are "the Compassionate" (al-rahman) and "the Merciful" (al-rahim).

Creation and ordering of the universe is seen as an act of prime mercy for which all creatures sing God's glories and bear witness to God's unity and lordship. According to the Islamic teachings, God exists without a place. According to the Qur'an, "No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision. God is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things" (Qur'an 6:103) God in Islam is not only majestic and sovereign, but also a personal God: according to the Qur'an, God is nearer to a person than his jugular vein. (Quran 50:16) God responds to those in need or distress whenever they call. Above all, God guides humanity to the right way, “the holy way§.”

Islam teaches that God as referenced in the Qur'an is the only god and the same God worshipped by members of other Abrahamic religions such as Christianity and Judaism. (29:46).

Sikhism

Main article: Sikh beliefs

One of the biggest responsibilities in Sikhism is to worship God as "The Creator", termed Waheguru who is shapeless, timeless, and sightless, i.e., Nirankar, Akal, and Alakh Niranjan. The religion only takes after the belief in "One God for All" or Ik Onkar.

Baha'i

Bahá'í teachings state that God is too great for humans to fully comprehend, or to create a complete and accurate image of, by themselves. Therefore, human understanding of God is achieved through his revelations via his Manifestations.[12][13] In the Bahá'í religion God is often referred to by titles and attributes (e.g. the All-Powerful, or the All-Loving), and there is a substantial emphasis on monotheism.

Chinese Mythology

Pangu can be interpreted as another creator deity. In the beginning there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. However this chaos began to coalesce into a cosmic egg for eighteen thousand years. Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of yin and yang became balanced and Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. Pangu is usually depicted as a primitive, hairy giant with horns on his head (like the Greek Pan) and clad in furs. Pangu set about the task of creating the world: he separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. This task took eighteen thousand years, with each day the sky grew ten feet higher, the Earth ten feet wider, and Pangu ten feet taller. In some versions of the story, Pangu is aided in this task by the four most prominent beasts, namely the Turtle, the Qilin, the Phoenix, and the Dragon.

After the eighteen thousand years had elapsed, Pangu was laid to rest. His breath became the wind; his voice the thunder; left eye the sun and right eye the moon; his body became the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood formed rivers; his muscles the fertile lands; his facial hair the stars and milky way; his fur the bushes and forests; his bones the valuable minerals; his bone marrows sacred diamonds; his sweat fell as rain; and the fleas on his fur carried by the wind became human beings all over the world. The distance from Earth and Sky at the end of the 18,000 years would have been 65,700,000 feet, or over 12,443 miles.

The first writer to record the myth of Pangu was Xu Zheng (徐整) during the Three Kingdoms (三國) period.

References

  1. ^ a b (2004) Sacred Books of the Hindus Volume 22 Part 2: Pt.2, p. 67, R.B. Vidyarnava, Rai Bahadur Srisa Chandra Vidyarnava
  2. ^ "The Great Hare". Community-2.webtv.net. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  3. ^ "Nanabozho, Access geneaology". Accessgenealogy.com. Retrieved 2010-06-29.
  4. ^ Nandalal Sinha {1934} The Vedânta-sûtras of Bâdarâyaṇa, with the Commentary of Baladeva. p. 413
  5. ^ "Secondary Creation". Krishna.com. Retrieved 2009-08-06.
  6. ^ "Monism". Columbia Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-23. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. ^ Rouvière, Jean-Marc, Brèves méditations sur la création du monde L'Harmattan, Paris (2006), ISBN 2-7475-9922-1.
  8. ^ Job 38-41
  9. ^ Genesis 1:26 and elsewhere
  10. ^ New American Standard Version, ISBN 0-7369-0018-7
  11. ^ CCC Search Result - Paragraph # 291
  12. ^ Hatcher 2005, pp. 1–38
  13. ^ Cole 1982, pp. 1–38

See also

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