Yet Another Creation Myth

Merging materialism with monotheistic creation stories

Imagine a perfect point. One with no dimensions abiding in its own nospace and notime. You cannot say where this point is located, because there is no outside of it. The point is also infinitely small, so, there is no inside either. Only a point, that even cannot be called “a point” at this point, abiding in eternal “now” with no duration which makes all notions of time, including “now”, moot.

Imagine that that is all there is so if you’d remove it, existence itself would disappear. There would never be anything past, present, future, not even nothing, let alone universe. Forever and everywhere, which would never be either. Complete erasure, absolute cessation, lights out on all that was, is, or could be. Not a single memory or possibility left. Ultimate death that is conceivable, yet utterly unreal. After all, there Is and is obviously indestructible, because — who or what could destroy it? What can make existence stop existing? Who can make Being not be?

Individual human renditions may vary, but this is, in general, as far as positive descriptions of true nature of Absolute can go.

Now, in the thought experiment above, you imagined the point as an outside observer. But since the point is all there is, you as the observer must be within. Yet, since there is no “within” either, where exactly can you (which you call “I”) be?

And this is where creation myths enter the picture.

As I wrote elsewhere, materialism aligns nicely with non-dual knowledge.

However, to put things into perspective, I will copy paste accounts of the first stage of creation as it is recorded in all three respective monotheistic creation myths that survived to this day. First is the oldest one as preserved in Rigveda, which, thanks to the Vedic chant, the oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence, goes back to at least c. 1200–1500 BCE.

1. THEN was not non-existent nor existent: there was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered in, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water?
2. Death was not then, nor was there aught immortal: no sign was there, the day’s and night’s divider. That One Thing, breathless, breathed by its own nature: apart from it was nothing whatsoever.
3. Darkness there was: at first concealed in darkness this All was indiscriminated chaos. All that existed then was void and form less: by the great power of Warmth was born that Unit.
4. Thereafter rose Desire in the beginning, Desire, the primal seed and germ of Spirit. Sages who searched with their heart’s thought discovered the existent’s kinship in the non-existent.
5. Transversely was their severing line extended: what was above it then, and what below it? There were begetters, there were mighty forces, free action here and energy up yonder
6. Who verily knows and who can here declare it, whence it was born and whence comes this creation? The Gods are later than this world’s production. Who knows then whence it first came into being?
7. He, the first origin of this creation, whether he formed it all or did not form it, Whose eye controls this world in highest heaven, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows not.

Next one is the Zoroastrian creation myth. While reading it please bear in mind that according to Zarathustra, Ohrmazd (aka Ahura Mazda) created the twin spirits Spenta Mainyu and Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) — the former beneficent, choosing truth, light, and life; and the latter destructive, choosing deceit, darkness, and death. Nevertheless, in Zoroastrianism as per Avesta, Ohrmazd is identified with Spenta Mainyu and is directly opposed to Angra Mainyu.

0. In the name of the creator Ohrmazd.

1. The Zand-akas (‘Zand-knowing or tradition-informed’), which is first about Ohrmazd’s original creation and the antagonism of the evil spirit, and afterwards about the nature of the creatures from the original creation till the end, which is the future existence (tanu-i pasino).
2. As revealed by the religion of the Mazdayasnians, so it is declared that Ohrmazd is supreme in omniscience and goodness, and unrivaled in splendor; the region of light is the place of Ohrmazd, which they call ‘endless light,’ and the omniscience and goodness of the unrivaled Ohrmazd is what they call ‘revelation.’
3. Revelation is the explanation of both spirits together; one is he who is independent of unlimited time, because Ohrmazd and the region, religion, and time of Ohrmazd were and are and ever will be; while Ahriman in darkness, with backward understanding and desire for destruction, was in the abyss, and it is he who will not be; and the place of that destruction, and also of that darkness, is what they call the ‘endlessly dark.’
4. And between them was empty space, that is, what they call ‘air,’ in which is now their meeting.
5. Both are limited and unlimited spirits, for the supreme is that which they call endless light, and the abyss that which is endlessly dark, so that between them is a void, and one is not connected with the other;
   and, again, both spirits are limited as to their own selves.
6. And, secondly, on account of the omniscience of Ohrmazd, both things are in the creation of Ohrmazd, the finite and the infinite; for this they know is that which is in the covenant of both spirits.
7. And, again, the complete sovereignty of the creatures of Ohrmazd is in the future existence, and that also is unlimited for ever and everlasting, and the creatures of Ahriman will perish at the time when the future existence occurs, and that also is eternity.

And the last one is the notoriously famous account of the first day of creation from Genesis.

1 In the beginning God created (or “When God began to create”) the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty (or “void”), darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of (or “wind from”) God was hovering over the waters.

3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning — the first day.

Did you see the similarities? Well, this is one more reason why I feel that it’s safe to assume that there is only one monotheistic tradition on Earth, it is at its core non-dualistic, and the surviving traditions all descend from it. And as for materialism, it’s just a matter of where it fits into the big picture. In other words, simply don’t expect it to answer more than how the dream of this world operates at which it excels head and shoulders above all other alternatives.

Amen :D