An origin belief is any story or explanation that describes the beginnings of humanity, earth, life, and the universe (cosmogony). Such beliefs can be derived from many different venues including scientific investigation, metaphysical speculation, or religious belief, or any combination of these. As with any set of beliefs, opinions regarding the validity of particular origins beliefs differ — points of view on these subjects vary widely. Various creation stories have a first man, the first human being. ... // Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation), Lives (disambiguation) or Living (disambiguation), Living Things (disambiguation) Look up life, living in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... Plato and Aristotle, by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome). ... Religious belief refers to a faith or creed concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine. ... Wiktionary has related dictionary definitions, such as: belief Belief is usually defined as a conviction to the truth of a proposition. ... Perspective in theory of cognition is the choice of a context or a reference (or the result of this choice) from which to sense, categorize, measure or codify experience, cohesively forming a coherent belief, typically for comparing with another. ...

Creation myths

Bill Reid's sculpture The Raven and The First Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth. The Raven represents the Trickster figure common to many mythologies. The work is in the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.

Origin beliefs commonly refer to creation myths — mytho-religious stories which explain the beginnings of the universe as a deliberate act of "creation" by a supreme being. However, "origin beliefs" may be generalized to include non-religious claims and theories based in contemporary science or philosophy. Photo of Bill Reids sculpture Raven and The First Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth. ... Photo of Bill Reids sculpture Raven and The First Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth. ... Bill Reids sculpture The Raven and The New Men, showing part of a Haida creation myth. ... The Haida are an indigenous people of the west coast of North America. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section can be improved by converting lengthy lists to text. ... Mythologies is the title of a book by Roland Barthes (ISBN 0374521506), published in 1957. ... The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university with its main campus located at Point Grey, in the University Endowment Lands adjacent to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and another smaller campus known as UBC Okanagan located in Kelowna, British Columbia. ... // The word mythology (Greek: μυθολογία, from μυθος mythos, a story or legend, and λογος logos, an account or speech) literally means the (oral) retelling of myths – stories that a particular culture believes to be true and that use supernatural events or characters to explain the nature of the universe and humanity. ... Various religious symbols Religion is a system of social coherence based on a common group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an object, person, unseen being, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine or highest truth, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, and rituals associated with such... Creation is a doctrinal position in many religions which maintains that one or a group of gods or deities is responsible for creating the universe. ... Candidates for regular freemasonry are required to declare a belief in a Supreme Being; a generic description allowing the candidate to adhere to whichever deity or concept he holds to be appropriate. ... Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

The term creation myth is sometimes used in a derogatory way to describe stories which are still believed today, as the term myth may suggest something which is absurd or fictional. While these beliefs and stories need not be a literal account of actual events, they may yet express ideas that are perceived by some people and cultures to be truths at a deeper or more symbolic level. Author Daniel Quinn notes that in this sense creation myths need not be religious in nature, and they have secular analogues in modern cultures. Daniel Quinn (born 1935 in Omaha, Nebraska) is a United States writer. ...

Many accounts of creation share broadly similar themes. Common motifs include the fractionation of the things of the world from a primordial chaos (demiurge); the separation of the mother and father gods; land emerging from an infinite and timeless ocean; and so on. The term Demiurge refers in some belief systems to a deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...

Some religious groups assert that their accounts of creation should be considered alongside, supersede, or even replace scientific accounts of the development of life and the cosmos. This assertion has proven highly controversial (for one example, see creation-evolution controversy). Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means. ... For other uses, see Life (disambiguation), Lives (disambiguation) or Living (disambiguation), Living Things (disambiguation) Look up life, living in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Ancient and Medieval cosmos as depicted in Peter Apians Cosmographia (Antwerp, 1539). ... The creation-evolution controversy (also termed the creation vs. ...

Scientific observations

Science, strictly speaking, deals only with observable phenomena. Anything that cannot be observed (either directly or indirectly) is, by definition, not a subject of scientific investigation. Scientists look for patterns among observations, which give rise to hypotheses to be tested against further observations. If a hypothesis passes these tests, it is then called a scientific theory, which again is subject to amendment or rejection based on new observations. Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means. ... For the medical use of the term observation, see watchful waiting. ... A phenomenon (plural: phenomena) is an observable event, especially something special (literally something that can be seen from the Greek word phainomenon = observable). ... Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... A pattern is a form, template, or model (or, more abstractly, a set of rules) which can be used to make or to generate things or parts of a thing, especially if the things that are generated have enough in common for the underlying pattern to be inferred or discerned... A hypothesis (from Greek ) is a suggested explanation of a phenomenon or reasoned proposal suggesting a possible correlation between multiple phenomena. ... In mathematics, theory is used informally to refer to a body of knowledge about mathematics. ...

Using verifiable observations science is able to measure some of the effects of past events of evolution of the early universe (for instance, via the microwave echo of the big bang) and interpret these observations within a scientific framework. By extrapolating the current observed state of affairs into the past, scientists seek to construct an accurate picture of the past. Those who are strict adherents to philosophical naturalism believe that such is all that is possible to know. This is not a universally accepted idea by any means, and there are many who promote other paths to knowledge which are not characterised as scientific inquiry. In cosmology, the cosmic microwave background radiation (most often abbreviated CMB but occasionally CMBR, CBR or MBR) is a form of electromagnetic radiation discovered in 1965 that fills the entire universe. ... In mathematics, extrapolation is a type of interpolation. ... Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that reject the validity of explanations or theories making use of entities inaccessible to natural science. ...

In scientific theories supported by the mainstream scientific community, the universe and life is described as developing through solely natural causes, and the progress of science is hoped to continue to improve the explanation of things and events in the past. In mathematics, theory is used informally to refer to a body of knowledge about mathematics. ... The scientific community consists of the interactions and relationships of scientists. ... The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. ... Galunggung in 1982, showing a combination of natural events. ...

