Over the last couple weeks, we have analyzed many different creation stories, all of which have contained certain similarities.
All of the stories describe some sort of beginning of the world. They all serve as a possible explanation for the creation of humankind.
Most all of the stories, except in the Eridu Genesis, have contrasting themes of light and dark. In the beginning is some sort of nothingness or darkness. An alive being present in the nothingness subsequently creates something- either deliberately through a command, or through a consequence of the being’s actions (such as Pangu breaking open the egg).
All of the stories we studied include a distinct creator or creators of the universe. We define these creators as gods or God, where even amidst a plurality of gods there is still a “Supreme Being” or “Supreme Creator” over the gods. From here, we can perhaps observe that many cultures, or at least the ones that we’ve discussed, trace the origin of the Universe to a single point or a single creator. What’s interesting is that in physics, this could perhaps be defined as a “singularity”, or “a point at which a function takes an infinite value, especially in space-time when matter is infinitely dense, as at the center of a black hole.” At the beginning of the Universe, a God or gods may have acted as this point in time that prompts the creation of all things, itself or themselves being infinite.
If a God-like being is infinite, and can create the universe, then we can say he can destroy the universe as well. This goes against one of the most important laws of our universe, the First Law of Thermodynamics, which states that matter cannot be created nor destroyed, but can only change forms. So, if the creator of the universe is able to create matter, and destroy matter, then he must be outside of time itself. If you think about it, a being cannot create and destroy itself, so it must be outside of the dimension that it created.
Right now, we perceive our world in the third dimension, meaning we can move right, left, up, down, in, and out. Also, the third dimension perceives time linearly, or as it passes. Any being that lives in a higher dimension than ours will be able to look at time as if it was an object in front of them. Time to a creator of a universe occurs all at once to them, in one place.
Therefore, we can perhaps conclude that when a creator calls a universe into its beginning, he is actually calling forth the end as well. Since the creator will see time all at once, he also sees the end of the universe as it is created.
It’s very difficult for us, as humans, to conceptualize this. However, this should not prevent us from wondering what it would be like to be the creator of a universe, and what that being perceives. Maybe, similarities between different cultures’ beginnings can shine light as to how we are going to end.
Thank you so much for reading! Until next time, keep searching!