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FluteSound4's picture

Creation stories and the Universe

 One of the ideas brought up on Thursday was that in all of our creation stories we put humans as the center of the story. I really have to agree with this idea. Even in my creation story the Gods are humanized. What I mean when I say that is that we give Gods human characteristics, traits, personalities, etc. Sometimes the only thing that really makes them Gods are their supernatural powers or just where the happen to live (ie. the sky). Why do we put ourselves in the center of creation stories? Maybe in the past we did it because, well yes, we were a little self-centered, but that also has to do with the fact that people couldn't really conceive anything greater than the world itself. A few hundred years ago it was just the world that seemed to be enormous. To think of anything more enormous than the world would have been mind boggling! Also, one of the most simplest main characters we could have put in stories are humans because we know ourselves better than anything else in this world or universe. 

I always feel small when I read things such as "origins of the universe." I think it's because the universe is so big and it makes you realize how small humans really are. But don't get me wrong. I actually love astronomy and I love learning more about the universe. Not only was science the big difference between "origins of the universe" and our creation stories, but also that "origins of the universe" actually used concrete details. Sure, most of these concrete details are mainly theories, but they're theories that are highly regarded and looked upon in the science world (such as Einstein's theory of relativity). Most of our creation stories, or at least the little that we've read of each, all took some sort of fantastical route. We didn't use much science or back up our ideas with claims of dark matter. Most our stories were more simple in a sense. They were more familiar in a sense that it wasn't mind boggling to imagine or to consider, unlike the origins of our actual universe. 

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