14. In the Beginning: Water - Part 1

This is the fourteenth article in the series From Particles to Angels. If you are interested in this article you should read the previous articles in the series in order, beginning with the first (On Happiness).

Top Down and Bottom Up: 

There are a number of ways in which we may say that something has been "explained". The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) distinguished what he called "four causes".


"Knowledge is the object of our inquiry, and men do not think they know a thing till they have grasped the 'why' of (which is to grasp its primary cause). So clearly we too must do this as regards both coming to be and passing away and every kind of physical change, in order that, knowing their principles, we may try to refer to these principles each of our problems. In one sense, then, (1) that out of which a thing comes to be and which persists, is called 'cause', e.g. the bronze of the statue, the silver of the bowl, and the genera of which the bronze and the silver are species. In another sense (2) the form or the archetype, i.e. the statement of the essence, and its genera, are called 'causes' (e.g. of the octave the relation of 2:1, and generally number), and the parts in the definition. Again (3) the primary source of the change or coming to rest; e.g. the man who gave advice is a cause, the father is cause of the child, and generally what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed. Again (4) in the sense of end or 'that for the sake of which' a thing is done, e.g. health is the cause of walking about. ('Why is he walking about?' we say. 'To be healthy', and, having said that, we think we have assigned the cause.)"

("Physics" by Aristotle, Book II, Part 3)

"Aristotle's four 'causes' are traditionally called the material cause, the formal cause, the efficient cause (which Aristotle himself describes as 'what started it'), and the final cause (i.e. the purpose or goal). But since it is only the efficient cause that is at all close to our way of thinking about causes, it is better to say that his theory is that there are four basic kinds of explanation. This is fair, for Aristotle himself insists that a 'cause' is always the answer to a question 'Why?', and that seems a good description of what an explanation is."

(David Bostock (1936 - ), from the Introduction to "Aristotle Physics",

translated by Robin Waterfield, Oxford University Press (World's Classics), 1996, p.xxv.)

We can say that we know and understand something when we know how it is made. Water is made of hydrogen and oxygen. An oxygen atom is made of  6 protons and 6 neutrons in the nucleus, and 6 electrons in orbit around it. The properties of the thing are explained by the properties and arrangement of the things of which it is made.

We may say that we know and understand something when we can classify it. Question: "What is a 'chameleon'?" Answer: "It is a kind of lizard." In traditional philosophy and logic a formal definition of something consisted of: "genera", "species" and "differentia". By saying that a chameleon is a lizard, we have identified its species. The "genera" is the broader class that the species belongs to. For instance, a lizard is a kind of "reptile". If we know what a lizard is, we already know it is a reptile. So if the species is given, we can take the genera as given as well. So we might say a definition requires only the species and differentia, or only the genera and differentia. If we didn't know what a lizard was, it might be explained to us by saying: "A lizard is a kind of reptile". The "differentia" is the characteristic that differentiates this particular lizard from all the other kinds of lizard, or that differentiates a lizard from other kinds of reptile. So if we wanted to give a better answer to the question: "What is a 'chameleon'?", we could say: "It is a lizard that can change the colour of its skin to camouflage itself." With this information we feel we have a pretty good grasp of what is being referred to.

We are using the words "species" and "genera" in a fairly loose way here. In biology classifications are very elaborate and the words "species" and "genera" have narrow technical meanings. In biology classification is arranged by: kingdom / phylum / class / order / suborder / clade / family / genera / species. "Chamaeleonidae" is actually the family, and there are different genera and species of chameleon. In philosophy a species is any member of a broader class, and genus is the broader class. So that chameleon is a species of lizard and lizard is a species of reptile and reptile is a species of animal.

Something might also be explained in terms of its cause proper. For instance if I look at a rainbow in the sky and ask: "What the hell is that thing?!" Someone may respond calmly that: "It is light from the sun being refracted through water droplets in the air."

The last kind of explanation is specific to creatures with intent and refers to the end or goal that is sought by the action or form. Aristotle's own example here is pretty good: "'Why is he walking about?' we say. 'To be healthy'". This kind of explanation is sometimes referred to as "teleological explanation". It is an explanation in terms of purpose. Religious people and ancient philosophers, including Aristotle, are renowned for offering teleological explanations for things where science suggests the other kinds of explanation are more appropriate. Teleological explanations can also be offered for forms. For instance: "Why is a hammer shaped like that and made from those materials?" Answer: "So it is good for hammering in nails." Aristotle himself sought to explain the forms and behaviours of animals in terms of their usefulness for the animal. The heart, lungs and muscles, the legs, eyes and ears of an animal were shaped and made the way they were because they contribute to the life of the animal. They had a purpose. The logic was that God or the gods created the world and the things in it with a view to what is best, so that something could be "explained" by describing how it is best, what good purpose it serves. The sun and the rain help the crops to grow. The crops feed people. Everything had its good purpose as ordained by the gods.

In The Origin of Religion (article 4) we saw how teleological explanation in terms of the intent of God or the gods has been replaced by mechanical explanation in terms of impersonal force and Darwinian evolution. But in "The Anthropic Principle" section of Like a Seed from a Tree (article 9) we saw that explanation in terms of Darwinian evolution and "what is fittest", and teleological explanation in terms of "what is best", amount to much the same explanation. The only difference is that the latter suggests that this outcome is the result of conscious intent in the beginning by God or the gods when the universe was designed, while the former does not. In the same section of the same article we saw that the same principle of Darwinian evolution could be applied to the universe as a whole, to explain how planets capable of supporting life could arise in the first place. In The Scientific Creation Myth (article 5) we saw the story of the creation and history of the universe as given by science, and how mechanical explanation leads us back inescapably to the antinomy of first causes, leaving the ultimate questions of "How?" and "Why?" unanswered.

Along the way we have speculated casually from time to time on whether there might be some other kind of explanation, one that might help us to avoid the antinomies inherent in the model of cause/effect, and we have made vague allusions to some higher reality as source.

Another way to classify kinds of explanation might be in terms of "bottom-up" explanations and "top-down" explanations, and there are different ways to take the meanings of each of these terms. In general terms we can say that the Scientific Creation Myth is a bottom-up explanation. By this I mean that it posits simple elements at the beginning and explains everything else as more or less complicated arrangements of these simple elements. So that evolution and explanation go from the simple to the complex (bottom to top) with "higher" forms of being arriving late.

In Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 1 (article 10) we learned about the problem of "emergent properties". That is, we learned about the problem of creating true wholes from discrete parts, and the implications this had for understanding the nature of consciousness. This can be viewed as the problem of bottom-up explanation.

In Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 1, Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 2 (article 11) and The End of Science (article 13) we considered that the fundamental stuff of the universe must belong to categories broader than matter, energy, space and time. It must also encompass phenomena such as consciousness which we saw is not just a complicated arrangement of matter. If something like consciousness is at the beginning of the universe it must be included in our creation myth. If not everything can be explained by breaking it down into simple, homogeneous elements and linear causation, we must countenance other kinds of explanation.

Religious and mystical explanation tends to explain from the top down. The highest being is posited as already existing at the beginning of the material universe, and to be the cause and source. This being creates the simple elements as well as plants and animals and people, and perhaps lesser gods. There may be elements of bottom-up explanation nested within the top-down religious explanation. For instance, it is not unusual for God or the gods to make man out of a simple element like clay, dust or blood.


"Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."

(Genesis 2:7)

"And certainly did We create man from an extract of clay. Then We placed him as a sperm-drop in a firm lodging. Then We made the sperm-drop into a clinging clot, and We made the clot into a lump [of flesh], and We made [from] the lump, bones, and We covered the bones with flesh; then We developed him into another creation."

("The Quran", 23:12-14)

"Prometheus, son of Iapetus, first fashioned men from clay. Later Vulcan, at Jove’s command, made a woman’s form from clay. Minerva gave it life, and the rest of the gods each gave some other gift. Because of this they named her Pandora. She was given in marriage to Prometheus’ brother Epimetheus. Pyrrha was her daughter, and was said to be the first mortal born."

("Fables" by Gaius Julius Hyginus, 142)

"Khnemu was the 'builder' of gods and men. He it was who, according to the statements which were made by his priests at Elephantine, the chief seat of his worship, made the first egg from which sprang the sun, and he made the gods, and fashioned the first man upon a potter's wheel, and he continued to 'build up' their bodies and maintain their life."

("The Gods of the Egyptians" by E. A. Wallace Budge, Volume II, p.50)

"As Viracocha continued creating the new world, he went by the shores of Lake Titicaca, picked up some clay, and began to mold the first men and women out of the mud from the lake."

(Inka legend from "Cultural Foundations and Interventions in Latino/a Mental Health"

by Hector Y. Adames and Nayeli Y. Chavez-Duenas.)

"When the world was finished, there were as yet no people, but the Bald Eagle was the chief of the animals. He saw that the world was incomplete and decided to make some human beings. So he took some clay and modelled the figure of a man and laid him on the ground. At first he was very small but grew rapidly until he reached normal size. But as yet he had no life; he was still asleep. Then the Bald Eagle stood and admired his work. `It is impossible,' said he, `that he should be left alone; he must have a mate.' So he pulled out a feather and laid it beside the sleeping man. Then he left them and went off a short distance, for he knew that a woman was being formed from the feather. But the man was still asleep and did not know what was happening. When the Bald Eagle decided that the woman was about completed, he returned, awoke the man by flapping his wings over him and flew away."

(The Salinan Indians of southern California in

"The Ethnology of the Salinan Indians" by J. Alden Mason,

in "University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology",

vol. 10, no. 4, 1912, pp.191-192.)

"Earth Maker took some clay in his hands, mixed it with his own sweat, and formed it into two figures—a man and a woman. He breathed life into them and they began to walk around. They lived. They had children. They peopled the land. They built villages."

(The Pima Indians of southern Arizona in

"American Indian Myths and Legends" by Richard Erdoes, 1984, p.473.)

"The most powerful of the Hactcin in the underworld was Black Hactcin. One day Black Hactcin made the first animal with four legs and a tail made of clay. At first he thought it looked peculiar, but when he asked it to walk and saw how gracefully it walked, he decided it was good. Knowing this animal would be lonely, he made many other kinds of animals come from the body of the first. He laughed to see the diversity of the animals he had created....  Next Black Hactcin held out his hand and caught a drop of rain. He mixed this with some earth to make mud and made a bird from the mud. At first he wasn't sure he would like what he had made. He asked the bird to fly, and when it did he liked it. He decided the bird too would be lonely, so he grabbed it and whirled it rapidly clockwise. As the bird became dizzy, it saw images of other birds, and when Black Hactcin stopped whirling it, there were indeed many new kinds of birds, all of which live in the air because they were made from a drop of water that came from the air.... [The animals and birds] came to Black Hactcin and asked for a companion. They were concerned that they would be alone when Black Hactcin left them.... He had the animals bring him all sorts of materials from across the land, and he traced his outline on the ground. He then set the things that they brought him in the outline. The turquoise that they brought became veins, the red ochre became blood, the coral became skin, the white rock became bones, the Mexican opal became fingernails and teeth, the jet became the pupil, the abalone became the white of the eyes, and the white clay became the marrow of the bones. Pollen, iron ore, and water scum were used too, and Black Hactcin used a dark cloud to make the hair."

("Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians" by Morris Edward Opler,

Memoirs of the American Folklore Society Vol. 31, 1938, p.406)

In Chinese mythology the goddess Nüwa (女娲) used yellow clay to make people (''Taiping Anthologies for the Emperor'' (太平御覽 or Taiping Yulan), by Li Fang (李昉), volume 78, "Customs by Yingshao of the Han Dynasty"; see also "Elegies of Chu" (楚辞 or Chuci) by Qu Yuan (屈原), chapter 3, "Asking Heaven"). Nüwa was often portrayed with the body of a serpent.


"Marduk made known to Ea his intention of creating man, and Ea suggested that if one of the gods were sacrificed the remainder of them should be set free from service, presumably to Marduk. Thereupon Marduk summons a council of the gods, and asks them to name the instigator of the fight in which he himself was the victor. In reply the gods named Kingu, Tiâmat's second husband, whom they seized forthwith, and bound with fetters and carried to Ea, and then having 'inflicted punishment upon him they let his blood.' From Kingu's blood Ea fashioned mankind for the service of the gods."

("The Babylonian Legends of Creation", by E. A. Wallis Budge, (1921))

Aside from this bottom up element, religious creation stories tend to describe creation in terms of a descending hierarchy. The original highest god will create lesser gods, and these gods may be personified broad aspects of nature. The lesser gods may give rise to still lesser gods with narrower responsibilities like a goddess of beer and wine, until we reach human beings, pieced together from handfuls of earth. The highest god somehow contains all the rest in some potential form, and it is through a kind of division process that these aspects are individuated. The most high god is the broadest genera, from which come species, and sub-species and so on.


"A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters."

(Genesis 2:10)

In top-down explanation, instead of things being "created from" simpler elements by arranging those elements in some configuration, things "come from" a primary source that in some sense encompasses them and everything else that can exist. Explanation is in referring to an all encompassing source, and in describing the steps separating us from and connecting us to that source. The body is built up from below. The soul (breath or wakefulness) is provided from above (for the contrast between body and mind, see the discussion in Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 1 and Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 2). The good and the bad of the subsequent creation are both a product of the limited and relative character of the entities comprising it, entities derived from an original unity and absolute. Once absolute unity has been departed from, limitation and relativity come into being and the potential for conflict. When we consider how something is to be "explained", meaning can be attributed to description in a variety of ways, some less straightforward than others. The meaning of meaning is itself a philosophical problem.

Hierarchies of Gods

In the science section of this series of articles we had to spend some time on familiarising ourselves with science's understanding of matter. Now that we are entering the religious section we should develop some knowledge of the world's religions. Here we will take a brief look at some of the pantheons of gods, that is, some of the families and communities of gods that human beings have envisaged.

Judaism and Christianity

At times it is not clear that the Bible denies the existence of a pantheon of Gods. Rather its assertion in places seems to be that the god of the Jews is the greatest among the gods, and the only god the Jews should worship. Thus the Jewish god is at times said to be the "God of gods", rather than the only god.

