cosmos [01] ancient concepts

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COSMOLOGICAL THEORIESA brief history of


The Universe

The universe we live in is a huge space occupied by dust, rocks, planets, stars, galaxies, and radiation.


How did they came to this?

For thousands of years, it has always been the desire of man to study and understand the universe. How did all these came into being? Was it always like that? Or did it evolve from something different?


Study of the Universe

The study of the structure and changes in the universe is called Cosmology.

The word cosmology came from the Greek kosmos which means "world" and -logiawhich means "study of". That branch of cosmology that deals specifically with the origin of the Universe is called cosmogony. The root –gony in Greek is "to be born, come about“.

cosmos ≈world

logy ≈ study of

gony ≈ birth


Unaided Speculations

However, in the past, there was no data and observational equipment. Not even the simplest telescope was available. The concept of force, gravitation and electromagnetism were either absent or inadequate. Cosmology could not but become the practice of speculation.

No instruments No idea of electromagnetism No idea of gravitation


Limited Resources

In the absence of instrumentation and reach, ancient people could only came up with many speculations and imaginative schemes. Each culture produced its own versions of cosmogony and the materials can fill a small library.


Common Points in Ancient Cosmology

Although in ancient times, different cultures at different period produced their own stories of creation, there were a few common points running through almost all of them.

. . . . . .


Common Points

1. There was some creator god(s) who is responsible for the creation of the cosmos and humanity's existence.

2. Creation did not come out of nothing. Some primary materials or element always existed or in parallel to the creator prior to the creation.

3. The cosmos created were structured as a closed, three-storied whole. The earth, in particular, is a flat piece of land surrounded by the primeval ocean

4. The creator god subsequently became the sovereign power dominating the functions and destinies of what he or they have created.6


The Early Universe

The second point is of particular interest to cosmologists because it is in concern with the origin of matter in this universe.When the ancient people looked around him in the sea, the top of the water looked flat in every direction. The horizon where the water met the sky looked like a circle with the observer at the centre. At the same time, the sky looked like a bowl turned upside down to fit the horizon.

HEAVEN

EARTH

WATERS


The Early Universe

So the earliest idea of earth was a circular piece of land surrounded by waters and the sky was a semi-spherical dome hugging the flat earth and waters.

The early people could not explain what all these natural elements and phenomena were. The best answer they could have were that they are gods who ran the universe in an orderly way so that men and other living things could live.


WATER AS ORIGIN


The Common Element

Although the ancient Mesopotamians, Egyptians, and Hebrews had different stories of how their world was formed, there are many basic aspects in common. One of the major similarities is connected with the existence of some elements prior to the creation. All their most popular cosmological theories held that the world had arisen out of the waters of chaos.[Douglas A. Knight, "Cosmogony and Order in the Hebrew Tradition," in Cosmogony and Ethical Order: New Studies in Comparative Ethics, ed. Robin W. Lovin and Frank E. Reynolds (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1985), pp. 138-139.]


Babylonian Mythology

The Babylonians believed there were two gods in the beginning governing the bodies of chaotic water: Apsû over fresh water and his wife Tiamat over salt water. [Ab=water and zu= to know or ‘deep’ was the name for fresh water. Wikipedia]

Apsu TiamutFRESH WATER SALT WATER


Babylonian Creation

In the beginning Apsu and Tiamat were the only beings around. When they mingled their waters together, they gave birth to the other gods and subsequently everything in this world. Nothing existed before these chaos god; so the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish says:

When in the height heaven was not named,And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,

And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both

Their waters were mingled together;

And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;When of the gods none had been called into being,

And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;

Then were created the gods, [all. of them]


The Orderly Universe

Tiamat was known as being a rather wild kind of woman, and was often labelled as "chaos" or "total nuttiness in the universe, where nothing makes sense!“. However it was the great hero Marduk who killed Tiamat and put the world in order.

Sky vault

Stars Moon Sun

Water

Earth

MARDUKTIAMAT


A Flat Earth on Water

The Babylonia universe was a three tier structure with a flat earth floating on waters under the heaven.

HEAVEN

EARTH

WATERS

An ancient stone that depicting how the earth was thought of by the ancient Babylonians.


Egyptian Creation Myth

In ancient Egypt, there were many accounts of the creation of the world. But in all the accounts, the world was said to have arisen out of the infinite lifeless waters of chaos in “the first occasion”.

In one version of the Hermopolitan cosmogony, in which the Egyptians believed, the god Atum mated with his own hand, thus creating his two children Shu and Tefenet, who were personifications—Shu personified as the air, and his sister, Tefenet, associated with moisture.5

The sun rises over the circular mound of creation as goddesses pour out the primeval waters around it.

Allen, James P. (2000). Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press. p. 466. ISBN 0-521-77483-7.


The gods hierarchy

Shu and Tefenet then bore two other deities, Geb and Nut. The picture shows Shu holding up Nut, the sky goddess above Geb, the earth god. It was believed that Geb and Nut were originally locked together in a close embrace, but their father Shu divided them, thus giving Nut her place as the arch of heaven, and leaving Geb to become the physical earth.6 Shu himself became the air between the heaven and earth.7

This Picture is based on the "Heliopolis Cosmogony," one of several dominant myths in the Egyptian Pantheon. The earth on which they walked was the body of the god Geb.


God Started Creation on Waters

The ancestors of the Israelites had close contact with Babylonia. Abraham actually came from there and his later generations moved into Egypt. It’s natural that they would have described the universe similarly except that God created it all. In the book of Genesis of the Christian Bible, it was written:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. [Chapter 1: Verse 1.] And the earth was without form, and void. And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. [Chapter 1: Verse 2.]

It is obvious that water existed before the creation, and that God’s work started from the waters.


Water Everywhere

According to the Harper's Bible Dictionary, “The ancient Hebrews imagined the world as flat and round, covered by the great solid dome of the firmament which was held up by mountain pillars, (Job 26:11; 37:18).

The blue colour of the sky was attributed to the chaotic waters that the firmament separated from the earth (Genesis 1:7). The earth was thus surrounded by waters above and below.

THE GREAT DEEP

SHEOL

EARTH

THE SKY

SEA SEA

The sky is a vault above the earth. It

may fall like any object and so has to rest on foundations.

The earth is a disk floating on the waters supported by pillars.

The sheol is a place beneath the earth.


ANCIENT GREEK COSMOLOGYTo be continued in Part 2

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cosmos [01] ancient concepts

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