Religious cosmology is a way of explaining the dynamic structure and order of the cosmos or universe as a process, from a religious perspective. This may include beliefs on origin in the form of a creation myth,
subsequent evolution, current organizational form and nature, and
eventual fate or destiny. There are various traditions in religion or religious mythology
asserting how and why everything is the way it is and the significance
of it all. Religious cosmologies describe the spatial lay-out of the
universe in terms of the world in which people typically dwell as well
as other dimensions, such as the seven dimensions of religion; these are
ritual, experience and emotional, narrative and mythical, doctrinal,
ethical, social, and material. Religious mythologies may include
descriptions of an act or process of creation by a creator deity or a larger pantheon
of deities, explanations of the transformation of chaos into order, or
the assertion that existence is a matter of endless cyclical
transformations. Religious cosmology differs from a strictly scientific cosmology informed by the results of the study of astronomy
and similar fields, and may differ in conceptualizations of the world's
physical structure and place in the universe, its creation, and
forecasts or predictions on its future. The scope of religious cosmology
is more inclusive than a strictly scientific cosmology (physical cosmology)
in that religious cosmology is not limited to experiential observation,
testing of hypotheses, and proposals of theories; for example,
religious cosmology may explain why everything is the way it is or seems
to be the way it is and prescribing what humans should do in context.
Variations in religious cosmology include those of Indian origin, such
as Buddhism, Hindu, and Jain; the religious beliefs of China; and, the beliefs of the Abrahamic faiths, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Religious cosmologies have often developed into the formal logics of metaphysical systems, such as Platonism, Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, Daoism, Kabbalah, or the great chain of being.
Abrahamic
Christianity
Ex nihilo
Around the time of Jesus or a little earlier, the Greek idea that God
had actually created matter replaced the older idea that matter had
always existed, but in a chaotic state. This concept, called creatio ex nihilo,
is now the accepted orthodoxy of most denominations of Judaism and
Christianity. Most denominations of Christianity and Judaism believe
that a single, uncreated God was responsible for the creation of the
cosmos.
Genesis creation narrative
The universe of the ancient Israelites was made up of a flat disc-shaped earth floating on water, heaven above, underworld below. Humans inhabited earth during life and the underworld after death, and the underworld was morally neutral; only in Hellenistic times (after c.330 BC) did Jews begin to adopt the Greek idea that it would be a place of punishment for misdeeds, and that the righteous would enjoy an afterlife in heaven. In this period too the older three-level cosmology was widely replaced by the Greek concept of a spherical earth suspended in space at the centre of a number of concentric heavens.
Latter-day Saint
The Earth's creation, according to Latter-day Saint scripture, was not ex nihilo,
but organized from existing matter. The faith teaches that this earth
is just one of many inhabited worlds, and that there are many governing
heavenly bodies, including a planet or star Kolob which is said to be nearest the throne of God. According to the King Follett discourse, God the Father
himself once passed through mortality like Jesus did, but how, when, or
where that took place is unclear. The prevailing view among Mormons is
that God once lived on a planet.
Islam
Cosmology according to Zakariya al-Qazwini. The Earth is considered flat and surrounded by a series of mountains—including Mount Qaf.
Earth is supported by an ox that stands on Bahamut dwelling in a cosmic
ocean; the ocean is inside a bowl that sits on top of an angel or jinn.
Islam teaches that God created the universe, including Earth's
physical environment and human beings. The highest goal is to visualize
the cosmos as a book of symbols for meditation and contemplation for
spiritual upliftment or as a prison from which the human soul must
escape to attain true freedom in the spiritual journey to God.
Below here there are some other citations from the Quran on cosmology.
"And the heavens We constructed with strength, and indeed, We are [its] expander." 51:47 Sahih International
"Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined
together (as one unit of creation), before We clove them asunder? We made
from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?"
21:30 Yusuf Ali translation
"The day that We roll up the heavens like a scroll rolled up for books
(completed),- even as We produced the first creation, so shall We produce a
new one: a promise We have undertaken: truly shall We fulfil it."