"For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God" (Deuteronomy 10:17)

"God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the 'gods'" (Psalm 82:1)

"he is to be feared above all gods" (Psalm 96:4)

"Give thanks to the God of gods." (Psalm 136:2)


For the Jewish people the other gods are those "which neither you nor your ancestors have known" (Deuteronomy 28:64, see also 11:28, 29:26). But the Bible does go further. The other gods are criticised as mere idols of wood, stone and gold. They are described as "man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell" (Deuteronomy 4:28); "gods that cannot save" (Isaiah 45:20); and the other peoples are "worshiping what their hands have made" (Jeremiah 1:16). The suggestion is made that the other gods are "lifeless gods" (Psalm 106:28) and "gods that are not gods" (Jeremiah 5:7); "false gods, worthless idols that did them no good" (Jeremiah 16:19). While the Jewish god "made the heavens" (1 Chronicles 16:26, see also Psalm 96:5) While it was a common practice in the ancient world for a tribe to claim the supremacy of their own god above those of neighbouring peoples, and to claim for their own favoured god the act of creating the universe, to criticise the visual representation of gods in the form of idols was an innovation, and so perhaps was the suggestion that the gods of other tribes did not exist at all, or at least, were not deserving of the title "gods" in comparison to the god of the Jews. The logic of the one Most High god who could not be represented visually was beginning to apply itself.

The living god was the one who helped his people with miracles, as the Jews had been rescued by miracles from captivity in Egypt. The living god spoke to His people through His prophets. But every god had his prophets, so it was written: "a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death" (Deuteronomy 18:20).

In Genesis 1:26 God says: "Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness" using the plural form (elohim (אלוהים)) instead of the singular form (el (אל)) of the generic word for a "god". Some take this to be a remnant of ancient polytheism, but usually it is taken to refer to the trinity (father, son and holy ghost) because God is taken to be three in one, whatever that means. Because He is three, and at the same time one, elohim is sometimes treated as a singular noun and sometimes plural. Since Judaism/Christianity are supposed to be monotheistic they do not have a pantheon.

The trinity as something explicit is a product of the New Testament. So that the concept of the trinity is not a part of Judaism because the New Testament is not a part of Judaism. The word "trinity" does  not appear anywhere in the bible. The "Spirit of God" appears in many places in the Old Testament, but it is not explicitly distinguished as a distinct being from God the Father. If I speak of "my spirit", "my soul", "my will" or "my affection", I am not suggesting they are distinct entities separate to myself. To give just a few examples.


"and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters" (Genesis 1:2)
"Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?" (Genesis 41:38)
"I have filled him with the Spirit of God" (Exodus 31:3)
"he has filled him with the Spirit of God" (Exodus 35:31)
"the Spirit of God came on him" (Numbers 24:2)
"the Spirit of God came powerfully upon him" (1 Samuel 10:10, 11:6)


The words "Holy Spirit" occur 3 times in the Old Testament.


"Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." (Psalm 51:11)
"Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit." (Isaiah 63:10)
"Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them" (Isaiah 63:11)


In the New Testament there is a single instance of explicit mention of all three members of the trinity together.


"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19)


Some claim that the following passage is an Old Testament reference to the trinity.


"'Come ye near unto Me; hear ye this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I; and now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me.'"

(Isaiah 48:16, 21st Century King James Version)

In this passage it is God who is speaking, yet He says: "the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent Me", as if "the Lord God" and "His Spirit" are something other than "Me". But whether it is God or the prophet Isaiah speaking depends on where you put the inverted commas (quotation marks) in the passage. Here's the same passage from the NIV version of the Bible.


"Come near me and listen to this: 'From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.' And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit."

(Isaiah 48:16, New International Version)

Ancient Hebrew does not have quotation marks, so it doesn't resolve the ambiguity, and the original version of the King James Bible does not include them. Assuming that this passage is a reference to the trinity therefore is a stretch. Many passages in the Old Testament are claimed as references to Jesus, and therefore the Son of the trinity. Because they were known prophecies, it is of course plausible that Jesus may have used them as his guide on how to behave, and where to steer events, or guided how the story of Jesus was retold.

In Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 for instance, God refers to "my servant", who will be "wise" and "highly exalted"; but also he will be "disfigured", "despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain". He is one who "took up our pain and bore our suffering ... he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities ... the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" and "he was cut off from the land of the living ... assigned a grave with the wicked ... though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." Psalm 22 contains the following.


"Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet. All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me. They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment."

(Psalm 22:16-8)

So that it is later claimed in Luke 23:34 that while Jesus was crucified the soldiers "divided up his clothes by casting lots." (See also John 19:23, Mark 15:24 and Matthew 27:35.) The virgin birth is also prophesied.


"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." (Isaiah 7:14)


There are references to the coming of a "ruler".


“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)

"Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zechariah 9:9) Jesus would later fulfil this in Matthew 21:7 and John 12:14-16.


Jesus' Earthly father Joseph was said to be a descendant of King David of Old Testament fame, who was given the following prophesy by God.


"The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever."

(2 Samuel 7:11-16, compare 1 Chronicles 17:11-4)

Although the passage, if it refers to Jesus, also seems to suggest that Jesus sometimes "does wrong". We will give one last passage from Isaiah.


"Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever."

(Isaiah 9:5-7)

We might just as well interpret these passages as representing a good human king who has divine support, as a literal son of God or member of the trinity. And in fact there is little if any evidence of the trinity in the Old Testament, which leads us back to wonder what is being referred to by "elohim" in Genesis. After Adam ate the forbidden fruit God complains: "The man has now become like one of us [elohim (אלוהים)], knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:22) The Amplified Bible (AMP) seeks to avoid any confusion by translating the passage as: "Behold, the man has become like one of Us (Father, Son, Holy Spirit), knowing good and evil". Genesis 3:5 is translated in a variety of ways.


“For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (NIV)

"For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil." (KJV)

“Elohim knows that when you eat it your eyes will be opened. You’ll be like Elohim, knowing good and evil.” (NOG (Names of God Bible))


The following translation suggests that when God uses "we" he may be talking to the angels. This Jewish translation does not attempt to explain the plural name as representing the trinity.


"For God knows that on the day that you eat thereof, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like angels, knowing good and evil." (www.chabad.org)


Jesus himself however does seem to be making the claim of being of divine origin, and possibly a member of the trinity, making statements like "I and the Father are one” (John 10:30) and “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58), and: "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) His disciples make similar claims as when John says: "the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world." (1 John 4:14) It is difficult to know whether "son of god" is to be taken literally or figuratively, particularly since much of the time Jesus called himself "Son of Man", the same phrase used frequently by God to refer to the prophet Ezekiel. Should we take literally phrases like "Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!"? Is identity or even family with the Father implied by a statement like "one whom the Father set apart as his very own"? When Jesus' Jewish opponents attempted to stone him "for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God”, he defended himself in the following words.


"Jesus answered them, 'Is it not written in your Law, "I have said you are 'gods'"? If he called them "gods," to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside—what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, "I am God’s Son"’"?

(John 10:34-5)

We saw in Unity vs Robot Zombies - Part 1 that "unity" is a tricky concept. Is it really appropriate for us to be making legalistic rulings on the subtle distinctions between "one" and "not one" in relation to divine realities?

Other supernatural beings are mentioned in the Bible. Such as mention of angels. To give just a few examples.


"The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring" (Genesis 16:7)
"The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening" (Genesis 19:1)
"The angel of the Lord called to Abraham " (Genesis 22:15)
"There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush." (Exodus 3:2)
"Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them." (Exodus 14:19)
"That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp." (2 Kings 19:35)
"David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem." (1 Chronicles 21:16)
"what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor." (Psalm 8:4-5)


It is not clear from these mentions whether angels are supposed to be humans who have died and gained supernatural powers after death, or whether they are a separate creation. There are references to classes of angels that do imply they are a distinct creature to resurrected humans.


"The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown." (Genesis 6:4)

"Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying." (Isaiah 6:2)


The "sons of God" reference seems clearly to imply a pantheon, though it is unclear whether the "Nephilim" are the sons of God, or the children of their union with the daughters of humans, that is, the "heroes of old". Nephilim (נפילים) is the plural form of Nephil (נפיל). The word is sometimes translated as "giant" or "titan". Traditionally the Nephilim are thought to be fallen angels, partly because the Hebrew word Nephil is very similar to the Hebrew word "fall" (נפילה).

Isaiah's seraphim give more the impression of a metaphorical vision, and the two appearances of the word "seraphim" in Isaiah 6 are the only appearances in the Bible. Traditionally, the seraphim are thought to be a class of angel. The Bible also mentions a class of angel called "cherubim".


"After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." (Genesis 3:24)

"He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind." (2 Samuel 22:10-11, see also Psalm 18:9-10)


There are also specific mentions of named angels or "archangels" in the bible. For example the archangel Michael.


"But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, 'The Lord rebuke you!'" (Jude 1:9)

"Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back." (Revelation 12:7)


There is also a prophesy concerning a "Michael" that reads like an earlier draft of the Book of Revelation. The prophesy was delivered to the prophet Daniel in a vision, by "a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude". (Daniel 10:5-6)


"The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place.... At the time of the end the king of the South will engage him in battle, and the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots and cavalry and a great fleet of ships. He will invade many countries and sweep through them like a flood. He will also invade the Beautiful Land.... At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." (Daniel 11:36 - 12:2)


Daniel also appears to have met the archangel Gabriel.


"While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there before me stood one who looked like a man. And I heard a man’s voice from the Ulai calling, 'Gabriel, tell this man the meaning of the vision.' As he came near the place where I was standing, I was terrified and fell prostrate. 'Son of man,' he said to me, 'understand that the vision concerns the time of the end.'” (Daniel 8:15-17)

"while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. " (Daniel 9:21)


Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, also had a meeting with Gabriel, and shortly after so did a woman named Mary.


"The angel said to him, 'I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.'" (Luke 1:19)

"In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s [the wife of Zechariah] pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary." (Luke 1:26-27)


The devil (Satan) is also traditionally thought to be a fallen angel. His first appearance is as the serpent tempting Eve.


"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, 'Did God really say, "You must not eat from any tree in the garden"?' The woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, "You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die."' 'You will not certainly die,' the serpent said to the woman. 'For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.'” (Genesis 3;1-4)

Satan is a prominent character in the book of Job, where God and Satan have a kind of wager on the virtue of a man called Job, and God allows Satan to afflict the man to see if his righteousness holds. This book of the Bible seems intended to be taken figuratively. Outside the book of Job there are few appearances of the word "Satan" in the Old Testament.

"Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel." (1 Chronicles 21:1)

"Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, 'The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?'” (Zechariah 3:1-2)

The word Satan appears many times in the New Testament. For instance, where Satan tempts Jesus who famously says: "Away from me, Satan!" (Matthew 4:10, also Mark 1:13) Jesus also makes the comment: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." (Luke 10:18) Explicitly identifying him as a fallen angel. The word "devil" does not appear in the Old Testament, but makes frequent appearances in the New Testament. The devil is identified as the tempter of Jesus. (Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:2-13) The devil is identified as Satan in the Book of Revelation. The serpent in the garden of Eden who seems like the faintest echo of Tiamat and Apophis, is resurrected as the "great dragon" in the New Testament.


"The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him." (Revelation 12:9)

"He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years." (Revelation 20:2)


Depending on the version of the Bible (see for instance the King James Version), Satan may appear as "Beelzebub" (בעל זבוב (Ba'al Zvuv)). "Ba'al" is a generic word for "Lord", but is also the personal name of a Canaanite god. "Zvuv" means "fly", so that Beelzebub means "Lord of the Flies". Beelzebub is a Philistine god. The name appears in the form "Baal-Zebub" in the NIV (New International Version) of the Bible, in 2 Kings 1:2-16. The word "Lucifer" appears once in the King James Version of the Bible, in Isaiah 14:12, but is typically translated as "morning star" (that is, the planet Venus) in other versions.


" How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" (KJV)

"How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!" (NIV)


The Bible also contains, depending on the version, an obscure reference to a female demon called "Lilith" (‎‎לִילִית (Lîlîṯ)), in Isaiah 34:14.


"Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also lie down and find for themselves places of rest." (NIV)

"The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest." (KJV)

"And wild animals shall meet with hyenas; the wild goat shall cry to his fellow; indeed, there the night bird settles and finds for herself a resting place. " (ESV)

"The creatures of the desert will encounter jackals and the hairy goat will call to its kind; indeed, Lilith (night demon) will settle there and find herself a place of rest." (AMP)

"Wildcats will meet hyenas, the goat demon will call to his friends, and there Lilith will lurk and find her resting place." (CEB)


Possible references to the demon Azazel (עזאזל) in Leviticus 16 are similarly obscure.


"He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat." (Leviticus 16:8 (NIV))

"And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel." (Leviticus 16:8 (ESV))


The idea behind the scapegoat was that the sins of the tribe were ritually passed onto the goat, and then the goat was sent out into the desert to die, taking the sins of the tribe with it. The tribe would then be left pure and sinless, and ready to start accumulating sin once again. This piece of wishful thinking akin to the Catholic indulgences was eventually to evolve into the Christian doctrine that Jesus died for our sins. It also served as a rationale for why the Jews no longer were required to offer animal blood sacrifices to God, after Jesus had served as the ultimate blood sacrifice, no others were required.

This leads us into the mythology of the Son of God who seeks to protect mankind from the wrath of the King of gods. In Greek religion is was Prometheus who created man from clay, and who was the protector and benefactor of mankind, and who suffered for their sake in the face of the wrath of Zeus. It was Prometheus who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man, and it was Prometheus who warned Deucalion (the Greek Noah) of the coming flood to destroy man.


"It is the Titan's son, Prometheus, who creates man out of the four elements, and particularly earth and water.... It is he who saves humanity when Zeus had already decreed its destruction.... He has furnished man with all the fruits of the tree of knowledge.... Thus he is the great benefactor and protector of man.... Here, however, the god suffers for man's sake.... In his enmity and defiance of the world's ruler, he resembles the fallen archangel converted into Satan ... imparter to them of forbidden science and art.... At the same time, he is the primal man and representative of the whole species as rebelling against the deity and his law, and earning, in requital, a sad and painful existence, though he descry in the distance a redeemer and a divine deliverer, who will give himself up to death for him."

