These questions have been asked for thousands of years and from the very beginning there have been men of knowledge and wisdom dedicating their life to find an answer. The resulting answers have come mainly from two different groups. The older and traditional one is presented by major religions claiming that there is a Creator who created human beings to pursue a good life and join Its essence after death. The other one is a modern thought, known as Darwinism, claiming that human beings were the result of a natural evolutionary process from lower species. They die after their span of life and disappear into the nature as any other species. For decades the Darwinists have tried to relate their theory to a scientific explanation which is still the subject of heated debate. Of course, the religious community has no scientific base for its claim thus presenting it as a dogmatic religious belief, facts which should be accepted without doubt.
None of these groups have been able to answer the question reasonably, logically and conveniently acceptable. We know we are not holy beings, neither are we like other species. The certain fact is that we are intelligent, with consciousness and power of perception and far superior to all other species. But the question still remains to be answered: Who are we and why are we here?
It seems proper to have a brief look at the stories of creation and their interconnections, if any. Under Christianity, the story has been told in Bible by Genesis 1, believed to be written 7th to 5th centuries BCE, according to which the world was created in six days in the following order: heaven and earth, light, vault of heaven (separation of earthly and heavenly waters), seas and dry land, plants, sun and stars, fish and birds, land animals, and last humans. Interestingly, the Persian Zend-Avesta, the sacred book of Zoroastrianism, a powerful religion established about 1000 BCE, cites the creation in the same order. The order of creation in Egyptian mythology, which would surely have been familiar to the writers of the Genesis, is ocean, sun, atmosphere, earth, and sky.[1] There are a great deal of contradictions about the creation in Bible as told in Genesis 1, such as Genesis 2, Ps 74: 13-17, and Ps 89:10 which are not the subject of our discussion here. We will look at the Genesis 1 for the purpose of our discussion. The Koran, the holy book of Islam, which is considered by devout Moslems coming directly from God as revealed to the Prophet Mohammad, in 7th century AD, refers to the biblical creation story. Sura 11 verse 6: "Throned above the waters, he made the heavens and earth in six days."
The fall of Adam is quite similar to a Persian myth, established centuries before, in which Ahriman, or Angra Mainyu (The spirit of darkness and evil), acting through a serpent, causes the first man to fall into knowledge of good and evil. Variations of this story can be also found in a variety of myths of the Middle East. There are carvings showing a man, a woman, a serpent, and a tree. The "Tree of Knowledge" or "Tree of Life" is an almost universal element of mythology in the Middle East.[2]
In sharp contrast to the concept of creation cited in Genesis and other sources, there are those who believe in the evolutionary process of the creation based on, in their opinion, well established scientific and historical facts. The theory of evolution, in brief, consists of the gradual change in species of plants and other living creatures, starting with a very primitive single-celle life form and proceeding to advanced stages of life including humans. According to this concept, apes and humans have had common ancestors.[3] According to the scientific community:
1. The life of the planet has been estimated between four to five billion years, in contrast to a few thousand years under the Genesis and other religious creation stories.
2. Life first appeared about 3.5 billion years ago, around a billion years after the formation of the planet, while, according to Genesis 1 story, plants appeared in the third day, sea life and birds on the fifth, animals and humans on the sixth.
3. The first primates, apparently with some human characteristics, appeared in East Africa some million years ago, and genus Homo in about 1.7 million years ago, followed by the appearance of modern humans in around 200,000 to 500,000 years ago. According to the Genesis, humans appeared in Mesopotamia about 6,000 years ago
4. The life form actually appeared in the following order: sea-dwelling life, land plants, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, which is quite different from the Genesis account.
Many Christian authorities believe that the creation story in Genesis is absolutely true; that God created the world, its life forms, and the rest of the universe in one continual six-day act of creation. But they have developed conflicting ideas about the date of the creation. It ranges from 3615 to around 6,000 BCE in contrast to 4.5 billion years estimated by the scientists.[4]
The precise meaning of the day has long been debated among religious authorities. It is believed that the creation happened in six intervals of time, each defined by the Hebrew word "Yom"which is generally translated as "day." This time interval has been defined differently by various groups. Some believed it was just a standard 24-hour day; for some others, it was a 24-hour day but each day separated by a very long time interval; yet, some believed definitely in six long intervals each considered as one day.[5]
In the light of enormous scientific evidence, there is no doubt that the universe including our planet was not created at once but through a long process of evolution before the presence of human beings. The claim that God created the universe in six days, if true, certainly does not refer to a 24-hour day on planet Earth, because it did not exist at the time of creation. A day consists of a one rotation of the planet around itself. So, the length of a day depends on the size of the planet and the speed of its rotation. Thus, it is different for each planet. Since no planet existed at the time of creation it seems proper to consider the term day mentioned in the Genesis to refer to some extraterrestrial time frame which may amount to billions of terrestrial years. If we apply this assumption to the length of the days of creation mentioned in various holy scriptures then the story of creation within six days would appear quite reasonable since it would be compatible with the theory of evolution extending to some thirteen billion years.
