Words of Wisdom

Originally posted 4/19/06

Let me start off by saying that I am not, by any means, a scientist. However, I do like to think of myself as an amateur philospher, which let’s me have the freedom to talk about these things without any discernable proof. In my last post, I talked about a poll regarding the origin of life and what Americans believe about it. Now, though, I want to delve a bit deeper into universal origins and the different myths/stories/truths about life, the universe, and everything.

Science-Based
About 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was held in a small, extremely dense particle which exploded hurtling the pieces of the fledgling cosmos to the far reaches of space. This occurence, known as the Big Bang Theory, is based on red shifts, and relativity, and cosmic microwave background radiation, and lots of other stuff that I don’t know anything about…

Christian/Muslim/Jewish
It’s generally held by all three of these groups that “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (unless you’re one of those wierd Jewish Kabbalists, but I’m not getting into that). Now the method of creation varies a bit, though, especially in Christian circles:
Young Earth Creationists
God created the world in 6 24-hour days about 6,000 years ago. He created a special garden where all creatures, even those with elongated canines, ate only plants and everyone was happy. Adam probably even got to ride around on dinosaurs like the Flintstones.
Old Earth Creationists
God created the universe long ago, possibly even by a “Big Bang.” He then created the simplest form of life and guided it through the millenia until finally it evolved into modern man. Old Earth creationists believe that God has revealed and continues to reveal things to us through science.

Hinduism
Hindus believe that the universe is governed by three gods: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the sustainer), and Shiva (the destroyer). Hindus believe that the universe runs in 4.3 billion year cycles, where it is created, destroyed, then created again. Nature and all of God’s creations are manifestations of Him – He is within and without everyone and everything – even in your toilet…

Buddhism
What does the Buddha say about the origin of the universe? “Conjecture about the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness and vexation to anyone who conjectured about it.” And I conjecture that Buddha isn’t worth conjecturing about.

Zoroastrianism
The twin spirits, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, created the world. Mazda created 16 lands to for the good of people and Mainyu introduced plague and sin. And that’s why you can’t buy a car called a Mainyu….

Cherokee
In the beginning, there was just water and all of the animals lived above in the overcrowded sky. One day the water beetle decided to explore it. He dove to the bottom where he found mud, which he carried back to the surface. The mud quickly expanded until it became the earth, but, before they moved to this new land, they put the sun in the sky. Then, because the animals had god-like powers, humans never hurt them…

Scientology
All beings are inhabited by spirits called Thetans. In a sense we are all God, but we’ve just somehow forgotten how to be omnipotent. One day, the Thetans got bored and decided to create a “reality” which is our universe. This is known as Incident I. The aptly named Incident II then took place where the evil space tyrant Xenu introduced bad things to the world in order to foil the Thetans – moronic celebrities everywhere are the only ones that know the truth…

And there’s a lot more, but I’m stopping here so that we can have a poll! Which belief do you hold to?