Chapter 9: Part 1

CosmogonyOrigins of the Natural and Social Order

How religions answer the question: “Who are we and where do we come from?”

Etiology: the cause or reason for a thing

Origin stories of the past try to explain…. the social order of the present. the problem of good and evil the nature of the God/the divine and its

relationship to the world and humanity.

Origin stories in religion are not about history or science (it may, in fact, contradict them).

Jainism Buddhism (certain schools)

See it as futile speculation that distracts believers from religious goals of liberation from suffering and evil.

Religions that avoid cosmogony

Sacred time linked to a child’s life cycle:

Mircea Eliade, p. 185

First pottery Depictions of world being made as from 1. a lump of clay

Neolithic period (9500 – 3500 BC)

2. sexual union

Sun/creator god Re-Atum creates the first male-female pair of gods:

Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture)

Egyptian Myths

Agrarian cultural: interaction of people with nature and it’s cycles.

China: Yin & Yang:

opposites are linked and interact in a relationship.

ex: Active/Passive members in a relationship

Benefactor/Beneficiary: one does for other & other receives it.

Opposites can change into one another. A baby becomes an old man.

Each pole has an element of it’s opposite. One is also flowing into it’s opposite. They are complementary rather than opposing.

Yin is characterized as feminine: slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, and nighttime.Yang, by contrast, is masculine: fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive; and is associated with fire, sky, the sun, and daytime.

Japanese books Kojiki and Nihongi

A great cosmic egg contains the undivided male & female p.188

Izanagi and Izanami

Creation by Conflict: Ordering Out of ChaosStart with the chaotic (primal waters, darkness): the universe

is made to have order by some divine agent.

Example 1: Egyptian creation myth p. 189 Nun, Apophis and Amon-Re

Example 2: p. 189 Babylonian

creation myth

Marduk rises to power by

bringing order to chaos.

Example 3: Taoist cosmogony , p. 192-3 There is no permanent order: everything is still becoming.

pre-Socratic philosophers Described reality as being crafted froma single uncreated material: Thales: all is water. Anaximenes: all is air.

How did this happen?Empedocles posited 2 opposing forces shaping

the 4 basic elements of the universe.Love (or Harmony) tend to bring them together to

create new things.Hate (or Strife) tend to separate and dissolve

things. Cycle: unity & dissolution

Creation by CraftsmanshipGreeks

Plato’s “Demiurge” p. 194

Egypt

North American

Indians

Anaxagoras’ “nous” p. 194

Nous is “mind”. It is infinite and separate from matter. It is what set matter in motion and allows it to change and take forms.

The Demiurge is divine, creative reason that shapes matter in space (the receptacle). It shapes matter to make it resemble perfect “ideals” or “forms”, but matter is stubborn and resists (hence, evil exists). The Demiurge is a principle, not a personified god.