Martin-Corrales,+Joshua

__Research Question__
Do the origin and end of life stories for religions sync up in any way? Or are they just stand alone ideas?

__Introduction__
In religion there are several creation myths, some of which are similar to science's explanation, and others which take a more mythological approach. The same can be said about the end of the world, some say eventually the world will just die out, and others dispute something closer to common myth about the subject. These ideas about the beginning and end of the world are something that separate religions, however, should they really be separated for these trivialities? In this essay we will explore the similarities and differences between the mythology surrounding the beginning and end of the world, and decide if they should truly divide any religion by classifying beginning and end, or not.

__Creation Myths__
__Buddhism__

" Buddha described the universe being destroyed and then re-evolving into its present form over a period of countless millions of years. The first life formed on the surface of the water and again, over countless millions of years evolved from simple into complex organisms."

"The Buddha also compared the question of the origin of life. . .to the parable of the poison arrow."

In Buddhism the creation of the world is seen one of two ways, in one view of Buddhism, the question of the origin of life is unnecessary, and should not be asked, the other is more similar to a scientific view in which the universe expands and slowly develops. Quotes regarding both views are printed above. The first quote sees many things similar with science. The first similarity seen is the fact the universe was created by itself being destroyed, comparable to the Big Bang. The second similarity is evolution, which the quote hints at by saying, " over countless millions of years evolved from simple into complex organisms ". The second view on the creation of the world is simply to refuse to ask that question. Buddha compares the question of the origin of life to being shot by a poison arrow, by saying that before the arrow is pulled out the man who is shot wants to ask, "Who shot me? Why was I shot? When was I shot? Where did the arrow come from?" and by the time the questions were answered the man would already be dead.

__Norse Mythology__

"Ymir's blood became the sea, his bones became the rocks and crags, and his hair became the trees."

"On the sea shore, Bor's sons found two logs and made people out of them. . .From this man and woman came all humans thereafter"

"Sol drives the chariot that carries the sun across the skies, and she drives so fast across the skies of the northland because she is chased by a giant wolf each day."

"Ymir was a frost-giant, but not a god, and eventually he turned to evil."

In the beginning there was nothing, a trend that will soon become apparent. The origin of the world in Norse mythology, stems from killing the first being, a frost giant, Ymir. Ymir was killed, because since he was not a god, he turned evil. I'd like to point out that this is a strange belief, that displays mistrust in the good of both humans and other creatures. Ymir's body was converted into the world, which shows a both gruesome and interesting mythology. There were two humans at first, another trend we will continue to see in these mythologies. Another thing I would like to point out is the fact that Sol, a driver of the chariot of the sun, is chased by a wolf, which is why it disappears so fast, an explanation for the short days in the extreme north the Norse lived in.

__Christianity__

" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

"Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

This is the only monotheist religion I will focus on, and it stands out quite a bit because of that. In this creation myth it states that God more or less made order out of form, something which will be referenced in the next section. Also something strange, is the bible is a written record, rather than most of the other things I've focused on which is more of an oral tradition. This may have changed how the myth formed. This is why I think the second quote is important, because in my opinion it seems more of an inserted line than a natural line of the myth, and may have been written just to refuse other beliefs.

__Greek Mythology__

"In the beginning, Chaos, an amorphous, gaping void encompassing the entire universe, and surrounded by an unending stream of water ruled by the god Oceanus, was the domain of a goddess named Eurynome, which means "far-ruling" or "wide-wandering".

"Gaia and Uranus married and gave birth to the Titans, a race of formidable giants, which included a particularly wily giant named Cronus."

"Thus, Zeus triumphed over not only his father, and his father's family of Giants, he triumphed over his brothers and sisters as well, dividing up the universe as he fancied, in short, bringing order out of Chaos. He made himself Supreme God over all,"

This myth has many similarities to the other myths mentiones so far, one being the beginning, in which there is nothing. Another is that Zeus brought order from chaos, something God did in the Christian myth. There are some very other important things to mention, one is the that in the beginning, before the titans, the planets, and Zeus, there was a single female god who ruled the universe, and made the planets, Eurynome. Eurynome was a goddess who created the universe, and for some reason, though she is the creator, she is not the supreme god, Zeus is. Zeus is her great grandson, yet he is considered higher than her. In classic Greek religion Eurynome was higher than Zeus, but as women lost their role in society, Zeus the male leader of the gods, became the main lord.

__Hinduism__

"Hindus believe that the cycle of creation, preservation, and destruction has no beginning,"

"Hindus believe that the universe was created from the Word Ohm - the sacred sound uttered by every human being at the time of birth."

Common Hindu belief is that the world and universe is constantly created and destroyed, every few billion years. They also believe that when a child is born, the world is created again from the noise they make Ohm. Though this is common belief, earlier the universe came from a being hatched from a giant egg, who sent parts of himself all over it to create it. That belief could be compared to the scientific fact that the universe keeps expanding, seeing as the parts of this creator never found an end to their journey. The common belief is more comparable to other religion, where the world was created by its own destruction, again and again.

__Eschatology__
__Buddhism__

"people will follow the ten amoral concepts of theft, violence, murder, lying, evil speaking, adultery, abusive and idle talk, covetousness and ill will, wanton greed, and perverted lust resulting in skyrocketing poverty and the end of the worldly laws"

Though Buddhism does not consider an exact end of the world, they do believe that there will be signs leading up to it. Morals will degrade to a point where the world will be full of poverty and crime, then they'll forget the teachings of Buddha and the world will end. Buddhists believe in a cycle of the beginning and end of the world, so it can be said, that there is no "end" in Buddhism only infinite beginnings.

