I haven't looked up the labels mentioned but wondering if one of them (or another) fits my beliefs: I have "faith" that there is something more to life than we are able to comprehend during our time on earth. I have no idea about any of the specifics.
Through out history (and before) religion has been used to explain the inexplicable. The last 500 years have seen a sea change in our understanding of nature and the physical world. As scientific knowledge has grown, religious explanations for what happens have been squeezed out. Faith is challenged by knowledge in the sense that finding "God" is not as easy because everyday phenomena are excluded from the realm of miracles. It takes a willingness to look beyond strict interpretation of ancient literature to find the faith required to square modern scientific knowledge with god. That doesn't mean religion is useless and participating is counter to good sense. It provides comfort to billions and a guide to how we should act and treat our fellow man. There is much to be inspired (in the true and strict sense of the word) by religion and faith. However it is not what we should build on as a foundation of scientific true and explanation of how the physical world works.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. 6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. 9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: 15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Odin and his brothers, Vili and Vé, create Middle-Earth (the world of humans) from the body of a giant. The three brothers kill a giant named Ymir. They create the world from his body, using the different body parts to make different things: From his flesh and some of his bones, they make the land and rocky mountains. They use his blood to make the sea and other bodies of water. Ymir's teeth and some of his bones become gravel and boulders. The three brothers place Ymir's skullcap above the earth and place a dwarf at each of the earth's four corners. These dwarves are named North, South, East, and West. They use Ymir's eyebrows to create a protective fortress around the earth, in order to prevent the giants from ever entering it. They call this place Midgard, or Middle-Earth. From Ymir's brain, they make the clouds. They make a place for the sparks that are shooting out of Muspelheim, the primordial fire-world that they have now separated from the earth. These sparks become the stars, sun, and moon. The dark and beautiful daughter of a giant, Night, has a son with one of the Aesir gods, a bright and radiant boy named Day. The gods give Night and Day chariots and horses and place them in the sky, ordering them to ride around it. The sweat dripping off the mane of Night's horse causes the dew each morning. Day is so bright and hot that the gods must attach bellows (blowers) to his horse's legs to keep them from burning up. A witch that lives to the East of Middle-Earth gives birth to two giant sons in the shape of wolves. The wolf-giant Skoll chases the sun as his brother Hati chases the moon. These brothers keep the sun and moon racing around the sky, creating the cycle of day and night. From the maggots growing in the dead body of Ymir, Odin and his brothers create the race of the dwarves. Dwarves live in caves beneath the earth and supply the gods with iron, silver, and gold. Odin and his brothers create other races: the light-elves, who live far above the earth in Alfheim; sprites and spirits, who populate the forest groves and streams; and animals and fish.
I like your story better Red. I received an undergraduate from Loyola where it was required that I take religion to earn my Finance degree. I took a course called World Religion which went over all of the major religions of the world and many minor ones. It was taught by an old priest who was understandably biased in favor of Catholicism and injected some of his views. The beliefs of many of the religions were "way out there", some bordering on dangerous. After completing the course, which I really enjoyed, I came away with one major thought. My mainstream religion was not really any less "out there" than most of the other ones if I viewed it from an outsider's perspective. And how can anyone actually think that their religion is completely infallible when there are thousands of religions, beliefs, etc., in the world.
I recall the first time I heard about Zoroastrianism in college and the similarities to Christianity...
I like Tolkein's beginning to the Silmarillion better. Ainulindalë. Some call it his Genesis essay. Enjoy...
Tolkein's Middle-Earth is clearly based on Norse mythology and has a notorious lack of any Judeo-Christian religious elements.
