Monday 25 January 2010

10 intelligent designs/creation stories


This short article from Live Science gives a quick overview of 10 creation myths from different belief systems/religions. Although it's a bit of a piss-take, and has definitely nudged me into following up with some further reading, the essence of the stories seems credible.

It includes creation stories from:
- Norse mythology
- Zoroastrianism
- Babylon
- Ancient Egypt
- The Aztecs
- The Middle Kingdom, China
- Japan
- Hinduism
- Greece
- Judaism, Christianity and Islam

Some noted similarities across two or more of the above:
- Life emerging from death
- Vengeance and harm against others
- Monsters
- And of course nature (mountains/hills, trees, oceans, rivers animals) and elements (water, fire, earth, air)

What is interesting is that, it is almost always implied that whatever existed before humans was not favourable. Is that because I'm human and so I see the world that I know as the only favourable setting? Or is it because we humans, who wrote these stories, have egos to pet and so imagine that before us, what existence there was was bleak? The same way that, for example, we worry climate change will mean the end of the world when in fact, it will mean merely the end of the world as we know and can live in it.

Here again, in the title of the article, is the use of the idea of intelligence in reference to God-like attributes.

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