Mainstream scientific theories

Graphical rendering of the expansion of the universe due to the Big Bang with the paradoxical singularity at the origin of time.

The Big Bang, the dominant cosmological theory about the early development and current shape and evolution of the universe, is supported by a collection of observed facts. It places origin of the Universe at about 13.7 +/-0.5 billion years ago. This widely accepted scientific dating contradicts many religious accounts of creation - for example, certain creationist accounts consider the Universe to be only a few thousand years old. The preconditions for the Big Bang are currently a subject of developing theories (e.g. cosmic inflation theory). According to the Big Bang theory, the universe originated in an infinitely dense singularity. ... According to the Big Bang theory, the universe originated in an infinitely dense singularity. ... According to the Big Bang, the universe emerged from an extremely dense and hot state (bottom). ... A physical paradox is an apparent contradiction relating to physical descriptions of the universe. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... In mathematics, the origin of a coordinate system is the point where the axes of the system intersect. ... Two distinct views exist on the meaning of time. ... According to the Big Bang, the universe emerged from an extremely dense and hot state (bottom). ... Creationism is generally the belief that the universe was created by a deity, or alternatively by one or more powerful and intelligent beings. ... Cosmic inflation is the idea, first proposed by Alan Guth in 1981, that the nascent universe passed through a phase of exponential expansion (the inflationary epoch) that was driven by a negative pressure vacuum energy density. ...

The solar nebula which coalesced out of gas and dust about 4.3 billion years ago is considered the best planetary system formation model available for explaining the origin of the solar system. The Earth-moon system was formed out of this and there is evidence that the two bodies were formed after a collision between the proto-Earth and a Mars-sized object. ã ... Major features of the Solar System (not to scale): The Sun, the eight planets, the asteroid belt containing the dwarf planet Ceres, outermost there is the dwarf planet Pluto (the dwarf planet Eris not shown), and a comet. ... // Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... Bulk composition of the Moons mantle and crust estimated, weight percent Oxygen 42. ... The Big Splash The giant impact theory (or Big Splash or Big Whack; cf. ...

The modern evolutionary synthesis is the dominant biological theory about the origin of human life on Earth. This combines Charles Darwin's theory of the evolution of species by natural selection with Gregor Mendel's theory of genetics as the basis for biological inheritance. The modern evolutionary synthesis (often referred to simply as the new synthesis, the modern synthesis, the evolutionary synthesis, neo-Darwinian synthesis or neo-Darwinism), generally denotes the integration of Charles Darwins theory of the evolution of species by natural selection, Gregor Mendels theory of genetics as the basis... Human evolution is that part of biological evolution concerning the emergence of humans as a distinct species. ... In 1832, while travelling on the Voyage of the Beagle, naturalist Charles Darwin collected giant fossils in South America. ... In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. ... The Galápagos Islands hold 13 species of finches that are closely related and differ most markedly in the shape of their beaks. ... Gregor Johann Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel (July 20[1], 1822 – January 6, 1884) was an Augustinian abbot who is often called the father of modern genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants. ... Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ... Biological inheritance is the process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed to characteristics of its parent cell or organism. ...

The origin of life itself on Earth is more contested. Scientific conjectures, hypotheses, and observations pertaining to this topic are detailed in the article on the origin of life. Pre-Cambrian stromatolites in the Siyeh Formation, Glacier National Park. ...

It should be pointed out that the above scientific theories are not ex nihilo beliefs, that is they do not start from nothing. They provide no mechanism for the origin ex nihilo of energy or matter. In this respect they are unlike the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beliefs which assert that the universe, Earth, and life originated in a unique creative act by God, or scientific speculations which propose an original cause of some other type. For a more precise understanding of modern science's concepts concerning "matter from vacuum" or "something from nothing" see virtual particle and vacuum energy. In mathematics, theory is used informally to refer to a body of knowledge about mathematics. ... In physics, a virtual particle is a particle-like abstraction used in some models of quantum field theory. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Zero-point energy. ...

Beliefs grounded in philosophical naturalism

Atomism is an ancient Greek philosophy supported by Democritus, Epicurus and Lucretius which held that events in the universe were not the consequence of any act by a Creator, but rather was the result of atoms moving about randomly. This philosophy was reformulated as determinism after the Enlightenment and still enjoys a following by some scientists, though the character of deterministic interactions in nature involving quantum mechanics is an outstanding question. In natural philosophy, atomism is the theory that all the objects in the universe are composed of very small, indestructible elements - atoms. ... ‎ Democritus (Greek: Δημόκριτος) was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher (born at Abdera in Thrace around 460 BC[1][2]). Democritus was a student of Leucippus and co-originator of the belief that all matter is made up of various imperishable, indivisible elements which he called atomos, from which we get the... Roman marble bust of Epicurus Epicurus (Epikouros or in Greek) (341 BC, Samos – 270 BC, Athens) was an ancient Greek philosopher, the founder of Epicureanism, one of the most popular schools of Hellenistic Philosophy. ... Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus (ca. ... Determinism is the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of prior occurrences. ... The Age of Enlightenment refers to the 18th century in European philosophy, and is often thought of as part of a larger period which includes the Age of Reason. ... Fig. ...

