1. Creation Stories and the BIG BANG Theory

2. What Happened?!
Modern science theorizes that the universe appeared about 13,000,000,000 years ago…. Humans did not emerge for another 12,999,750,000…. THEREFORE: There is no first hand account of the world’s origins!

3. Just To Be Clear!
For our purposes, the actual processes that formed our Earth are not as important as the ways in which these processes have been perceived by humans.

4. Never Stop Asking Questions!
While we may never “know” for sure how our world came to be, they will never stop asking this question! Beginning are fundamentally important to humans. They want to know how the world began and want to know their own beginnings as well!

5. Creation Stories
Though people cannot know how the world began, this has not stopped them from developing explanations of it. This is how we have developed Creation Stories/Creation Myths!

6. Creation Myths
Creation myths try to explain how the world started. Individuals and communities often accept myths as valid explanations of something that has occurred. They accept creation myths because they believe that the myth contains a valid explanation for the ways in which the world came into being.

7. True or False?
While some myths lose their credibility over time, other continue to maintain followers who accept them as valid. *hint-Think about the argument between the Creation Story of the Bible and the theory of Evolution!

8. True or False?
For example, historian David Christian calls the theory of evolution the creation myth of the present time! By doing this he isn’t saying evolution is a lie, he is simply trying to say the evolution is the theory that modern people commonly accept as explaining how the world we know it today was formed.

9. So…is the Big Bang Theory a Myth?!
Although the Big Bang Theory uses the most advanced scientific knowledge available to explain the origins of the Universe… KNOWLEDGE DOES NOT STAND STILL!

10. So…is the Big Bang Theory a Myth?!
As new knowledge becomes available, theories built on old knowledge becomes outdated. Confused yet?

11. What if…
What if tomorrow you heard on the news that the stars and planets of the universe have always existed but that a nuclear reaction took place 13,000,000,000 years ago (which scientists mistakenly thought was the Big Bang) and this nuclear reaction simply created an illusion of a new beginning! Would you accept this as true? Why or why not?

12. Your Own Beginnings…
Take a minute to write 3 SENTENCES (no more no less) describing your own personal beginnings.

13. Your Own Beginnings…
Now share these stories with two people sitting near you. Discuss whether or not what you wrote down is important to you and why.

14. Remember the Summer Packet?
What about the creation myths in the summer packet…why do you think the events in each of those myths (Yoruba, Babylonian, and Genesis) were included? What do they tell you about the people at that time?