("The Gentile and the Jew in the Courts of the Temple of Christ", Volume 1, by  John J. I. Döllinger)

The Mesopotamian Noah, described in the Epic of Gilgamesh dating from c. 2100 BC, was called "Utnapishtim". He was warned of the impending flood by Enki (Ea), god of knowledge, creator of man out of clay and son of Anu ("sky" or "heaven"), when Enlil ("Lord Storm"), king of the gods and brother of Enki , seeks to destroy man.

Most of the hierarchy of angels and demons associated with Judaism/Christianity originates outside of the Bible, for instance in other Hebrew writings such as the Talmud, the Apocrypha, texts related to the Kabbalah (such as the Zohar), in Jewish folklore, or in the works of medieval writers. For instance, the archangel Raphael is mentioned in the Book of Enoch. The archangel Samael (another archangel gone bad) is mentioned in Tulmudic texts. The archangel "Azriel" is mentioned in the Zohar. The female demon Lilith has an interesting story in Jewish folklore outside of the Bible. The "Alphabet of ben Sirach" is an anonymous medieval text (c.700 - 1000 AD), thought to be satirical and inspired by a document called the "Wisdom of Sirach" (also called "Ben Sira" (c. 200 - 175 BC)). At one point it tells a variation of the story of Adam and Eve. In Genesis 2:7 God forms Adam "of dust from the ground". Then in Genesis 2:21-22 God takes one of Adam's ribs and uses it to make Eve. According to the "Alphabet of ben Sirach" a lot went on between these two events, and Eve was actually Adam's second wife. Adam's first wife was Lilith, who God also created from the earth at the same time as Adam.


"He also created a woman, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air. Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels to bring her back.

"Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.'

"'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.'

"When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day. Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers."

("Alphabet of Sirach", by anonymous (c.700 - 1000 AD))

"Lilith" by John Collier (1892)

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

The story was then added to, with the archangel Samael becoming Lilith's second husband, and giving her a host of demon children. Lilith is also mentioned in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Songs of the Sage (4Q510-511)) and appears in the Talmud and a Kabbalah related text called "Treatise on the Left Emanation", and is thought to derive from a class of Mespotamian female demon called lilītu.


"Rabbi Ḥanina said: It is prohibited to sleep alone in a house, and anyone who sleeps alone in a house will be seized by the evil spirit Lilith."

(Talmud/Mishnah/Moed/Shabbat 151b)

The Genesis (Bereishit) Rabbah is part of the classical rabbinic literature of Judaism and dates from around 300 - 500 AD. It contains some obscure references perhaps to a second eve.


"Rabbi Yehuda bar Rebbi said: In the beginning He created her, and [Adam] saw that she was full of secretions and blood and separated her from him, and He returned and created her a second time. As it says: 'this is now' this is the woman this time. This is now for me the one who will be my partner in the future."

(Bereishit Rabbah 18:4)

"Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Yehudah bar Ami said: they were arguing about the first Eve. R’ Ibo said: the first Eve returned to the dust. Then what were they arguing about?"

(Bereishit Rabbah 22:7)

Our first thought might be that the reference to the "first Eve" in the second quote might merely be distinguishing her from all the other women called "Eve" who have lived since, but the assertion that she was dead at the time that Cain and Abel quarrelled (Genesis 4:8) suggests otherwise, given the following events at Genesis 4:25.


"Adam made love to his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, 'God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.'"


But this also implies that the first Eve could hardly have been Lilith, since Lilith seems still to be alive and well and haunting houses at the time the Talmud is being written. Some other exotic behaviours are claimed of Adam in the Talmud.


"Having cited an aggadic statement of Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar, the Gemara cites other statements of his: Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar said: All those years during which Adam was ostracized for the sin involving the Tree of Knowledge, he bore spirits, demons, and female demons, as it is stated: 'And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth' (Genesis 5:3). By inference, until now, the age of one hundred thirty, he did not bear after his image, but rather bore other creatures.

"The Gemara raises an objection from a baraita: Rabbi Meir would say: Adam the first man was very pious. When he saw that death was imposed as a punishment because of him, he observed a fast for a hundred thirty years, and he separated from his wife for a hundred thirty years, and wore belts [zarzei] of fig leaves on his body as his only garment for a hundred thirty years. If so, how did he father demons into the world?

"The Gemara answers: When Rabbi Yirmeya made his statement, he meant that those destructive creatures were formed from the semen that Adam accidentally emitted, which brought the destructive creatures into being."

(Talmud/Mishnah/Moed/Eruvin 18b)

It has been suggested that the story of Eve and the serpent depicts Biblical disapproval of snake goddesses who were commonplace in the ancient world.


"Yahweh's putting enmity between the serpent and Eve (and all humanity) seems to be aimed against serpent veneration, in which women and goddesses were prominent, in the hope of discrediting and discouraging the practice."

("The Mythology of Eden" by Arthur George and Elena George, p.227)

Islam

In Islam, "Allah" (the Arabic word for God) is the one true God. Islam includes the same host of archangels as Judaism, specifically mentioning: Gabriel (Jibrail or Jibril in Arabic) who delivered the content of the Quran to the prophet Muhammad; Michael (Mikail in Arabic); Raphael (Israfil in Arabic); and Azrael (Izrail in Arabic). The Quran denies that there is a trinity, or that god can have a son. So the archangels, presumably, are merely created beings as are men. Islam is therefore a strictly monotheistic religion.


"The Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, was but a messenger of Allah and His word which He directed to Mary and a soul [created at a command] from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers. And do not say, 'Three'; desist - it is better for you. Indeed, Allah is but one God. Exalted is He above having a son. To Him belongs whatever is in the heavens and whatever is on the earth."

(The Quran, 4:171)

So that same the archangel, Gabriel, who said to Mary: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God" (Luke 1:35) also delivered the passages of the Quran to Muhammad. In Islam, the "Holy Spirit" (Ruh-ul-Qudus) is taken to be the archangel Jibrael. This is made explicit in some translations.


"Say, the Holy Spirit has brought the revelation from thy Lord in Truth, in order to strengthen those who believe, and as a Guide and Glad Tidings to Muslims."

(The Quran, 16:102, Yusuf Ali translation)

"Say (O Muhammad SAW) Ruh-ul-Qudus [Jibrael (Gabriel)] has brought it (the Quran) down from your Lord with truth, that it may make firm and strengthen (the Faith of) those who believe and as a guidance and glad tidings to those who have submitted (to Allah as Muslims)."

(The Quran, 16:102, Mohsin Khan translation)

Presumably then the "Holy Spirit" in Islam is not a part of Allah. Throughout the Quran a capitalised "We" (naHnu (نحن)) is frequently used in passages such as the following: "the heavens and the earth were a joined entity, and We separated them and made from water every living thing" (The Quran, 21:30) where divine acts are being referred to, similar to mention of the Hebrew "elohim" in the corresponding passage of the Bible. If this does not refer to a single god who is at the same time somehow not single, then it presumably refers to created agents of Allah, although it is sometimes claimed to be merely a "style of speech".

Islam is a relatively recent religion. Muhammad lived c. 570 – 632 AD. So Christianity had been around for more than 5 centuries when the Quran was written, and Judaism had been around for millennia. Christianity, Judaism and Islam are collectively referred to as the "Abrahamic religions" due to the prominence in each of the patriarch Abraham, and their other similarities.

Canaanite

We encountered the word "El" above as a generic word for "god". A god called El, also called Elyon ("Most High"), was also the most high god of the Canaanite religion. The queen consort of El was a mother goddess called Asherah.


"At the top of the Canaanite pantheon stood the divine couple, El and his wife, Asherah. Together they were the parents of all other deities; hence El was known as the father and Asherah as the mother, creatress, or progenitress of the gods. They were said to have 70 sons as well as a few daughters such as the warrior goddess Anat."

("The Mythology of Eden" by Arthur George and Elena George, p.62) 

Asherah was also a goddess of the sea and a serpent goddess, so she bears some similarity to the primordial Tiamat we met with in the "Ouroboros" section of The Scientific Creation Myth.


"In earlier mythologies lacking a male creator-god, the serpent was associated with the elemental Great Mother, as in the case of the Sumerian goddess Nammu, who took serpent form. Several statues of a Goddess with a serpent head were found in Ur dating to the 4th millennium; some portray her holding her child (bios), also with a serpent head. Inanna, Ishtar, Asherah and other goddesses were associated and depticted with serpents, sometimes having serpents (often together with fruits) rising out of their shoulders. Egyptian goddesses were also generally associated with serpents. In fact a heiroglyph (determinative) for "goddess" in Egypt was an upraised cobra. Goddesses outside the ancient Near East were also associated with serpents: in Greece--the goddess of wisdom Athena, and Hera, the sister of Zeus; the Aztec goddess Coatlicue; and the Hindu Kala, to name a few. In Irish Celtic religion the serpent was the emblem of Brighid, goddess of fire and wisdom, at whose Imbolc festival the serpent was venerated; she later became the Christian St. Bridgit."

("The Mythology of Eden" by Arthur George and Elena George, p.183)

A version of Asherah is named "Tannit". "The name Tannit derives from the Canaanite/Hebrew word tannin, meaning 'serpent'." ("The Mythology of Eden" by Arthur George and Elena George, p.225) El was said to reside at the source of two rivers, and had this in common with the earlier Sumerian god Ea (Enki) ("The Mythology of Eden" by Arthur George and Elena George, p.62). By making this allusion I want to conjure the idea of a bifurcating source. This is despite the fact that the two rivers are usually given as the Tigris and Euphrates, as mystical symbolism is more important here than geography.

The other most prominent god of the Canaanite pantheon was Baal, a storm god. When the Jews fled Egypt (with the help of Moses) and invaded Canaan, they displaced the Canaanite people. Throughout much of the Old Testament of the Bible the authors are railing against the worshippers of Baal and Asherah in Israel (such as at Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5, 12:3, 16:21; Judges 3:7, 6:25-32, 8:33, 10:6-10; 1 Samuel 7:4, 12:10; 1 Kings 14:15,23, 15:13, 16:31-33, 18:18-26,40, 19:18, 22:53; 2 Kings 1:2-6,16, 3:2, 10:18-28, 11:18, 13:6, 17:10,16, 18:4, 21:3,7, 23:4-7,14-15; 2 Chronicles 14:3, 15:16, 17:6, 19:3, 23:17, 24:7,18, 28:2, 31:1, 33:3,19, 34:3-4,7; Psalm 106:28; Isaiah 17:8, 27:9; Jeremiah 2:8,23, 7:9, 9:14, 11:13,17, 12:16, 17:2, 19:5, 23:13,27, 32:29,35, 40:14; Hosea 2:8,13,17, 9:10, 11:2, 13:1; Micah 5:14; Zephaniah 1:4; Romans 11:4). A sampling of other Canaanite gods are: Anat (virgin goddess of war and strife and sister of Ba'al), Dagon (god of crop fertility and grain, and father of Ba'al), Ishat (goddess of fire), Kotharat (goddesses of marriage and pregnancy), Kothar-wa-Khasis (god of craftsmanship), Mot (god of death), Nikkal-wa-Ib (goddess of orchards), Resheph (god of plague and of healing), Shapash (goddess of the sun), Sydyk (god of righteousness and justice), Yam (god of the sea and the river), and Yarikh (god of the moon and husband of Nikkal).

The tendency for the Israelites to lapse into Canaanite polytheism, and the fact that the Canaanite and Israelite most high gods were both called El, led to the occasional treatment of Asherah as the consort of Yahweh. In 1976 a now famous inscription was unearthed at a place called Kuntillet Ajrud in eastern Sinai which seems to suggest that Asherah was the consort of Yahweh. Since then, other related archaeological finds have been made. (Asherah, Consort of Yahweh? New Evidence from Kuntillet Ajrud, by William G. Dever, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 255 (1984), pp. 21-37)


"I bless you by Yahweh, our guardian, and by his Asherah."

(Inscription from Kuntillet Ajrud)

The Bible itself contains references to devotions to Asherah taking place "in the temple of the Lord".


"He also tore down the quarters of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of the Lord, the quarters where women did weaving for Asherah."

(2 Kings 23:7 (New International Version))

Since the worship of Asherah was often directed to a sacred tree or pole ("Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God" (Deuteronomy 16:21 KJV), "Do not set up any wooden Asherah pole beside the altar you build to the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 16:21 NIV)), the name "Asherah" does not appear in some versions of the bible, being replaced with references to trees, leading to some mystifying passages such as the following.


"And he brake down the houses of the sodomites, that were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the grove."

(2 Kings 23:7 (King James Version))

Worship of the "feminine aspect of god" lives on in Catholicism in the worship of Mary ("the mother of god"), and in Judaism as the Shekhinah. We can see that Judaism has struggled to maintain a "monotheistic" religion. The distinction between a polytheistic religion with a single most high god, and a monotheistic religion with orders of "sons of god", can seem like a subtlety.

Sumerian

There was an assortment of similar and overlapping pantheons in the ancient Near East. These religions related back to that of the Sumerians, the source culture for the ancient Near East. In Sumerian cosmology, Nammu, goddess of the primeval waters was the first god, who became the Babylonian Tiamat who we have met already. Nammu gave birth to An (god of the sky and heaven, known among the Akkadians as "Anu") and Ki (goddess of the Earth), who were therefore brother and sister. There were also earlier versions of An and Ki called Anshar and Kishar. An was the most high god of the pantheon. An and Ki gave birth to the next generation of gods. Among them was Enlil (a storm god). But Enki (a god of crafts who made people, known among the Akkadians as "Ea") was the son of An and Nammu. Other prominent gods in the pantheon were: Ninhursag (goddess of earth fertility), Inanna (goddess of sex, beauty, and warfare, who was known as "Ishtar " among the Babylonians), Utu (god of the sun), Ereshkigal (goddess of the Underworld), Nanna (also called "Sin", god of the moon and wisdom), Ningal (goddess of reeds and wife of Nanna), and Ninlil (consort of Enlil). Marduk was a god introduced by the Babylonians who rose to prominence as Babylon did. He would eventually inherit the attributes of both Enlil and Enki, becoming the Babylonian storm god.

The "Burney" or "Queen of the Night" relief,

thought to represent either Inanna/Ishtar or Ereshkigal (c. 1800 BC - 1750 BC)
She holds the Rod-and-ring symbol in each hand.

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burney_Relief
where it is available as "dedicated to the public domain".)