The Anthropic Principle and its more controversial derivative the Strong Anthropic Principle are explanations for the existence of humanity with respect to the conditions of the universe that we inhabit. The principle is used as a guide for some scientists to determine certain physical laws that have necessarily resulted in the existence of ourselves. In some sense, the Anthropic Principle is an empirical truism while the Strong Anthropic Principle is an idea that may defy falsification. In cosmology, the anthropic principle in its most basic form states the truism that any valid theory of the universe must be consistent with our existence as carbon-based human beings at this particular time and place in the universe. ... In cosmology, the anthropic principle in its most basic form states the truism that any valid theory of the universe must be consistent with our existence as carbon-based human beings at this particular time and place in the universe. ... A physical law or a law of nature is a scientific generalization based on empirical observations. ... Falsification may mean: The act of disproving a proposition, hypothesis, or theory. ...

Deism was a popular belief of many scientists and philosophers of the post-enlightenment, including Newton, Leibnitz, and Thomas Jefferson that kept the formality of a creator, but allowed creation to function solely based on natural laws that were established at the time of creation. In this formulation, every interaction was completely deterministic. Deism is a religious philosophy and movement that became prominent in England, France, and the United States in the 17th century. ... Sir Isaac Newton, FRS (4 January 1643 – 31 March 1727) [ OS: 25 December 1642 – 20 March 1727][1] was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher, regarded by many as the greatest figure in the history of science. ... This article is 82 kilobytes or more in size. ... Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 N.S. – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and an influential founder of the United States. ... In law, natural law is the doctrine that just laws are immanent in nature (that can be claimed as discovered but not created by such things as a bill of rights) and/or that they can emerge by natural process of resolving conflicts (as embodied by common law). ...

The Many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics and the idea of parallel universes are ways of resolving questions of causality and determinism in the framework of probabilistic interactions. In this speculative interpretation, the universe that we inhabit is one of many possible universes that all simultaneously exist, but are independent of each other, and each universe bifurcates with every quantum mechanical "observation". This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. ... Fig. ... Parallel universe or alternate reality in science fiction and fantasy is a self-contained separate reality coexisting with our own. ... The philosophical concept of causality, the principles of causes, or causation, the working of causes, refers to the set of all particular causal or cause-and-effect relations. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Creation ex nihilo

Creation ex nihilo (Latin: out of nothing) is at odds with our everyday experiences, in that nothing spontaneously comes into (or vanishes from) existence but instead matter and energy merely change forms. However, quantum mechanics allows for energy to be spontaneously created from the vacuum as long as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is not violated (usually, by the spontaneous annihilation of the created particles, e.g. the Lamb shift). This may give a means by which creation ex nihilo can be achieved, but nevertheless we are not currently able to explain creation ex nihilo, nor even to prove that it is required. Julian Barbour suggests that reality simply terminates on nothing at the alpha point, as a brute fact, in the same way that England abuts the sea at Land's End without requiring an explanation. Ex nihilo is a Latin term meaning out of nothing. It is often used in conjunction with the term creation, as in creatio ex nihilo, meaning creation out of nothing. Due to the nature of this, the term is often used in philosophical or creationistic arguments, as a number of... Latin is an ancient [[Indo-European languages|Indo-well as the Roman CEuropean language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... In physics, matter is commonly defined as the substance of which physical objects are composed, not counting the contribution of various energy or force-fields, which are not usually considered to be matter per se (though they may contribute to the mass of objects). ... Fig. ... Look up Vacuum in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, sometimes called the Heisenberg indeterminacy principle, expresses a limitation on accuracy of (nearly) simultaneous measurement of observables such as the position and the momentum of a particle. ... In physics, the Lamb shift, named after Willis Lamb, is a small difference in energy between two energy levels and of the hydrogen atom in quantum mechanics. ... Julian Barbour (born 1937) is a British physicist. ... Lands End (Cornish name: Pedn a Wollaz) is a headland on the Penwith peninsula, located near Penzance, Cornwall, at the extreme south-western tip of the British mainland. ...

An explanation advanced by some theists is that God created the Universe out of nothing; some creationists hold also that life was created in something like its present state of variety, so that organisms were fully speciated from the beginning. While there are various attempts to square these ideas with available evidence and currently accepted theory, their explanatory utility, predictive power, and scientific standing are questioned by critics of creationism. Many scientists in the relevant fields, theist and otherwise, do not regard notions like divine power or divine will as playing genuine scientific roles in cosmology or biology. Creationism is generally the belief that the universe was created by a deity, or alternatively by one or more powerful and intelligent beings. ... The Creation of Light by Gustave Doré. In many religious traditions, creationism is ideological support of the belief that humanity, life, the Earth, or the universe as a whole was specially created by a supreme being (often referred to specifically as God[1]) or by other forms of supernatural intervention. ...

The scientifically prevalent view is that life originated on Earth, although other views hold that organic compounds from comets may have been an important source of material for the appearance of life. The Miller-Urey experiment showed that amino acids could arise from a type of primitive environment. Nevertheless, while scientific research on abiogenesis is ongoing, there is no consensus on how life began. The Miller-Urey experiment attempts to recreate the chemical conditions of the primitive Earth in the laboratory, and synthesized some of the building blocks of life. ... The general structure of an amino acid molecule, with the amine group on the left and the carboxyl group on the right. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Religious creation beliefs

Several religions have creation stories, some of which account for the existence and present form of the Universe by the act of creation by a supreme being or the Creator God. Most of these accounts depict one or several gods fashioning things out of themselves, or from pre-existing material (for example chaos or prakriti). The deepest visible-light image of the cosmos, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. ... Candidates for regular freemasonry are required to declare a belief in a Supreme Being; a generic description allowing the candidate to adhere to whichever deity or concept he holds to be appropriate. ... God is the divine being that created the omniverse. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... Prakrti or Prakriti (from Sanskrit language) is, according to samkhya philosophy the basic matter of which the universe consists. ...