__Norse Mythology__

"Brothers will fightand kill each other,sisters' childrenwill defile kinship.It is harsh in the world,whoredom rife—an axe age, a sword age—shields are riven—a wind age, a wolf age—before the world goes headlong.No man will havemercy on another." "These two survivors consume the morning dew for sustenance, and from their descendants the world will be repopulated."

In Norse Mythology, there is an event for the end of the world called Ragnar__ö__k which is the end of the world. Like many myths regarding the end of the world, it makes much reference to previous mythology of the same religion. In Ragnarök all the enemies from previous myths return to kill the gods and bring the end. This battle for the end of the world is seen by humans and they begin to fight as well, killing each other blindly and defiling morals. In the end, the gods die, even Odin, the king of the gods, who is eaten by a giant wolf, however there are two human survivors, who repopulate the world, much like in the beginning of Norse mythology where two humans populated the world. Therefore Norse Mythology can be seen as a new beginning, or a cycle in which there are gods humans and monsters, fighting populating and returning for all time.

__Christianity__

"For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

"Christians anticipate a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked."

"Christ will personally judge the living and the dead, to determine the eternal destiny of each"

In Christianity, the end of the world begins when Jesus returns and revives the dead to judge them. However under the sects of Christianity it is disputed exactly what will happen after Christ judges them. Some say that they will be brought to a new world of infinity where they shall all live forever, and others say they will simply be allowed to go into heaven. There is no talk of recreation of the world, but the idea that all souls will be brought to a new world can be seen as such, a reinvention of the world or a recreation of the universe.

__Greek Mythology__

"There was first a golden race of mortal men who lived in the time of Cronos when he was reigning in heaven... DESTRUCTION BY FIRE- Man was loyal to Cronos and Zeus was afraid that Men would rise against him."

"a second generation of men which was of silver and less noble than the race of the Golden Age... they could not keep from wronging one another, nor would they serve the immortals. This behaviour angered Zeus, and he put them away."

"After the Silver Age came the Brazen race, of sterner disposition and more ready to use arms, but not yet impious... They loved war and all deeds of violence...These men, some say, were destroyed by their own hands, and perished leaving no trace. But others say that this generation was destroyed by The Flood in the time of Deucalion."

"Zeus made yet a fifth generation of men, and with it began, after the Bronze & Heroic Ages, the Age of Iron. It is said that all evil burst forth into this baser age, which is our own:"

In Greek Mythology there is no end for the gods, but there is multiple ends for the humans of each time. There is reference to rebirth, seeing as Zeus continued to make humans even after destroying the previous kind. The first age of humans, the golden age, were perfect, they lived with no war or duties, but since they were not made by Zeus he killed them. I find that very interesting, it shows that god is absolute, and that either way we live, if he doesn't see us as good, he will kill us. There is also reference to a flood in the Bronze age, something that is seen in most mythology, a flood that covered the world and killed the humans. The fifth generation the Iron Age, was an impious and evil age of men, and is the one which we live in, so Greek Mythology awaits the end of this generation, but due to a decline in the Greek religion after this, it wasn't considered much after it was originally conceived.

__Hinduism__

"we are living in the Kali Yuga literally "age of darkness""

"As such, the cycle of birth, growth, decay, death, and renewal at the individual level finds its echo in the cosmic order of all things"

So like Greek Mythology it states we are currently living in the age of darkness, preceding another end of the world. Because Hinduism operates on the concept of rebirth, this is just one end of the world, and the world will be reborn after that.

__Final Thoughts__
For creation myths some of them are similar others are quite different, I find that there are a few solid similarities between them. One is that there is a usual beginning of nothing, which I believe is a kind of human idea that before we existed, there was nothing because we are the most important thing. The nothingness is in the Norse, Greek, and Christian, all the European religions I examined, which may explain why they are all so similar. The second trend is that Earth was not the first thing born in the universe, unlike the first trend this is not only for the European religions, but also the Asian religions. I prefer the belief that Earth was not the first thing created, which contrary to the idea that there was nothing, seems more like a humbleness in religion, a sort of way to say that we were not first, that it is not our planet. The only religion that did not convey this trend is Christianity, the only monotheist religion. The last similarity I'd like to mention is that they all convey an order, it's not a sort of sudden apparition of everything, things are created one at a time, there is an order to each mythology, things happen one at a time.

For the Eschatology, which are myths regarding the end of the world, there are less trends I see, but some of them are more spectacular. The first trend I notice is the cycle of time, beginnings and ends. Though Buddhism and Hinduism focus quite strongly on it, the rest of the religions also have a slight aspect of it, though not directly. My belief is they have these aspects of rebirth, because of a fear of the end. If the world, their lives, everything, was to just end, then we'd all be gone, so instead the use religion as a coping mechanism to avoid that feeling of such ultimate finality. The second and last trend I noticed is that the reason we are destroyed, is because of our own evil, our lack of morality, the overall darkness in society. Christianity is the only religion where there is no such trend, I believe this is because of a solid belief that they are truly pious. Though the rest of the religions believe in the end because of humans evils, Norse stand out seeing as rather than being direct, the end of the world causes the humans to have more fighting amongst themselves. In the other religions on top of us being destroyed for being evil, we are also currently living in the time that we are the darkest, showing not only a pessimism of the human race, but a kind of humility in that we acknowledge ourselves as evil, that we see the bad in our world.

In total I believe that they are somewhat similar, and they though they could be combined into a super-religion, it would be a bit difficult and useless. So though they are similar we can't really say they are the same religion, but that they have similar aspects, not just in creation and end, but in between, floods, animals, giants, all are in religion, and though there is no conclusive evidence it is all the same, in the future we may find a link to fuse all religion.