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2 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 3 Hinduism 4 Classical Greece 5 Further reading |
Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Creation is the origin of the totality of the universe by the action of God. Even more particularly, every type of existence is also owing to the act of God.
Among monotheists, it has historically been most commonly believed that, living things are the creation of God, and are not the result of a process inherent in originally non-living things, unless this process is designed, initiated, or directed by God; likewise, sentient and intelligent beings are God's creation, and did not arise through the development of living but non-sentient beings, except by the intervention of God.
Both, Judaism and Islam affirm that one God is the creator of all things. It is a tenet of Catholic Christian faith that, the Trinity is the Creator of all things from nothing ("from nothing" is usually understood in an absolute sense), and has made Man in the image of God, who by direct interference is also the source of the human soul.
The tradition of the Catholic churches has not so interpreted these tenets of faith that they require a reading of Genesis as though it were an eye-witness, prosaic account of history; which allows, for example, the possibility of Creation by means of an evolutionary process over great spans of time. Most Christians follow this tradition, although most do not necessarily view evolution as relevant to their faith. Fundamentalist Christianity most commonly interprets these Scriptures and doctrines as an historian's account of creation, obligatory for all Christians to believe as a matter of scientifically relevant fact (which excludes, as a matter of faith, the possibility of evolution). Liberal versions, in contrast to both of these views of acts of the Creator, may not understand any of these to be statements of fact, but rather, spiritual insights more vaguely defined.
Hinduism holds that God is the foundation of all being, and that the universe has a definite origin from God; and yet at the ultimate level, all assertions of a distinction between God and creation are meaningless. This is not to say however, that in some more superficial sense the assertion is not true, that God is distinct from the Creation brought forth. Therefore, according to Upanishadic teaching, it is not false to speak of Hindu Creationism (although it is ultimately meaningless).
Plato, in his dialogue Timaeus, describes a creation myth involving a being called the demiurge.The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Physical reality (space, matter and/or energy) is eternal, and therefore does not have an absolute origin. The Creator is an architect and organizer of pre-existent matter and energy, who constructed the present universe out of the raw material.Hinduism
Classical Greece