The scholastic traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam for the most part speak of creation ex nihilo. This is typified, for example, by the assumption that the first verse of the Christian Bible ("In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth") indicates the only self-existent entity is God with all other things deriving from God. 2 Maccabees 7:28 indicates that this philosophy may have been a common Jewish understanding of creation: "I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not ...". Similar to this is the language found in the Book of Hebrews, which states, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear". Some (notably Augustine of Hippo) also hold that God is altogether outside of time and that time exists only within the created universe. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ... Christianity is a monotheistic[1] religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, and on his life and teachings as presented in the New Testament. ... For other uses, including people named Islam, see Islam (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Bible (disambiguation). ... 2 Maccabees is a deuterocanonical book of the Bible which focuses on the Jews revolt against Antiochus and concludes with the defeat of the Syrian general Nicanor in 161 BC by Judas Maccabeus, the hero of the work. ... The Epistle to the Hebrews (abbreviated Heb. ... For the first Archbishop of Canterbury, see Saint Augustine of Canterbury. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... While in the popular mind, eternity often simply means existing for an infinite, i. ...

However, in these traditions, the belief that God gave shape to pre-existing things was not unheard of, and that idea became more fully articulated especially under the influence of Greek philosophy. In both Judaism and Christianity, belief in creation "from nothing" began to dominate the traditions sometime in the second century C.E., in part as a reaction against classical philosophy. The following story from the Talmud illustrates this:

A philosopher said to R. Gamiliel: Your God was a great craftsman, but he found himself good materials which assisted him: Tohu wa-Bohu, and darkness, and wind, and water, and the primeval deep. Said R. Gamiliel to him: May the wind be blown out of that man! Each material is referred to as created. Tohu wa-Bohu: "I make peace and create evil"; darkness: "I form the light and create darkness"; water: "Praise him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters" -- why? -- "For he commanded, and they were created"; wind: "For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and created the wind"; the primeval deep: "When there were no depths, I was brought forth". BR 1.9, Th-Alb:8

Departing from this tradition, some modern scholars have argued that these statements and all others are still susceptible to ambiguous interpretation, so that creation ex nihilo may not be clearly supported by ancient texts, including the Bible. They point out the similarities of the biblical account, to other ancient religious beliefs that the universe was created by God or the gods out of pre-existing matter, as opposed to "out of nothing". Some scholars see evidence that the biblical account, like other ancient religious views, presumes pre-existence of some kind of raw material, albeit without form: "Now the earth was formless and void, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of God hovered over the waters." God then fashions the disordered material, to create the world. This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...

Joseph Campbell wrote extensively on the subject and considered creative mythology a means to reconcile the waking consciousness to the mysterium tremendum et fascinans of this universe as it is. In his book The Masks of God: Creative Mythology he explains that the retelling of the creation myth would render an interpretive total image of creation to be known to contemporary culture. Renewing the act of the experience of creation the existence of adventure is renewed, “at once shattering and reintegrating the fixed already known, in the sacrificial creative fire of the becoming thing that is no thing at all but life, not as it will be or as it should be, as it was or as it never will be, but as it is, in depth, in process, here and now, inside and out.” Joseph Campbell For other uses, see Joseph Campbell (disambiguation). ...

Limits to the ontology of creation

While many scenarios are proposed by religion and science to identify 'first cause' and the origin of creation (ontology), there are some fundamental limits to the knowledge of humankind that present a barrier to finding any definitive answer. In philosophy, ontology (from the Greek , genitive : of being (part. ...

Post-modern philosophy currently holds that there is nothing that one can know for certain. Immanuel Kant's philosophy can be seen as a forerunner of this idea — that because we view the universe through the lens of the mind, which is 'shaped' by space, time, and the things embedded in space and time, it is not possible to see things-in-themselves (noumena) - the real objects that lie behind the subjective objects (phenomena) we recognise. If true, it is beyond the mind of humankind to perceive a condition that has no space or time. Many other philosophers, most recently Popper have all shown that there is precious little one can be sure of that would provide a starting point to determine the 'first cause' that led to creation. Postmodernism (sometimes abbreviated pomo) is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding, modernism. ... Immanuel Kant (22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804), was a German philosopher from Königsberg in East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A phenomenon (plural: phenomena) is an observable event, particularly something special (literally something that can be seen, derived from the Greek word phainomenon = observable). ... Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, MA, Ph. ...

Modern physics is an empirical science based on experiment and observation that characterizes how things happen through scientific theories and physical laws, but ultimately does not answer the question of 'why' things happen at the foundational (ontological) level. For example, the existence of the Big Bang is not predicated on a reason for its occurrence. What's more, the modern physics breaks down at the Planck time/Planck length, where both the influences of quantum mechanics and gravity are required to be combined in order to characterize the interactions that occur. As such, there is no model available that has been tested at this level, and so any attempt to theoretically probe beyond this regime in search of a more fundamental appreciation of the nature of the universe is hampered. Physics (from the Greek, (phúsis), nature and (phusiké), knowledge of nature) is the science concerned with the discovery and understanding of the fundamental laws which govern matter, energy, space and time. ... The lunar farside as seen from Apollo 11 Natural science is the rational study of the universe via rules or laws of natural order. ... In the scientific method, an experiment (Latin: ex-+-periri, of (or from) trying), is a set of actions and observations, performed in the context of solving a particular problem or question, to support or falsify a hypothesis or research concerning phenomena. ... For the medical use of the term observation, see watchful waiting. ... In mathematics, theory is used informally to refer to a body of knowledge about mathematics. ... A physical law or a law of nature is a scientific generalization based on empirical observations. ... According to the Big Bang, the universe emerged from an extremely dense and hot state (bottom). ... In physics, the Planck time (tP), is the natural unit of time. ... The Planck length, denoted by , is the unit of length in the system of units known as Planck units. ... Fig. ... Gravity is a force of attraction that acts between bodies that have mass. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Religion has philosophy and oral testimony available to it to demonstrate a God or a separate "first cause" that called the universe into existence. As such it is dependent on faith in God or the specific "first cause" to which it ascribes.

