Creation of the Universe

Creation Of the UniverseTHEISM ATHEISM

Intelligent Design by a higher power

Random Chance- the universe created itself

Creation Myths Narrative of a culture that describes

the earliest beginnings of the world they know and how people first came into it

Develop within the oral tradition Usually we acknowledge them as

claiming profound truths but not is a literal or historical sense

Creation myths Stories with plot and characters Setting: non specific past Focus on questions held by a society Reveal the worldview and identity of

a culture

Types of Creation Myths Ex nihilo – out of nothing (world is

brought forth from speech, breath, dream, secretion of creator)

Creation from chaos – chaos bad and order is good

World Parent – eternal union of tow parents and world is creating from the splitting apart; or creation comes from the body part of the creator

Types of Creation Myths Emergence- humanity emerges from

one world into the current world Earth Diver – a supreme being sends

an animal into primal waters to find habitable land

Genesis What type of creation story is

Genesis? What symbolic truths are present in

this story? What is the time period for this story? What questions does this story

answer?

How the World was Created and Sky Tree

What type of creation stories are these?

What symbolic truths are present in this story?

What is the time period for this story? What questions does this story

answer?

Big Bang Theory Many once believed that the universe had no beginning or end and was truly infinite.

Discoveries were made (1920s) which indicated that the universe was not infinite and therefore had a beginning.

The Theory About 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion

started the expansion of the universe. This explosion is known as the Big Bang. At the point of this event all of the matter and energy of space was contained at one point. What existed prior to this event is completely unknown and is a matter of pure speculation. This occurrence was not a conventional explosion but rather an event filling all of space with all of the particles of the embryonic universe rushing away from each other. The Big Bang actually consisted of an explosion of space within itself. The galaxies were not all clumped together, but rather the Big Bang lay the foundations for the universe. 

The origin of the Big Bang theory can be credited to Edwin Hubble.

Hubble made the observation that the universe is continuously expanding. He discovered that a galaxy’s velocity is proportional to its distance. Galaxies that are twice as far from us move twice as fast.

Another consequence is that the universe is expanding in every direction. This observation means that it has taken every galaxy the same amount of time to move from a common starting position to its current position. Just as the Big Bang provided for the foundation of the universe, Hubble’s observations provided for the foundation of the Big Bang theory.