Egyptian

As a blending of several religions, ancient Egyptian religion was convoluted and inconsistent. The highest Egyptian gods were Amun ("the hidden one"), Ra (the sun god, sometimes appearing with the head of a falcon) and Isis (the mother goddess). There was also a combined form: Amun-Ra. Amun, Ra or Isis might be regarded as chief among the gods and credited with creating the universe. The (uncreated or self created) god Ptah was also credited with creating the universe. A similar description applies to the god Atum. The consort of Amun was Amunet ("the female hidden one"), Wosret ("the powerful") or Mut ("mother"). Ra's consorts were Hathor (a love goddess, sometimes appearing as a cow or with cow horns), Sekhmet (goddess of war and healing, sometimes appearing with the head of a lioness) and Bastet (goddess of war, sometimes appearing as a cat or lion, or with the head of a cat or lion). Sekhmet and Bastet are also given as the consorts of Ptah. The consort of Isis was Osiris (god of the underworld). Horus (god of the sky and, like Ra, sometimes appearing as a falcon or with the head of a falcon) was the son of Isis and Osiris. The consort of Atum was Iusaaset.

The family of Osiris. Osiris in the middle, flanked by Horus on the left and Isis on the right

(22nd dynasty (945 BC - 720 BC), Louvre, Paris)

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osiris
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

Other prominent gods were Anubis (a god of the afterlife, sometimes appearing as a dog or wolf or with the head of a dog or wolf) whose consort was Anput, Apep (also known as Apophis, the giant serpent that embodied chaos), Geb (god of the Earth), Nut (goddess of the sky), Heh (personification of infinity), Kek and Keket (male and female forms, respectively, personifying primordial darkness), Khepri (the rising sun, an aspect of Ra, also known as Khepera, may be depicted as a scarab beetle or with a scarab beetle for a head), Maat (goddess of truth and justice) whose consort was Thoth (god of wisdom, often depicted with the head of an ibis or baboon), Min (a god of virility), Set (a god of evil) whose consort was Nephthys (goddess of death), Shu (god of air), Tefnut (goddess of moisture and another lioness-headed goddess), and Nu and Naunet (male and female forms, respectively, personifying the primordial waters).

Above we read that "a heiroglyph (determinative) for 'goddess' in Egypt was an upraised cobra". This presumably refers to the Uraeus, a hieroglyph of a rearing cobra. It was a symbol of the serpent goddess Wadjet, or of Isis, or as a symbol of royalty, deity or a goddess. If you compare the hieroglyphs for "Amun" and "Amunet" you will see the hieroglyph for Amunet is just the hieroglyph for Amun with the Uraeus added. However "Keket" used a different symbol to indicate the feminine gender. Using instead the "seated goddess" symbol that was used as the symbol for woman.

Several early Egyptologists developed the suspicion that there was a kind of latent monotheism within ancient Egyptian religion that existed alongside the pantheon of Egyptian gods. The hieroglyph of this god was the generic hieroglyph for "god" (neter 𓊹 (Unicode character U+132B9)) as distinct from "the gods", plural (neteru 𓊹𓊹𓊹). It is not easy to separate references to this unnamed god from references to the others.


"The passages from the pyramid of Pepi show at once the difference between neter as God, and the 'gods' neteru; the other passages, which might be multiplied almost indefinitely, prove that the Being spoken of is God.... From the attributes of God set forth in Egyptian texts of all periods, Dr. Brugsch, de Rouge and other eminent Egyptologists have come to the opinion that the dwellers in the Nile valley, from the earliest times, knew and worshipped one God, nameless, incomprehensible, and eternal ... who had created man, and who had endowed him with an immortal soul. In fact, de Rouge amplifies what Champollion-Figeac ... wrote in 1839: 'The Egyptian religion is a pure monotheism, which manifested itself externally by a symbolic polytheism.'"

("The Egyptian Book of the Dead", by E. A. Wallis Budge (1895), pp. lxxxix-xcii)

In a sense, Judaism came out of Egypt. The first 5 books of the Bible (called the "Pentateuch" (that is: "five books")) are traditionally ascribed to Moses as author (also called the Five Books of Moses or the Torah), who brought the Jewish people out of captivity in Egypt. At one point in Egyptian history, a pharaoh called "Akhenaten" (18th Dynasty, died c. 1334 BC), whose queen was Nefertiti and whose son was Tutankhamun, attempted to impose an explicit monotheism on Egypt in the form of the cult of Aten, a sun god. But the priests and people of Egypt ultimately rejected this innovation.

Greece and Rome

As the Romans went about conquering the world they tended to absorb the cultures of the people they conquered. As the religion of Greece was the most widespread in the Mediterranean world at that time, the Roman religion was little more than an imitation of that of the Greeks. The Romans had a fairly liberal attitude to religious diversity, and since the various religions of the Mediterranean world bore many similarities, is was not hard to draw parallels and to suggest: "We are all praying to the same gods, only under different names." This helped to cement the Roman empire. Later, with the rise of popular monotheistic Christianity, the Roman empire would embrace this and religious intolerance, again to powerful effect, to live on in the Holy Roman Empire (The Catholic Church).

It was not unusual for religions of the ancient world to have older gods who reside in the background while younger gods are more prominent, or indeed for there to be an old faded pantheon and a new vigorous pantheon. The ancient Sumerian goddess of the primeval waters Nammu becomes the monstrous Tiamat of Babylon, conquered by the young storm god Marduk who gains ascendancy among the gods. The kindly old El of the Canaanite pantheon lives obscurely in the background while his consort, the mother of gods, and the young storm god Ba'al dominates.

The storm god Zeus (Roman "Jupiter") was king of the Greek pantheon of gods. His sister and wife was Hera (Roman "Juno"), goddess of women and marriage. Their other siblings were: Poseidon (Roman "Neptune"), god of the sea; Hestia (Roman "Vesta", as in "Vestal Virgins"), virgin goddess of the hearth; Hades (later known as "Pluto", Roman "Dīs Pater", "Orcus" or Pluto), god of the underworld; and Demeter (Roman "Ceres"), goddess of agriculture. Hera gave birth to Ares (Roman "Mars"), god of war; and Hephaestus (Roman "Vulcan"), god of craftsman. Zeus gave rise to Athena (Roman "Minerva"), goddess of wisdom, on his own. Zeus' extramarital affairs fathered Apollo (also Apollo to the Romans), the sun god; Artemis (Roman "Diana"), goddess of hunting; Hermes (Roman "Mercury"), messenger of the gods; and Dionysus (Roman "Bacchus" or "Liber"), god of wine. Aphrodite (Roman "Venus"), goddess of love, was neither sibling nor offspring to Zeus. Together, these gods, excepting Hades, were known as the "Olympian gods", who dwelt on Mount Olympus. They are the most well known of the ancient Greek gods, but there were a number of generations of Greek gods before them.

The generation of gods before Zeus and his siblings were called the "Titans" and they were 12 in number: Oceanus, god of the sea; Tethys; Iapetus; Coeus; Phoebe; Cronus (Roman "Saturn"), god of the harvest; Rhea (Roman "Ops"), "mother of the gods"; Themis, goddess of justice; Mnemosyne (Roman "Moneta"), goddess of memory; Hyperion; Theia; and Crius. The Titans Cronus and Rhea were the parents of Zeus and his siblings.

The Titans in their turn were the children of Uranus (Roman "Caelus"), god of the sky; and Gaia (Roman "Terra" or "Tellus"), goddess of the Earth. Aphrodite was produced from the severed genitals of Uranus, as you might have expected. Gaia also gave birth to Uranus, either alone or with the help of Aether, god of the "upper air". Gaia was said to have come from Chaos. Chaos had no consort. Chaos also gave rise to Eros (Roman "Cupid"), god of sex; Tartarus, the abyss; Erebus, darkness; and Nyx, night.

Uranus' genitals were severed in a battle with Kronos (Cronus).


"As soon as Kronos had lopped off the genitals with the sickle he tossed them from the land into the stormy sea. And as they were carried by the sea a long time, all around them white foam rose from the god’s flesh, and in this foam a maiden was nurtured. First she came close to god-haunted Kythera and from there she went on to reach sea-girt Cyprus. There this majestic and fair goddess came out, and soft grass grew all around her soft feet. Both gods and men call her Aphrodite, foam-born goddess, and fair-wreathed Kythereia; Aphrodite because she grew out of aphros, foam that is, and Kythereia because she touched land at Kythera."

("Theogony" by Hesiod (c. 700 BC))

So that Botticelli's lovely painting of Venus making landfall is not entirely accurate.

"The Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli (c. 1486).

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

This was not the only myth in which a god's severed genitals gave rise to other gods. The Hittite myth called "Kingship in Heaven" or the "Song of Kumarbi" (14th or 13th century BC) describes a battle between the Hurrian god Kumarbi and his father the Sumerian god Anu. It describes the origin of three other Hurrian gods: Teshub, yet another storm god; Aranzahas, god of the Tigris river; and Tasmisus.


"Nine in number were the years that Anu was king in heaven. In the ninth year Anu gave battle to Kumarbi and like Alalus Kumarbi gave battle to Anu. (When) he could no longer withstand Kumarbi's eyes, (he) Anu, he struggled forth from the hands of Kumarbi. He fled, (he) Anu; (like) a bird he moved in the sky. After him rushed Kumarbi, seized (him) Anu, by his feet and dragged him down from the sky.

"He (Kumarbi) bit his 'knees' and his manhood went down into his inside. When it lodged there (and) when Kumarbi had swallowed Anu's manhood, he rejoiced and laughed.

"Anu turned back to him, to Kumarbi he began to speak: 'Thou rejoicest over thine inside, because thou hast swallowed my manhood. Rejoice not over thine inside! In thine inside I have planted a heavy burden. Firstly I have impregnated thee with the noble Storm-god. Secondly I have impregnated thee with the river Aranzahas, not to be endured. Thirdly I have impregnated thee with the noble Tasmisus. Three dreadful gods have I planted in thy belly as seed. Thou shalt go and end by striking the rocks of thine own mountain with thy head!'

"When Anu had finished speaking, he went up to heaven and hid himself."

("Kingship in Heaven" from "Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament with Supplement"
edited by James B. Pritchard, p.120.)

Hinduism

Hinduism is also a convoluted and contradictory religion, so that it is difficult to construct a consistent hierarchy of gods. Brahma is a creator god, sometimes referred to as "self-born" and portrayed as the supreme god, but at other times he is described as emerging from other gods such as Vishnu or Shiva. Brahma is interchangeable with the god Prajapati ("lord of creatures"), and Purusha ("cosmic man"). Vishnu is the "preserver". Shiva is the "transformer". Together; Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva form a Hindu trinity called the Trimurti ("three forms"): creation, preservation and destruction respectively. The three are sometimes treated as a single deity called Dattatreya, Brahman or Prajapati (as Prajapati-Brahman).

The consort of Brahma is Saraswati, goddess of wisdom and art. The consort of Vishnu is Lakshmi, goddess of wealth. Among the consorts of Shiva are Sati (goddess of marriage), Parvati (also called "Uma", goddess of love) and Kali. Shiva had several children, including: Ganesha, the elephant headed god of arts and sciences; and Kartikeya, god of war. Durga is goddess of war and a form of Parvati and another wife of Shiva.

Trimurti: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva seated on lotuses with their consorts, the Tridevi (three goddesses): Saraswati, Lakshmi and Paravati respectively. Guler, India (ca 1770).

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimurti
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

Other prominent gods are Rudra, a storm god; Indra, another storm god (whose consort is Shachi, also called Indrani ("queen of Indra"), goddess of wrath and jealousy, so he got lucky there); and Agni a fire god (whose consort is Svaha). Rama is one of the forms of Vishnu. His consort is Sita, who is one of the forms of Lakshmi. Krishna is another form of Vishnu, and a god of love. One of his consorts is Radha, who is another form of Lakshmi. Kāmadeva is the god of desire. His consort is Rati, goddess of desire. Varuna is god of the sea, and his consort is Varuni. Yama is the god of death. Hanuman is a monkey god and Garuda a bird god.

The Hindu deities flow into, out of and through each other. Vivid in Hinduism is the idea that deity is being represented in many forms, each displaying a particular aspect and role.

Norse

Odin (also called Fimbultyr ("mighty god")) is the ruler of Valhalla, a great hall located in Asgard, home of the gods. Odin's wife is the goddess Frigg. Thor, a storm god and protector of mankind, is the son of Odin and Jord (an Earth goddess). Thor's wife is the Earth goddess Sif. Baldr is the son of Odin and Frigg. His wife was Nanna. Váli is the son of Odin and Rindr. Vidar is the son of Odin and Gridr.

Odin (Odhin) by Johannes Gehrts.

Odin sits enthroned, with his two ravens (Huginn and Munnin), and his two wolves (Geri and Freki).

From the book, "Walhall", by Felix and Therese Dahn (1888).

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Odin
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

Fárbauti ("cruel striker") and Laufey are the parents of Loki. Loki's wife is Sigyn ("victorious girl-friend"). Loki is the father of the goddess Hel (who rules over Hel, the underworld), the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr.

Bure begat a son called "Bor", who married a woman called "Bestla" who was the daughter of a giant called "Bolthorn". Bor and Bestla had 3 sons: Odin, Vile (or "Vili", meaning "will") and Ve (meaning "shrine").

Buddhism

It is easy to imagine that Buddhism originated as a mystical philosophy of Prince Siddhartha and only later became a religion. The originator of Buddhism was Prince Siddhartha of Nepal, who lived around 500 BC, around the same time as Socrates in Greece and Lao Tzu (Laozi) in China, in the middle of a period of history that has been called the "Axial Age" because it was a time of such pivotal intellectual change in widely separated parts of the world. While Socrates had Plato to record his ideas and Lao Tzu apparently did his own writing, Siddhartha did not leave us any writings. Rather, Buddhism was an oral tradition for centuries, and it is only during the Christian era that the Buddhist texts were written, based largely on the recollections of Siddartha's disciple Ānanda as they were preserved in the oral tradition. That is a long time for Buddhism to undergo unrecorded transformation.

The premise (in fact the goal) of Buddhism is that anyone and everyone can become a Buddha. This suggests that there might have been a time when there was no Buddha, because no one had yet discovered enlightenment. So that enlightenment was a state waiting to be discovered, waiting for someone sitting cross-legged under a tree meditating to discover it for the first time. Prior to this time the universe might be driverless, a product of material evolution.