Creation within various belief systems

Some creation beliefs are part of a named system of beliefs and are labeled as such below. Some creation beliefs seem to be better characterized according to time and/or place as they are part of a human culture in a time/place.

Ainu

The Ainu people of Hokkaido recount the demiurge with a cosmology consisting of six heavens and six hells where gods, demons, and animals lived. Demons lived in the lower heavens. Amongst the stars and the clouds lived the lesser gods. In highest heaven lived Kamui, the creator God, and his servants. His realm was surrounded by a mighty metal wall and the only entrance was through a great iron gate. The Ainu IPA: /?ajnu/) are an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaido and north of Honshu in Northern Japan, the Kuril Islands, much of Sakhalin, and the southernmost third of the Kamchatka peninsula. ... For the dog breed, see Hokkaido (dog). ... The term Demiurge refers in some belief systems to a deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity. ... Heaven is an afterlife concept found in many religions or spiritual philosophies. ... Medieval illustration of Hell in the Hortus deliciarum manuscript of Herrad of Landsberg (about 1180) Hell, according to many religious beliefs, is a place or a state of pain and suffering. ... Look up deity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... St. ... The Pleiades, an open cluster of stars in the constellation of Taurus. ... This article is about clouds in meteorology. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Kamui made this world as a vast round ocean resting on the backbone of an enormous trout. This fish sucks in the ocean and spits it out again to make the tides; when it moves it causes earthquakes. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Biwa trout (Oncorhynchus masou subsp) Trout is the common name given to a number of species of freshwater fish belonging to the salmon family, Salmonidae. ...

One day Kamui looked down on the watery world and decided to make something of it. He sent down a water wagtail to do the work. By fluttering over the waters with its wings and by trampling the sand with its feet and beating it with its tail, the wagtail created patches of dry land. In this way islands were raised to float upon the ocean. Genera Dendronanthus Motacilla The wagtails are a group of small passerine birds with long tails which they wag frequently. ... The worlds oceans as seen from the South Pacific Ocean Oceans (from Okeanos in Greek, the ancient Greeks noticing the strong current that flowed off Gibraltar and assuming it was a great river) cover almost three quarters (71%) of the surface of the Earth, and nearly half of the...

When the animals who lived up in the heavens saw how beautiful the world was, they begged Kamui to let them go and live on it, and he did. But Kamui also made many other creatures especially for the world. The first people, the Ainu, had bodies of earth, hair of chickweed, and spines made from sticks of willow. Kamui sent Aioina, the divine man, down from heaven to teach the Ainu how to hunt and to cook.

Apache

In the beginning nothing existed, only darkness was everywhere. Suddenly from the darkness emerged a thin disc, one side yellow and the other side white, appearing suspended in midair. Within the disc sat a small bearded man, Creator, the One Who Lives Above. When he looked into the endless darkness, light appeared above. He looked down and it became a sea of light. To the east, he created yellow streaks of dawn. To the west, tints of many colours appeared everywhere. There were also clouds of different colors. He also created three other gods: a little girl, a Sun-God and a small boy. Then he created celestial phenomena, the winds, the tarantula, and the earth from the sweat of the four gods mixed together in the Creator's palms, from a small round, brown ball, not much larger than a bean. The world was expanded to its current size by the gods kicking the small brown ball. Creator told Wind to go inside the ball and to blow it up. The tarantula, the trickster character, spun a black cord and, attaching it to the ball, crawled away fast to the east, pulling on the cord with all his strength. Tarantula repeated with a blue cord to the south, a yellow cord to the west, and a white cord to the north. With mighty pulls in each direction, the brown ball stretched to immeasurable size--it became the earth! No hills, mountains, or rivers were visible; only smooth, treeless, brown plains appeared. Then the Creator created the rest of the beings and features of the Earth Diversity 113 genera, 897 species Genera Subfamily Acanthopelminae    Acanthopelma Subfamily Aviculariinae    Avicularia    Ephobopus    Pachistopelma    Tapinauchenius Subfamily Eumenophorinae    Anoploscelus    Batesiella    Citharischius    Encyocrates    Eumenophorus    Hysterocrates    Loxomphalia    Loxoptygus    Monocentropus    Myostola    Phoneyusa    Polyspina Subfamily Harpactirinae    Ceratogyrus    Coelogenium    Eucratoscelus    Harpactira    Pterinochilus Subfamily Ischnocolinae    Chaetopelma    Cratorrhagus    Heterothele    Ischnocolus    Nesiergus    Plesiophrictus/Neoplesiophrictus Subfamily Ornithoctoninae    Citharognathus    Cyriopagopus    Haplopelma... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section can be improved by converting lengthy lists to text. ...

Australian Aboriginal

There is no single creation story among Aboriginal peoples, who have a diverse mythology. Some traditions hold that the Earth was created by one of the gods of the Dreamtime, others that particular creatures were created by particular gods or spirit ancestors. The indigenous peoples of Australia can be classified into hundreds of language groups and clans. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...

Aztec

Quetzalcoatl in human form, from the Codex Borbonicus.