A new, more logical and rational theory goes even beyond the evolutionary theory of Big Bang and thereafter, according to which the universe was set up as an experimentation by the Creator, a totally secular being like a super-scholar, to examine certain hypotheses. Considering that energy is the source of life, the essence of the Creator consists of Pure Energy thus the ultimate level of life, matterless, super-intelligent and creative with no gender. The universe was created long before the Big Bang and proceeded afterward through evolution as well as creation side by side. Some species developed through evolution, some others by creation when the material and non-material environment became favorable, yet some others became extinct when they could not survive under the existing environment.
Accordingly, human beings were created, not directly by the Creator but as a result of the experimentation when the environment became suitable for their creation, more likely, after all other beings were created. Like all other creatures, they were also created in successions in different time intervals in different parts of the planet. When a better environment was produced, it gave birth to a new and more advanced human beings with higher intelligence, while some old ones became extinct. Look at the variety of the monkeys , horses, dogs and cats in different parts of the world. They were created in different parts of the planet under different atmospheric and physical environment and for this reason they are different from one another in physical appearance, quality and behavior. Exactly the same applies to the creation of human beings. They were not created in Africa and then migrated to other parts of the world; they were created in different parts of the planet in different time intervals and different from one another.
The initiation of the experimentation started a billion or more years before the Big Bang, in a space designated by the Creator where It created high energy substance as Pure Matter. The moment this matter was created, so was the time and space. Therefore, the life of the universe is much longer than what is presently assumed.[6] This is where we come from.
Who are we? In the Islamic holy book Koran, referring to the creation of man, God says "congratulate Allah for the best of Its creations." (Fatabarakallah ahsanul khalegheen.) Similar statements are found in both Jewish and Christian holy books of Thora and Bible, to the effect that God created human on Its own image. The energy being the source of life, higher energy would mean a higher level of life which at certain level would include intelligence. The Creator being the ultimate source of energy possesses the ultimate level of intelligence and creativity expanding to infinity because of being matterless. Humans are the only creatures sharing this high level of intelligence with the Creator. The locus of this intelligence is the human mind also referred to as human spirit or soul. The brain is different from the mind. It is the place the mind resides and control the body. The mind is non-material and capable of expanding anywhere within the sphere of the universe without leaving the human brain where it resides. It creates a link between the humans and the Creator and certainly is created in Its image and thus is the best of its creations. But still it should not be forgotten that the creator did not create human beings but their creation was one of the outcomes of Its experimentation in creating the universe.
Why are we here? It seems reasonable and logical to think that the Creator's purpose from the creation of universe was to find out to what extent billions of differently degraded matters including living creatures in different planets, planets, solar systems, galaxies and so on, can advance themselves toward their origin which is the Pure Energy, the matterless essence of the Creator. Among all these creatures human beings seem to have Its most attention likely because of being the best of Its creations with capability of establishing mental link to Its essence. We already know that through the evolution and the creation of better beings, including more intelligent humans, the world has been progressing to a better stage and the human intelligence has been instrumental in discovering knowledge necessary or helpful in advancing human beings in their individual qualities and causing better societies, living and spiritual environment for themselves. The expectation seemingly is to see to what extend human being can advance themselves in reaching the ultimate quality of life within the essence of the Creator. This stage is reached when individuals become able to contact the Creator through transcendence and realize the vision of their destiny in reaching the destination which is nothing but to become matterless as the Creator.[7] This is why we are here and all this has nothing to do with religion which is a human creation and nothing in it relates to the Creator who is a totally secular being.
References:
1. The Bible: Is it a True snd Accurate Account of Creation? (Part 2).
cesame-nm.org/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=43&page3
2. Ibid., p. 3
3. Comparing Origins: The Bible v. the theory of evolution, p.1. religioustolerence.org/com_geev.htm
4. The Bible... op. cit., p.4
5. Comparing ... op. cit., p.2
6. Universe Long Before Big Bang and After. EzineArticles.com/expert=Dr._Reza_Rezazadeh p.2.
7. Ibid., pp.2-5
Dr. Reza Rezazadeh
1080 Eastman Street, Platteville, WI 53818
Phone: (608)348-7064
Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin System,and a Fulbright scholar, a multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural, and multi-lingual scholar with background in Mechanical Engineering (B.S.M.E.), Continental and Islamic Law (Licenciate), J.D. in American Jurisprudenxce, LL.M. in International Law and International Economics, Ph.D. in Political Science, Economics and Administration, and Doctor of the Science of Law (S.J.D.) the highest law degree offered in U.S. Fluent in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Persian, Azeri-Turkish. Elementary knowledge of Arabic, Urdu, Russian and Italian. Patented inventions; an artist, a poet (oil and pastel), a musician (violin), with over 35 years of academic background in teaching, research and administration, research and cultural studies in many countries in Europe including USSR, Middle East, Central Asia, North Africa, Central and South America. Author of 8 books and many scholarly articles listed in his website http://www.democracywhere.com