This however is not how Buddhist tradition represents the matter. Prince Siddhartha (also called "Gautama Buddha" or "Shakyamuni Buddha") was not the first Buddha. He was preceded, countless ages ago by the Buddha Dīpankara, who Shakyamuni had met in an earlier life and who had inspired Shakyamuni to become a Buddha. Shakyamuni dedicated himself over his many subsequent lives to acquiring Buddhahood, which he achieved while in the form of Prince Siddartha. The next Buddha is prophesied to be Maitreya. In fact Buddhas occur at intervals, long separated in time, to reinstate the sacred teachings.

In Buddhism, the Buddhas are above the gods. The gods are supernatural beings devoted to power and pleasure who have yet to achieve enlightenment though they live long lives on a higher plane of existence to that of human beings. In the cosmology of Buddhism, the gods of Hinduism are of this order. Shakyamuni had in fact achieved the status of a god in a previous life when he decided to incarnate one last time as a human in order to teach about enlightenment before he himself passed into Nirvana and beyond for good. Buddhism therefore absorbs the Hindu pantheon of gods, and in China the gods of prior Chinese tradition.

Shakyamuni is therefore a Christ-like figure, a divine being who came to Earth for the specific purpose to teach and save mankind and lead it to bliss. He died in the flesh and passed into eternal life in bliss. A "second coming" in the form of Maitreya in a dark future time is prophesied.

Buddha at Seokguram in South Korea.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Richardfabi.

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

Buddhism has spread far and wide and its pantheon takes different forms in different countries. Among some Hindus, Buddha is simply regarded as another form of Vishnu. In Buddhism proper there are no gods exactly. There are only enlightened ones: beings who were once ordinary people, but who gained enlightenment (a realisation of a mystical truth) and thereby supernatural powers. The word "Buddha" means "enlightened one" and Siddhārtha came to be called "Buddha". He is sometimes referred to as Gautama Buddha or Shakyamuni Buddha, to distinguish him from all the other Buddhas. Buddhism defines three upper levels of supernatural being.

Buddhas
Bodhisattvas
Deities

The highest, the Buddhas, comprise among others: Gautama Buddha (Shakyamuni Buddha), Amitābha (which means "Infinite Light"), Bhaiṣajyaguru ("the medicine Buddha"), and Vairocana (the Buddha of primordial emptiness). Bodhisattvas are Buddhas in the making. The bodhisattvas are comprised, among others: of Avalokitesvara (bodhisattva of compassion (called Guanyin (观音) in China)), Manjushri ("Gentle Glory"), Samantabhadra ("Universally Worthy"), Kshitigarbha (associated with the Earth), Mahasthamaprapta (bodhisattva of wisdom), Vajrapani (a protector and guide), Budai (Laughing Buddha), and Cundi (a goddess with 18 arms). Before Siddartha became a Buddha he was classed as a Bodhisattva. The bodhisattva Guanyin (Avalokitesvara), who may appear as either male, female or of indeterminate gender, is phenomenally popular.

"Guan Yin of the South Sea of Sanya", in Sanya, Hainan Province, Southeast China.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Hostage820.

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statues_of_Guanyin
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

In Chinese Buddhism, the deities include, among others: the "Four Heavenly Kings", each associated with a cardinal direction (Vaiśravaṇa, king of the North and chief of the four kings; Virūḍhaka, king of the South, who aids growth in plants; Dhṛtarāṣṭra, king of the East and god of music; and Virūpākṣa, king of the West, who sees all). Sangharama was originally a historical general called Guan Yu. Skanda is the protector of Buddhism. Yama, is King of Hell. Ji Gong was originally a historical monk called Li Xiuyuan. Sudhana ("Child of Wealth") and Longnü ("Dragon Girl") are often encountered together, and Marici is a sun goddess.

Statues of the Four Heavenly Kings in Beihai Park (北海公园), Beijing, China. From left to right: King associated with the direction North (Vaiśravaṇa), South (Virūḍhaka), East (Dhṛtarāṣṭra), and West (Virūpākṣa).
Photographs taken in 2004 by Rolf Müller.

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Heavenly_Kings
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

The 3 levels are not always maintained consistently, so that a bodhisattva may sometimes be referred to as a Buddha. A human or a deity might also be a bodhisattva. Another level of the hierarchy, called "Sangha", is comprised of human Buddhist monks in general.

Taoism

Taoism (or Daoism) is a philosophy that grew into a religion. It was originated by the Chinese philosopher/mystic called Lau Tzu (Laozi (6th century BC)) whose teachings are contained in the Tao Te Ching (道德经 "The Classic of the Way of Virtue"), the seminal text of Taoism along with Zhuangzi (named after its author: "Master Zhuang"). At the top of the Taoist pantheon is the trinity of the Three Pure Ones (三清 Sānqīng): Yuanshi Tianzun ("Lord of the Primordial Beginning"); Lingbao Tianzun ("Lord of the Numinous Treasure"); and Daode Tianzun ("Lord of the Way and its Virtue"). Yuanshi Tianzun is sometimes represented as the first god. The "Jade Emperor" (玉皇 Yù Huáng) may be identified with Yuanshi Tianzun, or represented as his disciple who later inherited the governance of the universe from him. Zhinü ("weaver girl") is the daughter of the Jade Emperor. She weaves the Silver River (Milky Way).

"Portraits of Jade Emperor and the Heavenly Kings"

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portraits_of_Jade_Emperor_and_the_Heavenly_Kings.JPG
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism derives from the teachings of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster (or Zarathustra), who lived possibly some time in the second millennium BC. Zoroastrianism was the religion of ancient Persia. The supreme being of Zoroastrianism is Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord), also known as Ohrmazd. Ahura Mazda has an opposite: Angra Mainyu ("destructive spirit"), also called Ahriman. There were six great "divine sparks" (Amesha Spenta, "Holy Immortal") of Ahura Mazda, or archangels.

• Vohu Manah ("Good Purpose", male).
• Asha Vahishta ("Best Truth or Righteousness", male).
• Kshatra Vairya ("Desirable Dominion", male).
• Spenta Armaiti ("Holy Devotion", female).
• Haurvatat ("Wholeness", female).
• Ameretat ("Immortality", female).

Each of the six divine sparks had a corresponding opposite, the Daeva.

• Aka Manah (evil purpose), also called Akoman.
• Druj (lie), also called Indar.
• Sawar or Sarvar (oppression), also called Saurva.
• Nanghait (discontent), also called Naonhaithya or Naonghaithya.
• Tauriz or Tawrich (destruction), also called Taurvi.
• Zariz or Zarich (poison), also called Zauri.

Positive divinities in Zoroastrianism, such as the Amesha Spenta, are also sometimes referred to as "Ahura" or "Yazata". Three Zoroastrian deities are commonly identified as ahura, and are therefore known as the "Ahuric triad".

• Ahura Mazda
• Mithra
• Apam Napat (a water divinity)

"Mithraism" was a religion among the Romans. Zoroastrianism with its dualist contest between Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd) and Angra Mainyu (Ahriman) is thought to have influenced Judaism and the early development of Christianity in the contest between God and The Devil.

The Urantia Book

The Urantia Book is a modern religion, a product of the "New Age" and an early example of what has come to be known as "channelling". Giving rise to the usual retinue of cranks and quacks in its wake. Channelling was for a time to become a kind of fad. It was written in the first half of the Twentieth Century and constitutes a kind of revised Christian Bible. It contains an extensive pantheon of spiritual beings.

Kaaba (ٱلْـكَـعْـبَـة‎, "The Cube") is a building at the center of Islam's most important mosque in Mecca.

During the Hajj and Umrah, Muslim pilgrims circle the Kaaba seven times, in a counterclockwise direction.

A practice known as Tawaf (طواف‎, "going about").

Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Moataz Egbaria (معتز اغبارية).

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaaba,_Makkah6.jpg
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

The "Paradise Trinity": consisting of the "Universal Father", "Eternal Son" and "Infinite Spirit", reside together on the "Eternal Isle of Paradise" located at the centre of the universe, in a central universe called "Havona" which is: "not a time creation; it is an eternal existence". In orbit around Havona is the conventional universe, which is divided into seven administrative districts called "Superuniverses", of which our superuniverse (Orvonton) is one.

Each superuniverse is in turn divided and subdivided into further administrative districts, consisting of 10 "Major sectors" (of which ours is "Splandon"), each divided into 100 "Minor sectors" (of which ours is "Ensa"), each divided into 100 "Local Universes" (of which ours is "Nebadon"), each divided into 100 "Constellations" (of which ours is "Norlatiadek"), each divided into 100 "Local systems" (of which ours is "Satania"), each containing 1,000 inhabitable planets. So that the seven superuniverses as a whole are comprised of 7,000,000,000,000 inhabitable planets. The Urantia Book therefore describes a vast and intricate, divine, universal bureaucracy.

While the Hindu god Vishnu as Narayana ("whose abode is the waters") sleeps on Sesa between universes, he is visited by Brahma. Narayana invites Brahma to look inside his body, where he sees the universe to come.


"O grandfather of the worlds, within me you see the entire universe including the mountains and the great continents surrounded by seven oceans."

("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 9 "Manifestation of the Lotus-Born Deity--Brahma",

p.69, Hindu)

Seven worlds or realms is not an uncommon motif in mythology. In Hindu tradition there are fourteen worlds (Loka): seven higher ones (Vyahrtis or Urthva (Bhu (the earth), Bhuvas, Svar, Mahas, Janas, Tapas, and Satya or Brahmaloka)) and seven lower ones (Pātālas, "underworld" (Atala, Vitala, Sutala, Talatala, Mahatala, Rasatala, and Patala or Nagaloka)), below which is Naraka, the Hindu Hell. The Ayyavazhi religion of southern India has Seven Logas (Seven Upper Worlds (Deiva, Yama, Swarga, Brahma, Vaikunda, Siva, Para)). In Buddhism, the seventh "realm" is the liberation from the 6 realms of samsara (rebirth). The Sumerian goddess of love, Inanna, passes through seven gates on her journey into the underworld. In Islam, Allah "directed Himself to the heaven, and made them seven heavens" (Qur'an 2:29, also 41:12, 65:12, 67:3). Muslims are to circumambulate the Kaaba seven times, and hell (Jahannam) has seven gates (Qur'an 15:44). Among the Shi'ite the seven heavens are: Rafi' (رفیع), Qaydum (قیدوم), Marum (ماروم‎‎), Arfalun (أرفلون‏), Hay'oun (هيعون‏), Arous (عروس), Ajma' (عجماء). In the Jain religion there are seven levels of hell (Naraka). In the Pelasgian Creation Myth the goddess Eurynome instructs the serpent Ophion to coil seven times about the egg (of the universe). We saw an image of this in the "Ouroboros" section of The Scientific Creation Myth. In Judaism the seven heavens (Shamayim (שָׁמַיִם)) are Vilon (וִילוֹן) or Araphel (עֲרָפֶל), Raqia (רָקִיעַ), Shehaqim (שְׁחָקִים), Zebul (זִבּוּל), Maon (מִעוּן), Makon (מִכּוּן), and Araboth (עֲרֵבוּת). The cosmology of seven heavens is what gives us the phrase: "in seventh heaven" to refer to a happy or blissful state.

"Muhammed's Paradise", a depiction of the seven heavens of Islam.

A Persian miniature from "The History of Mohammed"

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Heavens
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

While Judaism and several other religions describe seven heavens, there is nothing in the Judeo/Christian Bible to suggest such a thing. The nearest thing in the Bible is a reference to a "third heaven".


"I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows."

(2 Corinthians 12:2)

Within a geocentric cosmology, the "first heaven" may refer to the atmosphere, while the "second heaven" may refer to the upper air or aether between the atmosphere and the sphere containing the fixed stars. The "third heaven" would then be the realm beyond the sphere of the fixed stars where God lives. An arrangement of seven heavens were typically also based on a geocentric arrangement, where the "heavens" corresponded to the "Seven Classical Planets": the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; that is, the planets known before the invention of the telescope because they were visible to the naked eye, and all thought to revolve around the earth in concentric rings or spheres, outside which is the sphere of the fixed stars.

The Old Testament of the Bible corresponds to a body of Jewish religious texts known as the Tanakh, the Jewish Bible. There are other Jewish religious texts aside from the Tanakh, but these others tend to be unknown to Christians. Also, among Christian Bibles there is some variation. For instance, early on Christianity split into an "Eastern Orthodox" church, and a western "Catholic" church. The Eastern Orthodox church exists in Russia and has a couple of extra Jewish books not included in the Catholic Bible or the Tanakh (1 Esdras, 4 Maccabees, and the Prayer of Manesseh). The  Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church also include the Jewish "Book of Enoch". The Bible mentions Enoch (the great-grandfather of Noah): "Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." (Genesis 5:24) The Book of Enoch gives detail on the fallen angels and describes Enoch's journey through the ten heavens.

The following passage of The Urantia Book seems perhaps to imply that travel directly from one superuniverse to another is not allowed.


"Solitary Messengers are the only available type of spirit intelligence — aside, possibly, from the Inspired Trinity Spirits — that can be dispatched from the headquarters of one superuniverse directly to the headquarters of another. All other personalities must make such excursions by way of Havona and the executive worlds of the Master Spirits."

(The Urantia Book 23:2.15)

If there is a physical barrier to direct travel between the superuniverses, even if it is only the absence of established transport services, or just a wide empty space, this might be figuratively represented by impassible mountains separating each region from another. Mount Meru is a mythical mountain at the centre of the universe within Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmology. In Jain cosmology Mount Meru (or Sumeru) is surrounded by the circular continent of Jambuddiva (Jambūdvīpa, "Jambu tree island"), which is divided into seven zones by "world mountains". Unfortunately the comparison is spoiled by the fact that the mountain ranges divide the island horizontally rather than radially.


"These seven parts of the world are separated from each other by world mountains (vasadhara-pavvaya) extending from east to west, so that in the south between Bharaha and Hemavaya we have Cullahimavanta (Himavan), between Hamavaya and Harivasa Mahahimavanta, between Harivasa and Mahavideha Nisadha; in the north between Eravaya and Hirannavaya Sihari, between Hirannavaya and Rammaga: Ruppi, and between Rammaga and Mahavideha Nilavanta.... The mountains in Mahavideha are called vakkhara-pavvaya. They are grouped round the Mandara mountain which forms the centre point of the Jambuddvia. This mountain which, apart from 14 other names..., bears the name of Meru...."