The Aztec narrative describing creation proceeds with an Earth mother, "Coatlique", the Lady of the Skirt of Snakes. She was decorated with skulls, snakes, and lacerated hands. At first she was whole without cracks in her body -- a perfect monolith (a totality of intensity and self-containment, yet her features were square and decapitated). Coatlique was first impregnated by an obsidian knife and gave birth to Coyolxauhqui, goddess of the moon, and to a group of male offspring, who became the stars. Image File history File links Quetzalcoatl_1. ... Image File history File links Quetzalcoatl_1. ... Quetzalcoatl in human form, from the Codex Borbonicus. ... The original page 13 of the Codex Borbonicus, showing the 13th trecena of the Aztec sacred calendar. ... The Aztecs were a Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican people of central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. ... The Earth Mother is a motif that appears in many mythologies. ... In Aztec mythology, Coatlicue (skirt of serpents) was our Mother goddess of the Earth, the goddess of fire and fertility, mother of the southern stars. ... Obsidian from Lake County, Oregon Top stone is obsidian, below that is pumice and in lower right hand is rhyolite (light color) Obsidian is a type of naturally occurring glass, produced by volcanoes (igneous origin) when a felsic lava cools rapidly and freezes without sufficient time for crystal growth (see... In Aztec mythology, Coyolxauhqui (golden bells) was a moon goddess. ...

Then one day Coatlique found a ball of feathers, which she tucked into her bosom. When she looked for it later, it was gone, at which time she realized that she was again pregnant. Her children, the moon and stars did not believe her story. Ashamed of their mother, they resolved to kill her. During the time that they were plotting her demise, Coatlique gave birth to the fiery god of war, Huitzilopochtli. With the help of a fire serpent, he destroyed his brothers and sister, murdering them in a rage. He beheaded Coyolxauhqui and threw her body into a deep gorge in a mountain, where it lies dismembered forever. A pictorial representation of Huitzilopochtli from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e História, México In Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli, also spelled Uitzilopochtli, (IPA: (Hummingbird of the South, He of the South, Hummingbird on the Left (South), or Left-Handed Humming Bird – huitzil is the Nahuatl word for hummingbird...

This precipitated a great civil war in heaven which crumbled to pieces. Coatlique fell and was fertilized, while her children were torn apart by fratricide and them scattered and disjointed throughout the universe. Who remained were Ometecutli and his wife Omecihuatl that created life. Their children were: Xipe Totec the god of spring, Huitzilopochtli the Sun god, Quetzalcoatl the "light one" and "plumed serpent", and Tezcatlipoca, the "dark one" and god of night and sorcery. In Aztec mythology, Ometecuhtli (two-lord; also Ometeoltloque, Ometecutli, Tloque Nahuaque, Citlatonac) was a god of fire, a creator deity and one of the highest gods in the pantheon, though he had no cult and was not actively worshipped. ... In Aztec mythology, Omecihuatl (also Omeciuatl) was a creator goddess who, along with her husband, Ometecuhtli, was the source of all life on Earth; the pair were aspects of Ometeotl. ... Xipe Totec in an illustration from Rig Veda Americanus, an 1890 book on American aboriginal literature In Aztec mythology, Xipe Totec (our lord the flayed one) was a life-death-rebirth deity, god of agriculture, the west, disease, spring, goldsmiths and the seasons. ... Look up spring in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A pictorial representation of Huitzilopochtli from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e História, México In Aztec mythology, Huitzilopochtli, also spelled Uitzilopochtli, (IPA: (Hummingbird of the South, He of the South, Hummingbird on the Left (South), or Left-Handed Humming Bird – huitzil is the Nahuatl word for hummingbird... A solar deity is a deity who represents the Sun. ... Quetzalcoatl in human form, from the Codex Borbonicus. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca saw that whatever they created was eaten by Coatlique who floated in the abyss eating everything with her many mouths. To stop her, they changed into two serpents and descended into the water. One grabbed the goddess by the arms while the other grabbed her by the legs, and before she could resist they pulled her apart into different pieces. Her head and shoulders became the earth and the lower part of her body the sky. Serpent can be any of the following: The reptile commonly called snake. ...

The other deities were angry at what the two had done and decided, as compensation for her dismemberment, to allow her to provide the necessities for people to survive; so from her hair they created trees, grass, and flowers; caves, fountains, and wells from her eyes; rivers from her mouth; hills and valleys from her nose; and mountains from her shoulders.

Still the goddess was often unhappy and the people could hear her crying in the night. They knew she wept because of her thirst for human blood, and that she would not provide food from the soil until she drank. So the gift of human hearts is given her. She who provides sustenance for human lives demands human lives for her own sustenance. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Babylonian

The Babylonian creation myth is recounted in the "Epic of Creation" also known as the Enûma Elish. The Mesopotamian "Epic of Creation" dates to the late second millennium B.C.E. Enûma EliÅ¡ is the creation epic of Sumerian Babylonian mythology. ...

In the poem, the god Marduk (or Assur in the Assyrian versions of the poem) is created to defend the divine beings from an attack plotted by the ocean goddess Tiamat. The hero Marduk offers to save the gods only if he is appointed their supreme unquestioned leader and is allowed to remain so even after the threat passes. The gods agree to Marduk's terms. Marduk challenges Tiamat to combat and destroys her. He then rips her corpse into two halves with which he fashions the Earth and the heavens. Marduk then creates the calendar, organizes the planets, stars and regulates the moon, sun, and weather. The gods pledge their allegiance to Marduk and he creates Babylon as the terrestrial counterpart to the realm of the gods. Marduk then destroys Tiamat's husband, Kingu using his blood to create mankind so that they can do the work of the gods. (Sources, Foster, B.R., From Distant Days : Myths, Tales, and Poetry of Ancient Mesopotamia. 1995, Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press. vi, 438 p., Bottéro, J., Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. 2004, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. x, 246 p., Jacobsen, T., The Treasures of Darkness : A History of Mesopotamian Religion. 1976, New Haven: Yale University Press. 273.) Marduk [märdook] (Sumerian spelling in Akkadian AMAR.UTU solar calf; Biblical Merodach) was the name of a late generation god from ancient Mesopotamia and patron deity of the city of Babylon, who, when Babylon permanently became the political center of the Euphrates valley in the time of Hammurabi... Kingu, also spelled Qingu, was a demon in Babylonian mythology, and the consort of the goddess Tiamat before she was slain by Marduk. ...

