The following short essay is a brief rewrite of a larger essay written as a term paper for my first philosophy class. I am a student, currently looking to major in philosophy and astronomy. Here are my thoughts:
There are many tales told of the creation of the universe. Everything from God said let it be, to a few gods having a large scale celestial war.
And then, there are the many theories offered to us by science. The Big Bang theory, and others.
None, but all of these possibly could be correct. Without the benefit of my original paper, which had my various references, I shall take a brief tour of the stories, and tell you why they are all correct, yet missing a vital piece of the story.
If you open the Bible to Genesis, and read the entire creation story, you get a picture of a black, blank canvas, upon, and within which, God creates the heavens and the earth. He said let there be light, and there was...
If you look at the creation story of the Ancient Babylons, who took a large part of their story from the Assyrians (the region in which they lived being the same - the Ancient Near East) you are offered a story of a great battle, fought between two great gods, one of which was Tiamat, Goddess of the ocean, and chaos. Upon her death, there was a huge explosion, a vast light filling the sky...
Moving back over to the Americas, we take a look at one of the many creation stories of the Native Americans. For this essay, we look at a west coast tribe. In their story, two brothers are talking, living in a vast empty space. One brother decides he wants to do something, and asks the other for advice. Told to take a ball of 'stuff' from his armpit, and hold it briefly, and then hurl it into space, he does... the beginnings of the world... hurled into space by the power of a god...
The Big Bang theory tells us that in the beginning, there was nothing, save the infinitely small point of all the energy in the universe, so compact, that all of the sudden, it exploded in a huge...
Burst of light.
Is it possible, then, that all of these stories, given a facelift to match the culture of the civilization teaching it, are but one in the same? It is my belief that they are. The names, places, and exact detail of events are different, but the overall story always seems to be the same. Sure, there are some which do not match the requirements, but I believe that if you open the majority of the creation myths from around the world, you will find my words to be true.
So, where do we come in?
Is there a God, then?
How were the planets, and everything else, created?
Those are all questions with answers, but stories for another time.
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