("The Doctrine of the Jainas" by Walther Schubring, translated by Wolfgang Beurlen, pp.217-220)

Map of Jambudvipa.
From "A comprehensive history of India, civil, military, and social,

from the first landing of the English to the suppression of the Sepoy revolt",

by Henry Beveridge (1900), p.2.

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jambudvipa
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

These are not the only sevenfold divisions in the cosmology. Among them there is also a vertical division into 7 heavens and 7 hells.


"The Hindoos also divide the world into three regions. The uppermost region they call Soorglogue, and believe it to be a place where men receive the reward of their good actions in this world. The middle region is Bhologue, being the part inhabited by mankind. The inferior region they call Patall, and make it to be the place of punishment, for bad actions in this life. The learned among them say, that the universe is made up of superficies, which they divide into fourteen regions. The Seven Superior Regions. 1. Bhoologue. 2. Bhowurlogue. 3. Songlogue. 4. Marhrlogue. 5. Junnoologue. 6. Tuppoologue. 7. Sutlogue. The Seven Inferior. 1. Atul. 2, Bitul. 3. Sootul. 4. Tullatul. 5. Mehatul. 6. Refatul. 7. Pattall. Wonderful fables are told of the inhabitants of each region, too long for insertion here. They also divide the world into seven seas and seven islands."

("Ayeen Akbery: or, The Institutes of the Emperor Akber", Volume 2,

by Abu Al-Fazl Ibn Mubarak, pp.344-345)

It's disconcerting when a religious book offers scientific insights, since unlike most religious assertions, these can be disproven. The Urantia Book contains a great many specifics of a scientific nature. We will look at some of these as we proceed. In the first paragraph of The Urantia Book we are told that "Urantia" is "the name of your world", that is, the name the planet Earth has among the other denizens of the universe. At one point The Urantia Book states the following: "The vast Milky Way starry system represents the central nucleus of Orvonton, being largely beyond the borders of your local universe." (The Urantia Book 15:3.1) Elsewhere it says the following.


"The Satania system of inhabited worlds is far removed from Uversa [headquarters of Orvonton] and that great sun cluster which functions as the physical or astronomic center of the seventh superuniverse. From Jerusem, the headquarters of Satania, it is over two hundred thousand light-years to the physical center of the superuniverse of Orvonton, far, far away in the dense diameter of the Milky Way. Satania is on the periphery of the local universe, and Nebadon is now well out towards the edge of Orvonton. From the outermost system of inhabited worlds to the center of the superuniverse is a trifle less than two hundred and fifty thousand light-years."

(The Urantia Book 32:2.11)

Astronomers say the Milky Way galaxy has a diameter between 100,000 and 180,000 light-years, which is not too far off The Urantia Book estimate. The Urantia Book asserts that a superuniverse is comprised of 1,000,000,000,000 inhabitable planets. Astronomers estimate the there are more than 100,000,000,000 stars in the Milky Way galaxy, so that the figure in The Urantia Book seems a little high. The suggestion seems to be then that a superuniverse means a galaxy. But since there are only 7 superuniverses, this then presumably refers only to 7 galaxies. The word "galaxy" only appears once in The Urantia Book in its astronomical meaning, but confirms this suggestion.


"Of the ten major divisions of Orvonton, eight have been roughly identified by Urantian astronomers. The other two are difficult of separate recognition because you are obliged to view these phenomena from the inside. If you could look upon the superuniverse of Orvonton from a position far-distant in space, you would immediately recognize the ten major sectors of the seventh galaxy."

(The Urantia Book 15:3.4)

Astronomers estimate that there are in the vicinity of one hundred billion galaxies in the universe (that is; more than seven). Deep space photographs showing galaxies as numerous as stars are a commonplace now, but in the early part of the Twentieth Century when The Urantia Book was written, galaxies were the latest thing, and they were sometimes referred to as "island universes".


"The Greek word for the Milky Way is galaxias, hence our word 'galaxy'. Distant star systems were only called galaxies at a relatively recent date, that is, when there was evidence that they somehow resemble whatever it is within which we are situated. The path to this knowledge was long and arduous. Before the telescope, most who touched on the subject at all spoke of the Milky Way as a cloud, but some - even as early as Democritus - treated it as a conglomeration of tiny stars that were so close as to be indistinguishable."

("The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology" by John North, p.401)

When galaxies were first made out faintly as telescopes improved, they were called "spiral nebula", because it was not realised that they were vast congregations of stars, but was thought that they might be relatively small and nearby eddies of gas.


"Knut Lundmark struggled hard to refute his inferences, and to uphold the idea that the nebulae were 'island universes'. (Alexander von Humboldt gave this last expression - Weltinseln in German - a wide currency in his book Kosmos, in 1850.) Van Maanen's findings could not be easily refuted, however, without coming close to questioning his integrity, and many continued to accept them until around 1933."

("The Fontana History of Astronomy and Cosmology" by John North, p.495-6)

This then raises the question: "What about all the other galaxies in the universe?" The Urantia Book defines "The Grand Universe" as "the present organized and inhabited creation", which consists of the seven superuniverses together with the central universe of Havona. But beyond the borders of The Grand Universe are what it calls "The Outer Space Levels".


"Although the unaided human eye can see only two or three nebulae outside the borders of the superuniverse of Orvonton, your telescopes literally reveal millions upon millions of these physical universes in process of formation. Most of the starry realms visually exposed to the search of your present-day telescopes are in Orvonton, but with photographic technique the larger telescopes penetrate far beyond the borders of the grand universe into the domains of outer space, where untold universes are in process of organization. And there are yet other millions of universes beyond the range of your present instruments.... As far as we know, no material beings on the order of humans, no angels or other spirit creatures, exist in this outer ring of nebulae, suns, and planets. This distant domain is beyond the jurisdiction and administration of the superuniverse governments."

(The Urantia Book 12:2.2-5)

If the seven superuniverses are orbiting Havona, this would make Havona, and therefore the centre of the universe, in our galactic neighbourhood, so that we would have a, more or less, Milky Way centric cosmology. This seems akin to placing the abode of the gods just out of reach on mountain peaks. To aid in this, the central universe has been hidden from us.


"On the outskirts of this vast central universe, far out beyond the seventh belt of Havona worlds, there swirl an unbelievable number of enormous dark gravity bodies. These multitudinous dark masses are quite unlike other space bodies in many particulars; even in form they are very different. These dark gravity bodies neither reflect nor absorb light; they are nonreactive to physical-energy light, and they so completely encircle and enshroud Havona as to hide it from the view of even near-by inhabited universes of time and space."

(The Urantia Book 14:1.14)

When I read passages like this I'm reminded uncomfortably of some lines from Shakespeare's Macbeth spoken by apparitions called up by the witches.


"Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn the power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.... Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are: Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him."

("Macbeth", Act IV, Scene I)

If you do not know the story of Macbeth, it is enough to know it is a tragedy. I'm inclined to raise a general warning against seeking answers to scientific questions in religious books, and treating with suspicion any we may seem to find there. Religious revelation is not the appropriate vehicle for the delivery of new scientific knowledge. In the article Cosmic Conspiracy - Part 1 - Deus Absconditus we considered a cosmic principle we called "agnostic freedom", whereby religion was not permitted substantial evidence. In Cosmic Conspiracy - Part 2 - Strange Creatures it was stated that: "If the supernatural is real, it's specifically designed to be elusive and to make fools of anyone associated with it, in a divine act of cosmic censorship." The Urantia Book itself states: "And this sacred heritage of animal ascent, evolutionary religion, must ever continue to be refined and ennobled by the continuous censorship of revealed religion and by the fiery furnace of genuine science." (92:3.10) The science (facts) in religious revelation that is, will always be modelled on the current state of knowledge among the revelation's recipients.

The Urantia Book describes the "The Outer Space Levels" as divided into 4 concentric ellipses of high energy activity (where galaxies are formed) in a horizontal plane, with regions of quiet (empty space) between, with "The Grand Universe" at its centre. The first quiet zone extends from the border of The Grand Universe out for about 500,000 light years to the edge of The First Outer Space Level. The Second Outer Space Level is about 50,000,000 light years beyond the first (The Urantia Book 12:1). The seven superuniverses follow an elliptical orbit around Havona, and the bodies in Havona follow an elliptical orbit around the Eternal Isle of Paradise. Presumably this is why the symbol of the Urantia Book is three concentric circles. The Isle of Paradise and these 6 concentric ellipses are collectively referred to as the "Master Universe". We might compare this to the Jain cosmology.


"The surface of the centre world consists of the circular continent Jambuddiva surrounded by other continents and by oceans in concentric rings."

("The Doctrine of the Jainas" by Walther Schubring, translated by Wolfgang Beurlen, p.217)

Wall painting depicting Jambudvipa.
In Jain Basadi (temple), Moodabidri, Karnataka, India.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Vaikoovery (cropped).

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jambudvipa
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)

"In the Middle World [where humans live] there are countless continents and oceans ... the divisions of each being twice as large as those of the preceding one; each one surrounding the preceding one like a sheath. The last of these is the great ocean named Svayambhuramana.... Next, surrounding Jambudvipa, and twice as wide, is the ocean named Lavanoda..... Next, the second continent, named Dhatakikhanda [or Ghatki Khand], twice as wide, surrounds Lavanoda.... The ocean surrounding Dhatakikhanda ... is called Kaloda.... Surrounding Puskara is the Puskara Ocean twice as large. Then come the continent and ocean Varunivara; beyond them the continent and ocean Ksiravara. Then Ghrtavara continent and ocean, Iksuvara continent and ocean. Then comes the eighth continent, named Nandisvara, which resembles heaven.... Then the ocean Nandisvara surrounds Nadisvara; after that Arunadvipa and Arunoda. Then come Arunavaravipa and the ocean by that name; next Arunabhasa and Arunabhasa Ocean. Then Kundaladvipa and the ocean Kundaloda come next; then Rucakadvipa and Rucaka Ocean. The oceans and continents ... are each twice as large as the preceding one. Of these the last is the ocean Svayambhuramana."

(Trisastisalakapurusacaritra ("The deeds of 63 illustrious persons") Vol-i Adisvaracaritra,

by B Bhattacharyya, pp. 385-398 (11th century AD))

Tibetan Buddhism has the following.


"And at the centre is Mount Sumeru, king of mountains, majestic and formed from the five precious substances, Exquisitely beautiful in shape, and delightful to behold, encircled by seven [concentric] golden mountain ranges, and seven [intervening] emanational oceans."

(from: "Peaceful and Wrathful Deities: Natural Liberation of Enlightened Intention")

The idea of concentric rings of land and water appear in Plato's Timaeus, in his description of the capital of the lost continent of Atlantis. Plato also uses the concentric ring idea in his description of the perfect city/kingdom in The Republic, with the philosopher King residing at its centre.

In modern astronomy, the observable universe is a sphere with a radius of about 45 billion light-years. It is a sphere only because we cannot see any further than this because the light from further away hasn't had time to reach us yet. Because the universe is only 13 billion years old (since the Big Bang), light has only had 13 billion years to travel. The reason why the radius is 45 billion instead of 13 billion is because the universe is also expanding, so that the parts that are now 45 billion light years away, used to be closer. So the "visible universe" doesn't mean the entire physical universe, only that part of it that we can see. As we look out toward the edge of the universe we are also looking back in time since the light that is arriving here now from the edge of the visible universe, is showing us an image that is 13 billion years old. This also creates a concentric spherical layer effect with outer layers showing primitive cosmic formations and inner layers showing more recent cosmic formations.

While the ability of astronomers to resolve images at the very edges of the visible universe are currently limited, the cosmic structure described in The Urantia Book would be well within the bounds of the billions of light-years that astronomers are able to resolve with a high degree of clarity. Instead of a plane of concentric ellipses, they find filaments formed of millions of galaxies, around enormous voids distributed in all three dimensions. The Milky Way galaxy is within one of these filaments (the Virgo supercluster (Laniakea Supercluster)).

There is a "Great Wall" ("Coma Wall" or "CfA2 Great Wall") of galaxies 300 million light-years away, and another great wall ("Sloan Great Wall" (SGW)) about one billion light-years away. Although these walls are vast structures, they only take up a tiny part of the whole sky; that is, they do not comprise part of a great sphere surrounding us, that we are at the centre of. Above the scale of 300 million light years we don't see any more large scale structure. The universe becomes uniform, homogenous. About 250 million light-years away in the centre of our supercluster, is the "Great Attractor", whose vast gravitational pull affects the motion of all the galaxies in our supercluster.

The Milky Way galaxy is a member of a local group of about 50 galaxies. But most of these "galaxies" are smaller groupings of stars that are satellites of the major galaxies (these being the large spiral formations we usually think of as galaxies), of which the Milky Way is one ("many island universes formerly believed to be in outer space are really a part of the galactic system of Orvonton" (12:2.3)). The nearest major galaxy is Andromeda (M31), 2.5 million light-years away. Next is Triangulum (M33), 2.6 million light-years away. Besides these there is an assortment of dwarf galaxies, and objects that have been detected but are hidden from us by the Milky Way.

"Messier 31, Andromeda Spiral Galaxy", photograph by Boris Štromar

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_(constellation)
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

The seven superuniverses need not, perhaps, correspond to a grouping of seven major galaxies. As administrative districts, they only define groupings of a certain number of habitable worlds. It is clear that the superuniverse of Orvonton corresponds to what we know as the Milky Way galaxy and its satellites, and that this is referred to as the "seventh galaxy".

While the specifics given in The Urantia Book are not accurate, we can say that we are a member of a small local cluster of galaxies, consisting of the Milky Way, Andromeda, Triangulum and possibly some others; then there is a big empty space before our next nearest neighbours in the Virgo supercluster; then there is a much bigger empty space before we reach the next superclusters. But there seems to be nothing in the arrangement of stars, nebula and galaxies to indicate that we are at the centre of the universe.