Bahá'í

The founder of the Bahá'í Faith, Bahá'u'lláh, wrote that the material universe has always existed, though in a different form, and that the Word of God was its generating impulse. He further writes that God's Will expresses itself in the contingent world as nature, and that creation in totality has neither beginning nor end. Bahá'í Writings state that the material universe is only part of creation: there are many "worlds of God". (Sources: Bahá'u'lláh, Lawh-i-Hikmat p140-142 [1], `Abdu'l-Bahá, Promulgation of Universal Peace p47 [2]) Seat of the Universal House of Justice in Haifa, Israel, governing body of the Baháís The Baháí Faith is a religion founded by Baháulláh in 19th century Persia. ... Shrine of Baháulláh Baháulláh (ba-haa-ol-laa Arabic: ‎ Glory of God) (1817 - 1892), born (Persian: ‎ ​), was the founder and prophet of the Baháí Faith. ... `Abdul-Bahá Sir `Abdul-Bahá `Abbás Effendí (May 23, 1844 - November 28, 1921) commonly known as `Abdul-Bahá (abdol-ba-haa Arabic: ‎ ), was the son of Baháulláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Baháí Faith. ...

Bantu

The Bantu account of demiurge is as follows. Originally, the Earth was nothing but water and darkness. Mbombo, the white giant ruled over this chaos. One day, he felt a terrible pain in his stomach, and vomited the sun, the moon, and the stars. The sun shone fiercely and water steamed up in clouds. Gradually, the dry hills appeared. Mbombo vomited again, this time the trees came out of his stomach, and animals, and people , and many other things: the first woman, the leopard, the eagle, the anvil, monkey Fumu, the first man, the firmament, medicine, and lighting. Nchienge, the woman of the waters, lived in the East. She had a son, Woto, and a daughter, Labama. Woto was the first king of the Bakuba. Map showing the approximate distribution of Bantu (dull yellow) vs. ... The term Demiurge refers in some belief systems to a deity responsible for the creation of the physical universe and the physical aspect of humanity. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ...

Buddhist

Buddhism generally ignores the question regarding the origin of life. The Buddha regarding the origin of life has said "Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it." AN IV.77, and in regard to ignoring the question of the origin of life the Buddha has said "And why are they undeclared by me? Because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life. They do not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are undeclared by me." MN 63. The Buddha also compared the question of the origin of life - as well as many other metaphysical questions - to the parable of the poison arrow: a man is shot with a poison arrow, but before the doctor pulls it out, he wants to know who shot it (arguing the existence of God), where the arrow came from (where the universe and/or God came from) why that person shot it (why God created the universe), etc. If the man keeps asking these questions before the arrow is pulled out, the Buddha reasoned, he will die before he gets the answers. Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions like the origin of life, and more concerned with the goal of saving oneself and other beings from suffering by attaining Enlightenment, or Nirvana. However, the esoteric Buddhist teaching, the Kalachakra Tantra, deals with the formation and functioning of reality. Modern day Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama don't perceive a conflict between Buddhism and science and consider they are complementary means of understanding the world around us. [3] A replica of an ancient statue of Gautama Buddha, found in Sarnath, near Varanasi. ... Media:Example. ... Disenchantment (Entzauberung) in social sciences refers to the devaluation of mysticism. ... Plato and Aristotle, by Raphael (Stanza della Segnatura, Rome). ... . It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Spiritual enlightenment. ... [ (Devanagari , Pali: Nibbāna निब्बान -- Chinese: 涅槃; Pinyin: niè pán), literally extinction and/or extinguishing (ie, of the passions) is a mode of being that is free from mind-contaminants (Kilesa) such as lust, anger or craving. ... Kalachakra is a term used in tantric Buddhism that means time-wheel or time-cycles. ... The 14th and current Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso (born 1935) In Tibetan Buddhism, the successive Dalai Lamas (Tibetan: ཏ་ཱལའི་བླ་མ་; Wylie: Taa-la’i Bla-ma; Simplified Chinese: , Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Dálài LÇŽmā) form a tulku lineage of Gelug leaders which trace back to 1391. ...

Cherokee

In the beginning, there was just water. All the animals lived above it and the sky was overcrowded. They were all curious about what was beneath the water and one day Dayuni'si, the water beetle, volunteered to explore it. He explored the surface but could not find any solid ground. He explored below the surface to the bottom and all he found was mud which he brought back to the surface. After collecting the mud, it began to grow in size and spread outwards until it became the Earth as we know it. A water beetle is a sexy beetle adapted for living in water. ...

After all this had happened, one of the animals attached this new land to the sky with four strings. The land was still too wet so they sent the great buzzard from Galun'lati to prepare it for them. The buzzard flew down and by the time that he reached the Cherokee land he was so tired that his wings began to hit the ground. Wherever they hit the ground a mountain or valley formed. A buzzard is one of several large birds, but there are a number of meanings as detailed below. ... For other uses, see Cherokee (disambiguation). ...

The animals then decided that it was too dark, so they made the sun and put it on the path in which it still runs today.

Chinese

Main article: Chinese creationism

There are five major views of creation in China: In Chinese mythology, Pangu was given birth from chaos and created Earth and Sky. ...

