Humans have always wanted to know how existence began. Different cultures have their own diverse stories to explain it. And all these explanations, drenched in their cultural marginality, are written into sacred texts and considered divinely inspired and true. Usually, there are always very severe consequences prescribed for anyone who disagrees with the accounts in those sacred texts.

While none of these accounts may be true or false, what is unarguable is that these myths help us understand what people long ago thought about the world and our place in it. They make us think about the universe and life’s big questions about God, our own existence and our role in the universe. They give us hints about the universe’s secrets.

In ancient Egyptian mythology of creation for instance, before creation came into existence, only darkness embraced the Primeval Ocean out of which life would come. When the breath of life was strong and ready, the entity called Atum decided it was time for creation to begin. Then an island emerged from the water to support this divinity, who manifested itself in the form of Ra, the sun god of Egypt.

Ra created out of himself the first gods, Shu and his partner Tefnut, forming what the judeo-christian mythology will later call the ‘Trinity’. Shu and Tefnut would later engender other gods, Geb the Earth god, and Nut the Sky goddess. In turn, these two birthed the Principles of life, namely Osiris the Perfect Being, who ruled over the world created by Ra, by naming the elements.

The Vedic mythology of creation has plenty accounts of how creation came into being, depending on which of the vedic culture you belong to. But one of the most preponderant narrative claims that Lord Brahma is the creator of the universe. He is said to have come from a golden cosmic egg called ‘Hiranyagarbha’, to make the universe. After creation, Lord Vishnu then becomes responsible for keeping the universe safe and in order.

Lord Vishnu does not create. But whenever the universe’s rules, called ‘dharma’, are in danger, Vishnu steps in as avatars, to fix things and make sure everything keeps going. Then the third god, Lord Shiva, who completes what could also be referred to as the Trinity, comes in to take apart what’s old or worn out to ensure regeneration. Because for new plants to grow, you sometimes need to clear out the old ones. Shiva does this in making sure the universe can renew.

The Ancient Greek mythology of creation claims that in the beginning, the world was in a state of nothingness which they called Chaos. Suddenly, from light, came Gaia (Mother Earth) and from her came Uranus (the sky) along with other gods (called primordials) like Pontus (the primordial god of the oceans).

In the Ifa creation myth, the universe emerged from the Eternal Rock of Creation called Oyigiyigi. In the beginning, this rock separated into the four calabashes of creation. These four calabashes interacted with one another to form sixteen sacred principles called Odu. These are the primal forces of creation.

Ile Ife, in the Yoruba creation myth, is the spot where Obatala arrived on earth, having climbed down a chain from heaven, charged by God to bring creation into being. Obatala fashioned the first humans out of clay, while Oduduwa became the first divine king of the Yoruba people.

The Quranic mythology of creation says that, Allah sent angels to Earth to collect seven handfuls of soil, all of different colors. With that soil Allah made the first man, Adam, breathing life and power into him. Eve, the first woman, was created from the side of Adam and lived with him in paradise.

There is also the Arabian creation mythology which differs slightly from the Quranic version. According to this legend, God placed an angel under the Earth, with a rock on his shoulders. He stretched out his hands, one to the East and the other to the West. After that, God seized the seven Earths and fixed them so they remained stable.

The Judeo-christian mythology of creation believes that God created the heavens and the Earth and everything therein, in six days, then took a rest on, and sanctified the seventh day as Sabbath.

I am boring you with all this history to remind you of the cultural marginality of these mythologies and how most, if not all of them, are copy and paste or plagiarized versions of each other. It is therefore incumbent on you, no matter how difficult a pill it may be for you to swallow because of your indoctrination, to humbly accept that sages and monks and eunuchs and pious men may have seen and interpreted these sacred texts for us in millennia past, but there is yet a single proof that any of them is the truth or false.

Their wisdom is guiding the world, guiding me and you to higher light in our sojourn back to where we all knoweth not. Yet none, can lay claim to being the exclusive truth as none can ever be. In another two millennia, humans of the earth will talk about what we know today as antique and mementos, which is the more reason we must tolerate one another regardless of what we hold as infallible today.

Yours sincerely,
Citizen Agba Jalingo.

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