“We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden”
— Woodstock, Joni Mitchell

The subject of man’s beginnings has come up here recently, so I thought it might be fun to do a post on the subject and give everyone a chance to offer their thoughts.

The Bible might actually be on to something when it talks about the sudden burst of light in the beginning and, later, that man came from dust. The ancient writers seemed to be describing the Big Bang, and that man came from stardust.

But that doesn’t totally discount the ancient Sumerian creation legend, which says man was created by people from another planet — in their image — to be slaves for the visitors, who were mining the planet for gold and such. When time came to depart, the legend goes, they decided to give their creations — mankind — free will, rather than wipe them out. If I am not mistaken, the legend is the visitors will return some day . . . Sound familiar?

The Sumerian creation legend has been reworked by many other religions since, including by today’s Raelians, who believe man was created by — cloned from — people from another planet. The Raelians believe it is possible to clone humans — something that has already been accomplished with animals.

Of course, the Sumerian legend doesn’t answer the question of how the people from the other planet originally came into existence. Nor does the Big Bang theory adequately explain what “created” the forces that made it possible?

Which is why, I guess, many people are content to simply say “God created mankind.” It doesn’t actually explain anything, of course: neither what God is nor how the creation of man actually came about. But it serves to explain something that is unexplainable.

And that’s the fascinating thing about life — as we know it. We cannot explain how everything originated. But we have something the animal kingdom doesn’t have: the ability to question the nature of our existence.

And round and round we go . . .

What say you? Don’t be afraid to have fun with this.

Cheers

— Jillian

TeaParty3xx

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