The Concept of Creationism
15 How do various mainstream religions handle the big question: Where did we all come from?
20ne reason why Creationism is such a hot topic is that it is one of the very few areas in any religion that ever comes head-to-head with science. 3And since science seeks to provide a rationale, that means religion usually falls short.
4The need to explain our origins goes beyond any specific religion, and you'll find stories, tales and myths about the creation of the world in almost every single belief system and culture around the planet. 5We will talk in detail about a few creation stories through the course of this chapter, but contrast the Christian (along with Jewish and Muslim) concept of creation with science.
What Does Science Say?
6Admittedly, even science isn t perfect when it comes to establishing something that happened so long ago. 7Very little can truly be proven though many theories are generally accepted by the scientific community based on the evidence we see around us today.
8According to scientific research, the Earth is approximately four to five billion years old. 9This has been estimated by testing radioactive elements in the earth, as well as testing the age of meteors that have landed on the planet.
10However, if you accept a literal Biblical history of the planet (including that the planet was created in six standard 24-hour days), then our Earth should only be around 6,000 years old. 11This is based upon the timelines and historical events documented in the Bible. 12Needless to say, there s a huge discrepancy of about 4,999,994,000 years.
13That covers just the Earth itself but the rest of the universe should be part of the discussion.
The Big Bang
140ne prevailing theory about the creation of the universe (not just our own little planet) is that there was a single cataclysmic event known casually as The Big Bang. 15The explosion created matter from energy and the entire universe is still expanding outwards from the blast.
16By examining the movement of planetary bodies with this expansion, scientists have made an estimate of how long it has been since the point of origin (i.e. The Big Bang). 17Currently, the estimate is approximately 14 billion years.
18Those who believe that a Creator God is behind our existence turn their noses up at this entire theory because they feel it provides an impossible scenario where something was born from nothing. 19And yet, that is the very situation they are suggesting with a God-created universe.
The Long Days of God
20Christians believe that God created the world and all living things over the course of six days. 21He is said to have rested on the seventh, which is why Christians and Jews both take a day of rest each week (Saturday or Sunday, depending on your viewpoint).
22According to Genesis 1, the story goes that creation took place in the following sequence:
1. Light and darkness
2. Sky and water
3. Dry land and plants
4. Sun, moon, stars
5. Sea creatures and birds
6. Land animals and man
7. God rested
23The entire account can be found in the Book of Genesis but it is too long to include here. 24The basic concept of a seven-day creation period is the same in the Quran and the Torah.
25This brings us to our first attempt to explain the religious viewpoint: that God measures events in particularly long days. 26In other words, many Christians (and Jews) suggest that the days described in the Bible are not literal and should not be taken to mean typical 24-hour days as we know them. 27If you consider the days to be metaphorical, representing billions of years, for example, then this could be an accurate representation of how life on Earth possibly came about. 28This is the viewpoint of those that attempt to reconcile the Biblical story with scientific evidence.
29Actual timing aside, there are a few other discrepancies with this order of creation. 30For one, plants are said to have been created before the sun, which is not going to make them very happy, especially if you believe that each day was a billion years long.
31Another problem is that the sun, stars and moon were added in on the fourth day. 32The idea that the Earth came first and then all the stars in the universe does not make sense at all. 33You may be able to rationalise the age of our planet in seven very long days , but the rest of the stars are much older than the Earth and could not possibly have come later. 34This is simply a reflection of how our ancestors saw the Earth as the centre of the Universe.
35Another odd thing that stands out is the idea that God needed to rest on the seventh day. 36For an omnipotent Creator, it does not sound plausible that he would require rest at any time, regardless of what great things he had done.
Evolution
37Evolution is a related topic, though it is markedly different from the issue of creation. 38The creation of mankind is almost always described as humans being created in God s image (though specifics vary from faith to faith). 39With that in mind, there is no way to reconcile our creation by God and evolution over millions of years from other species. 40The DNA evidence illustrating the natural connections between all life forms on the planet are apparently just one of the many mysteries of God.
41Part of the problem is the ego that comes from being a beloved creation of God. 42Many people do not wish to face the idea that we may simply be the end product of natural selection and millions of years of genetic accidents, possibly the direct descendants of now-extinct apes.
More Alternative Views
430f course, these theories are not the only ones out there. 44Not by a long shot. 450ne interesting view comes from the Hindu creationist and archaeologist, Michael Cremo. 46He believes that mankind may have been in existence for over a quarter of a million years, possibly millions, which puts him at odds with most of the scientific community, as well as most religions. 470ne of his books, Forbidden Archaeology, covers his complete theories in detail. 48The main gist is that many archaeological discoveries have been made – tools, potteries, carvings, human remains – that are hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of years older than conventional science would suggest; however, many have deliberately been kept quiet in order to maintain the status quo.
Dinosaurs
49Can we really have a discussion about creation without mentioning dinosaurs? 5OThe extensive fossil record of enormous reptiles that no longer exist today has a tendency to throw a wrench into the Biblical creation account, though many Christians are able to ignore or look past this topic. 51Some fundamentalists have even suggested that the fossilised remains are actually Satan s work, as a way of misleading us.
52Some feel that dinosaurs did exist, but this was in recent times, not millions of years ago. 53That would suggest that dinosaurs existed at the same time as humans, a fact that has no evidence at all. 54Certainly there would be some written record of such amazing creatures, had they lived alongside us.
