Life, the Universe, and Everything

Life, the Universe, and Everything

In this assignment, one is to discuss the various forms of creation stories and provide examples after doing research about different cultures. Here are my responses:

• Creation ex nihilo in which the creation is through the thought, word, dream, or bodily secretions of a divine being

Example: Genesis 1 and 2

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” → God spoke the universe into existence

• Earth diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops into a terrestrial world

Example: Pacific Northwestern Indigenous Peoples

Raven spirit, Kutkh chipped away at stones surrounding Earth to create the physical world. “... islands and continents are created by his defecation, rivers and lakes out of his waters. The difficult volcanic terrain and swift rivers of Kamchatka are thought to reflect Kutkh's capricious and willful nature.

• Emergence myths in which progenitors pass through a series of worlds and metamorphoses until reaching the present world

Example: Navajo Creation

First world; described as “small and pitch-black… four seas in the middle of an island… ants dragonflies locusts and beetles lived there and made up of Air-Spirit People of the world” → Clouds came together → Formed the First Woman and the First Man → Great Coyote was formed from water → All other creatures followed in the second world and even more in other worlds to follow (four total)

• Creation by the dismemberment of a primordial being

Example: Indo-European Creation

The killing of frost giant Ymir resulted in the creation of the physical world. Ymir came after a “primordial moisture,” along with Auðumbla, a “primordial cow.” Below is a short poem for the Indo-Europeans regarding the story of their complex creation:

“Of Ymir’s flesh | the earth was fashioned,

And of his sweat the sea;

Crags of his bones, | trees of his hair,

And of his skull the sky.

Then of his brows | the blithe gods made

Midgard for sons of men;

And of his brain | the bitter-mooded

Clouds were all created.”

• Creation by the splitting or ordering of a primordial unity such as the cracking of a cosmic egg or a bringing order from chaos

Example: Greek Creation

Greek Earth goddess, Gaia, was formed from chaos. She gave birth to the future father of her children, most of which were “terrible monsters.” However, she then birthed a few gods and goddesses, who ultimately defeated the “aggressive and warlike” beings in the end. All in all, Greek culture emphasizes the fact that only the strong survive, as strong gods and goddesses, Zeus in particular, gave rise to all that followed.

Construct a valid and reliable scientific explanation of the Big Bang Theory used to explain the beginning of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Provide evidence-based on the motion of distant galaxies, and the composition of matter in the universe.

13.8 billion years ago, what we know today as, “Life, the Universe, and Everything,” was simply an extremely small ball of matter. Over time, the ball only continued to expand. Scientists were able to prove this is true over many, many years by comparing distances from certain objects in the sky. Of course, at an even later point, scientists were able to identify what these objects were… galaxies. Astronomer Edwin Hubble was credited with this discovery, as he claimed “… the speed at which astronomical objects move apart is proportional to their distance from each other.”