Hello EvC posters,
I am curious about what the different faiths say about God's motivation to create the universe and humanity.
Why would he/she/they do it?
To get the ball rolling I found one creation myth that should appeal to the scientists among us.
Disclaimer : There are a number of different variations of the myth. This version uses the most common factors of the dozen or so differnet ones I read. Also, on the tiny chance that one of the readers is actually a follower of this particular faith, I apologise in advance if I have made any big errors.
The Mande people of Southern Mali in Africa believe this was all a failed experiment.
The Mande Creation Myth
The creator god Mangala was actually attempting to create a specific type of seed (balaza seed). He failed in the first attempt. Then he made some different seeds, a pair that would become the universe. Then, continuing to experiment, he made many more seeds that became the elements, the four directions and finally the first people. All of this experimenting was occuring in an egg floating in the universe.
One of the humans, Pemba, broke out of the egg. A torn peice of that humans placenta became the Earth. The Earth, created from his placenta was barren so he tried to resturn to the egg. Unfortunatey, the egg had become the sun so he could not go back in. Instead, he stole more seeds from Mangala (the creator god) and planted them on Earth. These seeds were impure because they were stolen and everything that grew from them turned red.
Another human, Faro, was sacrificed to atone for Pembas sins and to purify the Earth. He was cut into 60 pieces and spread accross the Earth. Mangala chose to resurrect Faro and gave him an ark. Mangala also gave him 4 more men and 4 more women. These people were the original ancestors of mankind. The ark also contained all of the plants and animals. Then there was a great flood that washed away all of Pembas imputies. Only Faro, and the people on the ark remained to populate the Earth.
So, the universe was created by accident. God was actually trying to do something else (like the discovery of viagra. It was invented as an angina drug, during testing another use was discovered).
The Earth was also created by accident. A pesky, impatient human created it.
It seems that people were created to fix everything that the escapee messed up.
Sources :
Mand creation myth - Wikipediahttp://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/18039750KeeperofStories: Mand Creation Mythhttp://dickinsg.intrasun.tcnj.edu/...html#The%20Mande%20Myth
The subject I am interested in discussing is the motivations of God to create the universe and humanity.
If you have scripture to go on, that is great. If there is no scriptural backup but your faith has some ideas, just as good. If you know the moivation put forward in any other faiths, I would be interested to know also.
This is more of a discussion rather than a debate.
Cheers,
Butterflytyrant
I could agree with you, but then we would both be wrong
Butterfly, AKA, mallethead - Dawn Bertot
"Superstitions and nonsense from the past should not prevent us from making progress. If we hold ourselves back, we admit that our fears are more powerful than our abilities." Hunters of Dune Herbert & Anderson