• The first, and most consistent historically, is that no myth exists. This is not to say there were none existing at all, only that there is no evidence showing an attempt to explain the world's origin.

• The second view is very indirect. It is merely based on a question of a dialog in an earlier reference. The idea in the question implies that the heavens and the earth separated from one another.

• The third view is the one perpetuated by Taoism by the nature of its philosophy. It appears "relatively" late in Chinese history. In it, Tao is described as the ultimate force behind the creation. With tao, nothingness gave rise to existence, existence gave rise to yin and yang, and yin and yang gave rise to everything. Due to the ambiguous nature of this myth, it could be compatible with the first myth (and therefore say nothing). But it could, like its antithesis, be explained in a way to better fit the modern scientific view of the creation of universe.

• The fourth view is the relatively late myth of Pangu. This was an explanation offered by Taoist monks hundreds of years after Laozi; probably around 200 CE. In this story, the universe begins as a cosmic egg. A god named Pangu, born inside the egg, broke it into two halves: The upper half became the sky, the lower half became the earth. As the god grew taller, the sky and the earth grew thicker and were separated further. Finally the god died and his body parts became different parts of the earth.

• The fifth view would be tribal accounts that vary widely and not necessarily connect to a system of belief.

Taoism (sometimes written as and actually pronounced as Daoism(dow-ism)) is the English name for: Dao Jia [philosophical tao]philosophical school based on the texts the Tao Te Ching (ascribed to Laozi [Lao Tzu] and alternately spelled Dào Dé Jīng) and the Zhuangzi; a family of organized... Taijitu, the traditional symbol representing the forces of Yin and Yang The concepts of Yin and Yang originate in ancient Chinese philosophy and metaphysics, which describes two primal opposing but complementary forces found in all things in the universe. ... In later Chinese mythology, Pangu (盤古; pinyin: pan2 gu3; also PanGu, PanKu, Pan Guo) was the first living being and the creator of all. ... For other uses of the words tao and dao, see Dao (disambiguation). ... A monk is a person who practices asceticism, the conditioning of mind and body in favor of the spirit. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Mythology A world egg or cosmic egg is a mythological motif used in the creation myths of many cultures and civilizations. ... In later Chinese mythology, Pangu (盤古; pinyin: pan2 gu3; also PanGu, PanKu, Pan Guo) was the first living being and the creator of all. ...

Choctaw

The Choctaw who remain in Mississippi recount a narrative explanation of how they came to the land where they live now and of how Naniah Waiya Mound came to be. Chata and Chicksah, two brothers, led the original people from a land in the far west that had ceased to prosper. The people traveled for a long time, guided by a magical pole. Each night, when the people stopped to camp, the pole was placed in the ground and in the morning the people would travel in the direction in which the pole leaned. For other uses, see Choctaw (disambiguation). ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

After traveling for an extremely long time, they finally came to a place where the pole remained upright. In this place, they laid to rest the bones of their ancestors, which they had carried in buffalo sacks from the original land in the west. The mound grew out of that great burial. After the burial, the brothers discovered that the land could not support all the people. Chicksah took half the people and departed to the North and eventually became the Chickasaw tribe. Chatah and the others remained near the mound and are now known as the Choctaw. The Chickasaws are a Native American people of the United States, originally from present-day Mississippi, now mostly living in Oklahoma. ...

Christian

Creation of Light, by Gustave Doré. The painting depicts a literal representation of Genesis 1:1 ("Let there be light").

Main articles: Creation (theology), Creation according to Genesis, and Creationism

According to the book of Genesis, God eternally pre-existed the created order. As Genesis' first recorded act in reference to the world we know today, "God created" (Gen. 1:1). All the created order, from the luminaries of the sky to the fish of the sea, to the mingling of dust and divine breath that is humankind (Heb. adam, covering both male and female humankind), were created by God to embrace and enjoy the optimal living environment that is earth. Man and woman were made to reflect God's authority, love and good government into the world as stewards, and to offer up the praises of creation back to God. Download high resolution version (513x646, 398 KB) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Download high resolution version (513x646, 398 KB) The two-dimensional work of art depicted in this image is in the public domain in the United States and in those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 100 years. ... Doré photographed by Felix Nadar. ... Creation (theology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ... The Creation of Light by Gustave Doré. In many religious traditions, creationism is ideological support of the belief that humanity, life, the Earth, or the universe as a whole was specially created by a supreme being (often referred to specifically as God[1]) or by other forms of supernatural intervention. ...

Unique in all the created order, humanity, male and female, are the sole bearers of the imago Dei, the image (Heb. tselem - as in a child in the image of a parent) of God among animate and inanimate creation. As image-bearers, human beings have a mandate to walk in community with God, community and care for one another, and as caretakers of this good world. Resisting the invitation to the "We" of community with God and one another, human beings chose to live in the "I" of individualism and self-actualization.

At this point in the Genesis origins narrative, human beings became, as Francis Schaeffer put it, "indisputably bent." This self-made isolation moves the human soul toward self-preservation and self-absorption. This "falling into shadow," has unleashed destructive patterns within and without the human race, and the need for a redemptive adam to choose to live a human life in community with God, thereby reversing the effects of the fall, was exposed.

In Christian belief, Jesus, the Christ of God, was the new adam sent to us "at the fullness of time." Humanity's search to return to the Eden of our origin will culminate in a new and amplified Eden in the age to come, manifest in a new heaven and a new earth.

On First Cause

References to God in the New Testament vary, however, overall they demonstrate an incorporation of the first cause. It should be noted, however, that the Christian conception of God, the holy trinity, is more complex. The following examples illustrate this: John 21:1 Jesus Appears to His Disciples--Alessandro Mantovani: the Vatican, Rome. ... For other