Myth vs. Reality
55The fundamental issue is whether to believe that religious creation stories are real, or simply a mythical explanation of the creation of the universe and our planet.
56For religions that embrace a number of different texts as their holy scriptures, more than one story may exist. 57Not all followers believe that these stories are literal and are very happy to accept them as myth only.
58Christianity is one of the few religions that tries to see the scientific world through a Biblical lens, even against the most glaring evidence.
Sikhism
59They do not have a clear-cut creation story at all, which departs radically from the trinity that dedicate large sections of their holy texts to documenting our origins.
6OSikhs accept that God is the source of all creation, and that is pretty much the end of it. 61They believe that the origins of the world and the rest of the universe are simply unknowable and don t fret over the details. 62To sum it up:
“The Creator who created this creation – only He himself knows (SSGS 4)
Buddhism
63Buddhists agree with the Sikhs that the origins of the universe are unknowable and have no bearing on our own lives today. 640f course, the beliefs are not identical since Buddhists do not believe that there is a deity behind creation at all.
Hinduism
650ne unique aspect of the Hindu creation mythos is that this is neither the first nor the only world. 66They believe that life is a cycle and this concept extends to their view of the universe. 67There is a constant creation/destruction cycle in place and this includes the universe as a whole. 68There is more than one version of the creation story because Hindus use a wide variety of sacred writings in their faith. 69The particular God that is in charge depends on which branch the story comes from (either Brahma, Shiva or Vishnu), but the tale with Brahma is the more common since he is known as the creator within the deity trinity.
70In one version a golden lotus flower is floating amid an endless dark sea. 71Brahma was within the flower (or sometimes it's an egg) and when he was born, he used parts of the flower to create the heavens, the earth and the sky. 72Then he created the elements and then all the living beings from the parts of his body. 73This reflects the idea that all things are part of the Divine.
Ancient Greece
74The Greek story of the Earth’s creation is vague and lacks any real detail. 75Instead, the focus is on the background of the Gods rather than the planet. 76This reflects the priorities of the ancient Greeks, in that the Gods influenced people s day-to-day lives and were therefore more important than the origins of the Earth. 77The tale is fairly long, but here is an abbreviated version.
780ut of darkness and chaos, Gaea and Uranus were born (Mother Earth and Father Sky). 79They had many children, including the great Titans. 80Two of the Titans, Cronus and Rhea, had many children of their own, including Demeter, Hades, Poseidon, Hera and Hestia. 81Cronus ate each one as they were born because he was afraid they would overthrow him. 82Rhea tricked him with a stone when Zeus was born. 83When Zeus was grown, he fought with Cronus to free his brothers and sisters. 84This led to a fearsome war between the younger Gods and the Titans.
85The Gods won and created a new kingdom for themselves on Mount 0lympus. 86Zeus then told Prometheus to create humans to populate the world, and to worship the Gods. 87Between these original Gods and Goddesses, more deities were born to create the complete pantheon of Greece.
88Another unique point of the Greeks version of creation is that their own pantheon of deities were not the ones responsible for creating the world or mankind. 890ne theory about the entire Titan versus 0lympian God concept is that it reflects the overcoming of a more primitive generation that came before the age of Greece.
Nalive American
90There is no single Native American myth as each tribe and region had its own tales and mythos relating to creation. 91The stories are actually quite diverse, reflecting the different heritages that were found across the continent. 920ne common theme is that animals were involved in either the initial creation of the world or alongside the creation of mankind, which clearly showed the importance of animals in the lives of the people. 93The number four is often important as well, usually in reference to the four cardinal points or corners of the Earth.
African
94As with the Native American myths, there is no single myth that is common to all of Africa. 95Indeed there are thousands of tribal belief systems across the continent and they all have their own versions of a mythical creation. 96Here is just one example, from the great Yoruba people of Western Africa.
970riginally, the world was only sky and water. 98Several great gods lived there, and one decided he wanted to create land and living creatures. 99That was 0batala. 100He discussed this with the other gods and got advice on how to do it. 101He hung a golden chain down from the sky and took sand, a chicken, and a palm nut with him. 102After climbing down the chain, he poured out the sand and let the chicken scratch around to spread it around the world into all the dry land. 1030batala planted the palm nut and plants spread across the lands. 104He lived there for a while but when he got lonely, he fashioned humans out of clay for company.
Some Commonalilies
105As they all cover the fundamental concept of our creation, there are some commonalities between all these stories. 106They mostly begin with darkness and water, but the details vary greatly. 107Floods are a common theme and though they are not always involved in the initial creation, they feature in subsequent destruction/recreation events.
108There is usually a sequence of events that start with the more basic elements, such as land and water or darkness and light. 109Creation is always a multi-stage event where certain things are created in order rather than a single flash of everything coming into existence at once.
110Except for Buddhism, there is always a conscious force behind creation rather than it being a natural phenomenon. 111Some great deity existed before the Earth and made the decision to create our world and everything on it.
112Cycles sometimes come into play and a myth begins with the destruction of a mysterious previous world. 113There is usually no knowledge or understanding of the world that came before this one, except that is believed that the previous one often made the gods angry in some respect and so He (or they) had to start over.
114Creation stories are different from other myths because they usually don t include any morals or reflect cultural behaviour. 115And yet, nearly every culture in the world has some sort of story about how the world began. 116The point is that there is a primal human need to explain our origins even when actual knowledge is impossible to possess. 117We weren t there when the Earth was created, yet we tell stories of this anyway.