21:104 Yusuf Ali translation
Indian
Buddhism
In Buddhism,
like other Indian religions, there is no ultimate beginning nor final
end to the universe. It considers all existence as eternal, and believes
there is no creator god. Buddhism views the universe as impermanent and always in flux. This cosmology is the foundation of its Samsara
theory, that evolved over time the mechanistic details on how the wheel
of mundane existence works over the endless cycles of rebirth and
redeath. In early Buddhist traditions, Saṃsāra cosmology consisted of five realms through which wheel of existence recycled. This included hells (niraya), hungry ghosts (pretas), animals (tiryak), humans (manushya), and gods (devas, heavenly). In latter traditions, this list grew to a list of six realms of rebirth, adding demi-gods (asuras).
The "hungry ghost, heavenly, hellish realms" respectively formulate the
ritual, literary and moral spheres of many contemporary Buddhist
traditions.
According to Akira Sadakata, the Buddhist cosmology is far more
complex and uses extraordinarily larger numbers than those found in
Vedic and post-Vedic Hindu traditions. It also shares many ideas and concepts, such as those about Mount Meru.
The Buddhist thought holds that the six cosmological realms are
interconnected, and everyone cycles life after life, through these
realms, because of a combination of ignorance, desires and purposeful karma, or ethical and unethical actions.
Hindu
The Hindu cosmology, like the Buddhist and Jain cosmology, considers all existence as cyclic.
With its ancient roots, Hindu texts propose and discuss numerous
cosmological theories. Hindu culture accepts this diversity in
cosmological ideas and has lacked a single mandatory view point even in
its oldest known Vedic scripture, the Rigveda.
Alternate theories include a universe cyclically created and destroyed
by god, or goddess, or no creator at all, or a golden egg or womb
(Hiranyagarbha), or self-created multitude of universes with enormous
lengths and time scales.
The Vedic literature includes a number of cosmology speculations, one
of which questions the origin of the cosmos and is called the Nasadiya sukta:
Neither being (sat) nor non-being was as yet. What was concealed?
And where? And in whose protection?…Who really knows?
Who can declare it? Whence was it born, and whence came this creation?
The devas (demigods) were born later than this world's creation, so who knows from where it came into existence? None can know from where creation has arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it.
He who surveys it in the highest heavens,
He alone knows or perhaps He does not know."
— Rig Veda 10. 129
Time is conceptualized as a cyclic Yuga with trillions of years. In some models, Mount Meru plays a central role.
Beyond its creation, Hindu cosmology posits divergent theories on
the structure of the universe, from being 3 lokas to 12 lokas (worlds)
which play a part in its theories about rebirth, samsara and karma.
The complex cosmological speculations found in Hinduism and other Indian religions,
states Bolton, is not unique and are also found in Greek, Roman, Irish
and Babylonian mythologies, where each age becomes more sinful and of
suffering.
Jain
Jain cosmology considers the loka, or universe, as an uncreated entity, existing since infinity, having no beginning or an end. Jain texts
describe the shape of the universe as similar to a man standing with
legs apart and arm resting on his waist. This Universe, according to
Jainism, is narrow at the top, broad at the middle and once again
becomes broad at the bottom.
Mahāpurāṇa of Ācārya Jinasena is famous for this quote:
Some foolish men declare that a creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill advised and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was he before the creation? If you say he was transcendent then and needed no support, where is he now? How could God have made this world without any raw material? If you say that he made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression.
Chinese
There is a "primordial universe" Wuji (philosophy), and Hongjun Laozu, water or qi. It transformed into Taiji and multiplied into everything. The Pangu legend tells a formless chaos coalesced into a cosmic egg. Pangu emerged (or woke up) and separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. After Pangu died, he became everything.
Yoonir, symbol of the Universe in Serer religion.[40][41]
Esoteric cosmology
Esoteric cosmology is cosmology that is an intrinsic part of an esoteric or occult system of thought. Esoteric cosmology maps out the universe with planes of existence and consciousness according to a specific worldview usually from a doctrine.
Gnosticism
Gnostic
teachings were contemporary with those of Neoplatonism. Gnosticism is
an imprecise label, covering monistic as well as dualistic conceptions.
Usually the higher worlds of Light, called the Pleroma or "fullness", are radically distinct from the lower world of Matter. The emanation of the Pleroma and its godheads (called Aeons) is described in detail in the various Gnostic tracts, as is the pre-creation crisis (a cosmic equivalent to the "fall" in Christian thought) from which the material world comes about, and the way that the divine spark can attain salvation.