If we scatter a bunch of pizzas across the floor, we can say that a given piece of pineapple is about 10 millimetres from the pieces of pineapple that are its nearest neighbours, and that after a band of several centimetres of pieces of pineapple in close proximity, there is a big space of about a metre before we reach more groupings of pineapple. If one of the pieces of pineapple on one of the pizzas happens to be situated at the exact centre of the universe; there is nothing in the arrangement to tell us so. The alternating bands of matter and void is a product of groupings occurring on several discrete scales. We might refer to these scales as "space levels", although this is not what The Urantia Book actually describes.

There doesn't appear to be a plausible way to reconcile the description given in The Urantia Book with what astronomers actually observe. So we are left to treat it, like other myths, as metaphor, or as a description of some "spiritual" arrangement. We might attempt to argue that what is being described exists or is arranged in some other set of (perhaps spiritual) dimensions, but the clear references to the Milky Way and specific constellations makes this difficult, unless these also have some counterpart in those other dimensions. While the description doesn't correspond to what astronomers see, we have seen that it does link up with descriptions from other mythologies.

There are 7 possible permutations of 3 objects. So the Paradise Trinity; singly or in combination, give rise to what are called the "The Seven Master Spirits", and these in turn can give rise to other entities.

1. The Universal Father.
2. The Eternal Son.
3. The Infinite Spirit.
4. The Father and the Son.
5. The Father and the Spirit.
6. The Son and the Spirit.
7. The Father, Son, and Spirit.

The Seven Master Spirits are "classified as children of the Paradise Trinity". So too are "The Seven Supreme Executives", each of which is " devoted to the efficient administration of a single superuniverse". The Master Spirits gave rise to what are called "The Reflective Spirits". There are 50 of these. 49 (7 x 7) ordinary Reflective Spirits plus one (called "Majeston") who serves as the "Chief of Reflectivity". Forty-nine "Reflective Image Aids" were created by the Reflective Spirits. The "Seven Spirits of the Havona Circuits" are also offspring of The Seven Master Spirits.

Each local universe has a "Creator Son" and a "Mother Spirit". Each Creator Son is created by the "joint action of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son". Each time a Creator Son is created, this causes a “supreme reaction of complement” in the Infinite Spirit, giving rise to "the birth within the person of the Infinite Spirit of the ... local universe consort of this Paradise Son." The Creator Sons are the makers and rulers of the local universes of time and space. They are also referred to as "Michaels".

The Creator Sons are one of three orders of what are called "Paradise Sons of God". They "come forth from the Deities on the central Isle of Light and Life". The other two orders are "Magisterial Sons" (the Avonals), and "Trinity Teacher Sons" (the Daynals). In addition to the Paradise Sons of God there are also "Local Universe Sons of God". The Local Universe Sons of God are the offspring of the local universe Creator Son and Mother Spirit (also called the Creative Spirit). There are four orders of Local Universe Sons of God: The Melchizedek Sons (Melchizedek is a character from the Book of Enoch, and is also mentioned several times in the Bible (Genesis 14:18, Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 5:6-10, 6:20, 7:1-17)), Vorondadek Sons (also known as "Most Highs" and "Constellation Fathers"), Lanonandek Sons (also known as System Sovereigns and Planetary Princes), and the Life Carriers (who "are intrusted with designing and carrying creature life to the planetary spheres"). Together, the Paradise Sons of God and the Local Universe Sons of God are referred to as the "Descending Sons of God". This is because each of them is descended from deity. The Descending Sons of God are distinguished from the "Ascending Sons of God". These are those beings that begin as mortal creatures on the material worlds of space, and who then ascend toward deity, for example humans. The descending Sons of God then, form an extensive hierarchy from the most high god at the apex, in a continuous chain all the way down to creatures like the Seraphim who are similar to human beings. Human beings then ascend this hierarchy after material death, slowly over a long extended period. The following quote from Genesis is sometimes referred to as "Jacob's Ladder".

"Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it."

(Genesis 28:10-2)

"Jacob's Ladder", from "Bible Pictures and What They Teach Us" (1897)

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Bible_Pictures_with_brief_descriptions_by_Charles_Foster
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

The Hindu Kurma Purana describes something similar, though the directions are reversed. After creating inanimate objects and animals, the god Brahma creates the "upward currented" gods (Devas) and then the "downward currented" human beings.


"It was devoid of light both within and without. It was rigid and devoid of contact. As the immovables (such as mountains, trees etc.) were the first creation, this creation was known as the first or Mukhya creation. Having observed that this creation is not accomplishing his object, the Lord thought of another creation. Even as he was pondering, the Tiryak-srotas (oblique currented creation i.e. the animal world) appeared. Since it functioned in non-straight ways, it is known as Tiryak-srotas. O Brahmanas, they are well-known as beasts, etc. as those tread the wrong path and go astray. Realising that that creation did not accomplish its purpose and hence was incomplete, he created another set of creation. That is called the upward currented (Urdhva-srotas). It was the creation of gods, endowed with the quality of Sattva. They were blessed with abundant happiness and pleasure. They are uncovered i.e. unburdened within and without. They are full of light internally and externally. Naturally they are termed as Devas, the luminous. Thereafter, he, of truthful (effective) meditation began to contemplate further. Then from the unmanifest appeared the downward currented (Arvak-srotas) creation, competent of accomplishing his purpose (all goals of life). There, they came to be known as human beings - illuminated with the light of knowledge, endowed with the quality of Sattva [goodness], contaminated and afflicted with Tamas [darkness] and dominated with Rajas [passion]."

("The Kurma Purana" Part I, Chapter 7 "The Description of Creation", p.57-8, Hindu)

"To the South Sea islander [the rainbow] was the heaven-ladder where heroes of old climbed up and down; and so to the Scandinavian it was Bifrost...." ("Primitive Culture" by Edward B. Tylor, p.297-8)

"Walhalla", by Hermann Burghart (1878)

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Das_Rheingold
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

The rainbow reaches from heaven to Earth, and so is a natural bridge between the two. The elusiveness of the point where it reaches the Earth only reinforces its supernatural credentials. Our material universe, made of light as we have seen, is itself a bridge to heaven, a rainbow bridge if you will. It is a ladder that we climb. A ladder hurled out from heaven, and drawn by a spiritual gravity to return to it.

One of the more implausible elements of the Christian religion is the proposition that a member of the Trinity, one third part of the God of the universe, decided to visit Palestine for the purpose of starting Christianity on Earth. If this was a one-off event, then out of all of the trillions of worlds in the universe, what is so special about ours? The theory smacks of geocentrism, the Earth centred universe. We might suggest instead that the Eternal Son is in the habit of visiting material worlds at a certain point in their evolution for the purpose of delivering a divine testament. The Urantia Book offers a different explanation. It informs us that the person we know as Jesus, is the Creator Son of our local universe, one of an order consisting of "more than seven hundred thousand". This assertion seems to flatly contradict the testimony of John in the Christian Bible who declares: "No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him" (John 1:18). According to the Urantia Book, Jesus is "a son" of God, but not "the Son" of God, an offspring of members of the trinity, but not a member himself.

In place of a universal "Devil", the Urantia Book explains that Lucifer was a "Lanonandek Son of Nebadon [our Local Universe]" who was "Sovereign of Satania [our Local system]", that is, a member of a relatively low order of divine being, a local bureaucrat or provincial governor within Michael's domain. As a member of the Lanonandek Son order he was also the son of Christ Michael. The Urantia book asserts that the rebellion of Lucifer was a literal event. Satan was another Lanonandek Son and Lucifer’s assistant. Another conspirator was Caligastia, the Earth's Planetary Prince.

"Archangel Michael Trampling Lucifer" by Guido Reni (1636)

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archangel

where it is available as "in the public domain".)

The angelic hosts are children of the Infinite Spirit. They are classified into 7 orders.

1. Supernaphim.
2. Seconaphim.
3. Tertiaphim.
4. Omniaphim.
5. Seraphim.
6. Cherubim and Sanobim.
7. Midway Creatures.

We now have a general understanding of the pantheon of gods and related beings for a variety of religions from around the world and down through history. What can we say about what we have learned? We can say that pantheons of gods are common across human cultures, and that monotheistic religions find it difficult to prevent the intrusion of other supernatural deities claimed to be the "children of god". It is typical for the most high god or gods to have offspring, and for their offspring to have offspring, often necessarily including what would normally be regarded as incestuous encounters. We have seen that non-theistic philosophies offering liberation from mortality (such as Buddhism and Taoism) find it difficult not to evolve into typical pantheons of gods over time. The societies in which these philosophies seek to take root impose their folk beliefs on it, and to survive it must absorb them. So that the personal most high god and his family will unavoidably impose themselves on popular consciousness.

It may be, when it comes to deity, that the distinction between a "child of God" in the sense of "offspring", and merely "created" creatures is a subtle one, particularly as regards the higher orders of being. We can only speculate on what it means for a being to come "from" God. The philosopher John Locke (1632 – 1704) suggested that the infinity of God implied that there would likely be more orders of spiritual being above, between us and God, than animals below, between us and inanimate matter.


"It is not impossible to conceive, nor repugnant to reason, that there may be many species of spirits, as much separated and diversified one from another by distinct properties whereof we have no ideas, as the species of sensible things are distinguished one from another by qualities which we know, and observe in them. That there should be more species of intelligent creatures above us, than there are of sensible and material below us, is probable to me from hence; that in all the visible corporeal world, we see no chasms or gaps. All quite down from us the descent is by easy steps, and a continued series of things, that in each remove differ very little one from the other."

("Essay concerning Human Understanding" by John Locke;

Book III, Chapter VI, Paragraph 12 (1689) (compare also IV:III:17 and 27))

The Sanxing (三星 "Three Stars"):

Fu (福 "Prosperity"), Lu (禄 "Status"), and Shou (寿 "Longevity"), often concatenated as Fu Lu Shou (福禄寿),
photographed in a shop window: China Hong Kong City, Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong in 2013 by Raonspediwu

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Fu_Lu_Shou
 where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

Amid a common ambiguity between "one" and "not one" and various "manifestations" or descriptions of supposedly the same god or gods, we have also found the divine trinity to be a common theme: with the Hindu "Trimurti" (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva), the "Three Pure Ones" of Taoism, and the "Ahuric triad" of Zoroastrianism. We might add to this list the Trikaya (三身 "Three bodies") of Buddhism, the Sanxing (三星 "three stars") of Taoism, and the Ayyavazhi religion of southern India which is a kind of synthesis of Christianity and Hinduism, where "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" are equated to "Soul, Body, Spirit" respectively; and even the "Triple Goddess" of neopaganism. If you search on the term "triple deity" you will find a variety of other instances. The one place we have found the trinity to be absent, surprisingly, is in Judaism. There is also a blurring between entities as distinct personalities and entities that embody functions or aspects. So that gods are either identical to their roles or merely allegorical representatives of abstract functions.

Taoist Temple in Brisbane, Australia showing the Three Pure Ones.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by bertknot.

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Green_Pine_Taoist_Temple
 where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

The Trikāya Buddha (三身) in the main hall of Shanyuan Temple (善缘寺), Liaoning Province, China.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by DrewHeath.

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trikaya
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)

In the period before and after Christ the idea of the trinity had apparently gained popularity in the Middle East, and possibly spread farther afield from there.

Left to right: the lunar god Aglibol, the supreme god Baalshamin, the sun god Malakbel.
1st century AD, found near Palmyra, Syria. Now in the Louvre Museum.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by James Gordon.
(The Temple of Baalshamin in Palmyra was destroyed by ISIL, August 2015.
Not to be confused with the Temple of Bel (Baal) in Palmyra,
also blown up by ISIL, August 2015)

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baalshamin
where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

"In this way Bel passed from the Babylonian pantheon into that of Palmyra and was honored throughout northern Syria. It also caused ancient divinities to be arranged in new groups. To the primitive couple of the Baal and the Baalat a third member was added in order to form one of those triads dear to Chaldean theology. This took place at Hierapolis as well as at Heliopolis, and the three gods of the latter city, Hadad, Atargatis and Simios, became Jupiter, Venus and Mercury in Latin inscriptions."

("Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism", by Franz Cumont, p.123)

Relief of Atargatis and Hadad.
Simios is the object in the background between the two figures.

c. 100–256 AD, Dura-Europos, Syria.
Now in the Yale University Art Gallery.
(Dura-Europos was looted by ISIS, 2011-2014.)

(This image is taken from https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/4217
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

"Between the two there stands another image of gold, no part of it resembling the others. This possesses no special form of its own, but recalls the characteristics of other gods. The Assyrians themselves speak of it as a symbol, but they have assigned to it no definite name. They have nothing to tell us about its origin, nor its form: some refer it to Dionysus; others to Deukalion; others to Semiramis; for its summit is crowned by a golden pigeon, and this is why they allege that it is the effigy of Semiramis."

("On The Syrian Goddess" by Lucian (c. 125 AD – 180 AD),
paragraph 33 describing the Hierapolis trinity.)

On this Ptolemaic-era (305 to 30 BC) stela,
the king at top (figure broken off) presents offerings to two groups of three gods.
The top row illustrates the gods of the Thebes triad: Amun ("the hidden one"), Mut ("mother") and Khonsu (Moon),
while the bottom row shows the gods of the Heliopolis triad: Re (Sun), Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture).

From the Royal Ontario Museum.

Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Keith Schengili-Roberts.

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Triades

where it is available for use on condition that photographer is credited.)

The Capitoline Triad comprised Jupiter, Juno and Minerva.
Worshipped in a Roman temple on Capitoline Hill.
(There was also apparently an "Aventine Triad":
consisting of Ceres, Liber and Libera.)
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by Sailko.

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitoline_Triad
 where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)

When a trinity is a true trinity is difficult to say. They may be formed of three principles that are seen as in some sense coordinate, or they may just be the lead god accompanied by whoever is judged to be the next two most important gods by the particular sect. One of the three is likely to be considered primary, while the other two are secondary. So that the three embody a procession from 1 to 2 and from 2 to 1. The two may be complementary in some way, such as male and female, or representing respectively Sun and Moon. Conjuring once again ideas we considered in relation to the caduceus (in The Scientific Creation Myth and will again in part 2 of this article). Or the other two may just be other prominent figures from the religion, more or less randomly chosen. Although the Christian trinity are supposed to be three-in-one, nevertheless the Father is thought to be more primary, and some are inclined to attribute feminine qualities to the Holy Spirit. A certain amount of one-upmanship goes on in religion. If your god kills a cow with lightning, our god levels a mountain with it. If your god beats the world serpent in battle, ours wears it for an earring. So if everyone else's religion is getting a trinity, ours should have one too. Whatever its specific manifestation, the trinity concept has force within the popular imagination and seems somehow transcendent of mere duality.

Statues of Gautama Buddha, Padmasambhava and Amitāyus
at the Namdroling Monastery, Karnataka, India.
Photograph provided to Wikipedia by DrewHeath.

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Statues_of_the_Buddha_at_Namdroling_Monastery
where it is available for use on condition that source is credited.)

Amitabha Buddha with his attendants: Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva (Amida Triad).
Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China.

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Amitābha
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

On the question of the trinity and monotheism, the Urantia book has the following to say.


"The Hebrews knew about the Trinity from the Kenite traditions of the days of Melchizedek, but their monotheistic zeal for the one God, Yahweh, so eclipsed all such teachings that by the time of Jesus’ appearance the Elohim doctrine had been practically eradicated from Jewish theology. The Hebrew mind could not reconcile the trinitarian concept with the monotheistic belief in the One Lord, the God of Israel.

"The followers of the Islamic faith likewise failed to grasp the idea of the Trinity. It is always difficult for an emerging monotheism to tolerate trinitarianism when confronted by polytheism. The trinity idea takes best hold of those religions which have a firm monotheistic tradition coupled with doctrinal elasticity. The great monotheists, the Hebrews and Mohammedans, found it difficult to distinguish between worshiping three gods, polytheism, and trinitarianism, the worship of one Deity existing in a triune manifestation of divinity and personality."

(The Urantia Book, 104:1.8-9)

The Greek gods were wayward, but there was a force for order and justice among them: the trio called the Fates (Moirai, plural of moira ("assigned portion")), three goddesses who determined human fate. Cletho (the Spinner) spun the thread that constituted a human life. Lachesis (the Disposer of Lots) assigns the life a destiny. Atropos (She who cannot be turned), cuts the thread with her "abhorred shears" when its' time is up. Like the Hesperides who guard the golden apples, the Fates are daughters of Night (Nyx).


"ruthless avenging Fates, Clotho and Lachesis and Atropos, who give men at their birth both evil and good to have, and they pursue the transgressions of men and of gods: and these goddesses never cease from their dread anger until they punish the sinner with a sore penalty"

("The Theogony of Hesiod" (8th – 7th century BC) Hugh G. Evelyn-White translation (1914))

"It is said that when the Lydian messengers reached Delphi and asked the questions they had been told to ask, the Priestess replied that not God himself could escape destiny."

("The Histories" by Herodotus (5th century BC), Book I)

"The Three Fates", by Paul Thumann, 19th century.

(This image is taken from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Moirae
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

The equivalent in Norse mythology were the Norns.


"Thence come the maidens mighty in wisdom, three from the dwelling down 'neath the tree [i.e., Yggdrasil]; Urth is one named, Verthandi the next,--On the wood they scored,-- and Skuld the third. Laws they made there, and life allotted to the sons of men, and set their fates."

("The Poetic Edda", (13th century AD) translated by Henry Adams Bellows (1936), Voluspo, 20)

It is thought that the following passage refers to the arrival of the three Norns ("who are helpful in need" (Fafnismol, 12)), who appear to have imposed restrictions on the freedom of the other Norse gods.


"In their dwellings at peace they [i.e., the gods] played at tables, of gold no lack did the gods then know,--till thither came up giant-maids three, huge of might, out of Jotunheim."

("The Poetic Edda", translated by Henry Adams Bellows, Voluspo, 8)

The Norns: Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld under the world oak Yggdrasil, by Ludwig Burger (1882).

Among the roots can be seen the dragon Níðhöggr, on a branch the eagle Veðrfölnir,

and on the trunk the squirrel Ratatoskr.

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norns
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

"Matres ("mothers") de Vertault":

Three celtic goddesses from the village Vertault in the region of Burgundy, East France.

(Musée de la civlisation celtique, Bibracte, France.)

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matres_and_Matronae
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

The idea of a fundamental principle of order and justice as represented by the Moirai and the Norns, by which even the pantheistic gods were bound, was akin to the Avestan and Zoroastrian notion of "Asa" (Asha), the Hindu "Rta" and the Egyptian "Maat".


"The universe, as Rigvedic man saw it, was in two antithetical parts, whose inhabitants were in a natural state of enmity with each other. One part was that in which the gods and men lived.... He called this the Sat, that is, the Existent.... Below the earth, reached by a great chasm, lay the other part of the universe called the Asat, that is the non-Sat, the Non-Existent. It was a place of horror inhabited by man-devouring demons. In the Sat were light, warmth, moisture--requisites for life--and these and all the phenomena of nature connected with them and men and gods were subject to a body of cosmic law known as Rta. Whatever conformed to the Sat and to the Rta was satya, that is 'true'.... To make the Sat operate in accordance with Rta or cosmic law, every human being and god had his individual function, known as vrata, which was his occupation.... The result for him, whether human being or god, was life, growth, prosperity.... In the Rig Veda's myth of creation, after the sky and earth had been fixed and the waters and sun brought into them, giving moisture, light, and heat, the gods recognized that all would have to operate by the Rta and gave themselves to its support.... Those beings, who by nature and in deed opposed the Rta, who followed Anrta (Untruth), were enemies alike of the gods and of men who followed the Rta; they were demons and wicked men, sorcerers and the like, doomed creatures."

("Rabindranath Tagore: A Centenary, Volumes 1861-1961" by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, pp. 372-373)

It was the duty of the god Varuna to "supervise enforcement of Rta" and to allocate suitable punishment when it was breached.

In ancient Egypt when someone died, their spiritual heart was weighed in a set of scales against the feather of truth. If their heart weighed less than the feather, they went to heaven. If their heart weighed more than the feather, they were eaten by a monster. Truth and justice were personified in the goddess Maat, daughter of the sun god Ra (Re) and granddaughter of Neith. Maat wore the feather of truth in her hair. The divine cosmic judge therefore, was something existing prior to most of the pantheistic gods. If personified at all, it was likely to be as one or more goddesses. For the monotheist, truth and justice are not personified, but are rather the very nature of the primary god.

The goddess Maat wearing the ostrich feather of truth.

(This image is taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat
where it is available as "in the public domain".)

Religion and Truth

It is easy to envisage a rule akin to Star Trek's "prime directive" whereby it is forbidden to give scientific information to primitive races that they do not already possess. But we might ask the question: "If the science in religious texts cannot be relied upon, then what is the point of including it?" Why have what appears to be scientific information only to have it inevitably undermined? Among the possible answers might be the following: to convey certain ideas or impressions. Technical details are of most interest only to technical specialists. Consider for instance the animosity that has grown up between certain Christian groups and proponents of the theory of biological evolution, and of "geologic time" (that is, the assertion that the world is more than just a few thousand years old; much older). A religious text incorrect (censored) in some of its technical details, but spending many pages describing a version of natural selection and geologic process akin to that given in the conventional science of the day, thereby gives a clear stamp of approval to that science and the theory evolution; and eliminates the apparent conflict with religion. It is useful to religion for comparisons to be made from time to time, between religion and science (such as between Taoism and Quantum Physics): when it can be said that both religion and science agree on certain points, this helps to bridge the gap between the two. It is not so important if these similarities are only superficial. It helps to make religion more appealing to the scientifically minded, and science less hostile to the religiously minded. The development of true science can be left to the scientists. It is not appropriate for religion to be providing answers to scientific questions. We must find these for ourselves when we are ready.

Also, descriptions of other things often assume or imply a particular scientific worldview, so that a stance on particular scientific views may be difficult to avoid, so that this may be stated explicitly in such a way that the interpretation can to some extent be controlled.

Another role of religion is to give a description of Man's place in the universe that is not necessarily obvious by looking out at the material creation. Religion tends to describe an organised universe with human beings and deity at its centre. If this "centrality" is not physically literal but only figuratively or administratively true, there might yet be some value in representing it as if it were a physical arrangement, to beings inclined to emphasise the importance of physical relationships (for instance by those who assert that the insignificance of human beings is shown by a lack of this physical centrality), and who have evolved natural religions reflecting this desire. As religion evolves on the road to Truth, new religions must correlate with existing religions, because religions are "heartfelt", and human beings will not just throw them away in the light of new information.

While there is plenty that is strange in The Urantia Book, there is nothing of the dream-like quality of religious mysticism. For instance, it is difficult to reconcile the writings of the mystic Emanuel Swedenborg with The Urantia Book. However the gross inconsistencies of the text bring us back to the deceptiveness of the supernatural. In the article on The Origin of Religion I suggest the connection between the supernatural and dreams means that we may need to be cautious in our application of logic (In this regard note: The Urantia Book 110:5).

If material beings cannot comprehend spiritual realities, we can only be presented with models based on what is familiar and therefore comprehensible to us. Like the simplified and wildly inaccurate pictures that appear in children's books that serve as stepping stones toward more sophisticated understandings to come. If a child who has never seen a tree but only pictures of them in children's books goes about proclaiming his knowledge of trees to other children who have also never seen one, he is likely to be embarrassed and angry at being misled if he ever encounters a real tree. So it is with the expert interpreters of religion who insist on its precise truth.

We might ask the question: "If religion is true, shouldn't we expect it to provide truths?" Ordinarily, when we are judging the reliability and credibility of testimony we examine it for consistency. If we find an inconsistency or a lie anywhere in it, the entire testimony is thrown into doubt and it seems appropriate to disregard it in its entirety, and to embrace instead any wholly consistent alternative. Science and logic moreover have made us accustomed to a certain level of certainty. In the world of social interaction, certainty can be hard to come by, but in mathematics and science we seem to have access to an almost absolute certainty. Physics and chemistry present us with a world of simple elements with few properties and precisely predictable behaviours. We represent all these objects and behaviours with simple symbols and build a science of them. But in the articles on matter we found that when we examined these "simple elements" closely they were in fact an unfathomable mystery.

We saw in the section on consciousness that our ideas are derived from our various sensory apparatus responding to stimuli in the environment. They consists of events that cross some threshold of detectability and provide us with a simplified representation of reality.

We have no guarantee that our experience of the world corresponds to the world exactly as it is; but because we seem to be able to navigate the world fairly well we seem justified in believing that our experience of the world is in some sense a fairly accurate portrayal. In the sense that it is a valid mapping of the world into a representation. For each thing that seems to us to exist, it seems there must be something that actually exists that corresponds to it. It may not be exactly as we think it is, but there is something.

Our experience and our science then is a compilation of self-consistent appearance. "Logic" we can only define as: "What seems logical to a majority of logicians". Ultimately it is only a feeling of: "That seems right" that is consistent with our experiences. Because every time we add two things to another two things we end up with four things, we assume this will always be the case, and begin to treat 2 + 2 = 4 as a kind of absolute truth. But just because the sun comes up every morning does not mean it always will. Eventually the sun will grow old and die.

We ordinarily think of "truth" as an exchange or transfer of ideas and words, but ideas and words are reflections or shadows of truth, models or approximations of truth. Jesus declared: "I am the truth" (John 14:6). How then do we transfer, exchange or possess truth if it is not composed of ideas or words, if it is a person? Regardless of the ideas and words that you or I possess at any particular time, we have existence as a person; and that personal existence is the reality and truth of us. We seek to describe and capture that existence in words and ideas, but can only imperfectly do so.

When we depart from the simplified objects of our thought and our science it gets more difficult to define and assert truth. The demand for absolute truth may be childish and petulant. We can only have truth that is good enough, for now. Religion is less like science and more like personal interactions, like politics. In the social sphere truth has many more shades. If we are presenting testimony in a court of law we are expected to tell the truth. But if we are testifying before a cruel and corrupt court it is appropriate to evade or lie, to protect those it is just to protect. Virtuous lies are a part of living; from: "Does my butt look big in this?" to: "I am sure I can do this."

Perhaps the best model in this context is how we raise children: providing them first with a simplified and idealised (child-friendly) version of reality, and introducing them in stages to the full spectrum and depth of reality as they develop and mature. If they ask: "Why?" for an answer they are not yet old enough to hear, the answer they receive is: "Because I said so." Human beings are children compared to deity, having lived for no more than the blink of an eye and burdened by their animal heritage.

I am not advocating that we dispense with honesty as a virtue, since deity apparently does. Rather, you and I both know when it is appropriate to tell the truth, and when it is appropriate to withhold it: and so it is for deity.

That the scientific pronouncements of religion be falsifiable, may also be useful for developing humility. "Being right" can lead to self-righteousness, and so the ever-present threat of being wrong helps to temper these megalomaniacal tendencies, even if it may also cultivate an aggressive defensiveness. It is perhaps important for the creature to know that his knowledge is always partial and relative. And so to focus instead on being compassionate and sincere, rather than right all the time.  And seeking the truth is a task that is never completed. If religion's defensiveness in the face of science reaches such a pitch that it manifests even as an intolerance of common sense, it has revealed itself as no longer being concerned with truth, and dissolves into an incoherent string of angry dogmatic outbursts akin to alcoholism induced dementia, as fanatical religious leaders seek to maintain their control and erect walls around their flock to prevent the intrusion of reality. Ignorance that is determined to remain so, and anger in the face of being contradicted. Anger as a tool to make the world accord to one's own view, and anger as an end in itself. "Drinking the Kool-Aid" or other forms of suicidal martyrdom can be the ultimate escape from reality contradicting one's views.


"mankind is ripening for the appreciation of real religion, even a beginning of the revelation of truth itself"

(The Urantia Book 92:1.2 (compare also 92:4.9))

We can treat the science given in religious texts as only creating a context for the religious information. As an approximation of truth that is useful in some way, to be accepted conditionally until something better comes along. Indeed, the religious information can be treated in much the same way. When the science in religious texts appears to be falsified by developing science, religious people naturally apply their creative intellect to interpret the passages in the religious text in new ways to reconcile them with the results of science, usually by interpreting them figuratively in some way. We can let this natural tendency stand as a valid evolutionary progress in human physical and religious understanding. Those who desire both religion and truth, will naturally adapt religion to evident truth as it emerges. The scientific falsehoods of religion are an expedient that will not block the path to religion for those who earnestly desire it.

Now that we know some of the cast of characters, we can now proceed to consider how religion goes about explaining the origin of the world, in the article: In the Beginning: Water - Part 2.

Any comments welcome.