Former Osage Principal Chief Jim Gray and his wife Olivia Gray (Osage) recently took to Facebook to condemn their daughter’s world history assignment inquiring about the world’s beginning.
How did the world start? Well, that depends on how, exactly, you define “the world”, doesn’t it?
If you mean Earth as a planet, it started thanks to gravity pulling together a collection of dust and gas orbiting the early sun through a process called “accretion”.
Animals have no concept of “morality” so good and evil didn’t exist until humans invented them. Sumerian cuneiform records early religious rites from 4,000 BC, but the concepts of “good” and “evil” like fire and the wheel pre-date written language and cannot be precisely dated.
Human beings are born as blank slates with no prior knowledge of good, evil, or anything else. All that is learned behavior. They are inherently neither.
How did the world start? Big Bang (depending on definition of world)
Who started it? Nobody.
When did evil start or did it always exist? Evil didn’t start. The definition depends.
Are people inherently good or evil or neither? Neither.
What is morality? The categorization of “things” into proper and improper.
What is religion? A belief in a supernatural aspect of reality tied to certain rituals or practices.
What is Christianity? One of many religions.
What does it mean to be a Christian? To believe in the magical resurrection of a Bronze Age Jew.
Is God real? Depending on the definition: unknowable. Likely not.
Is Satan real? Certainly not.
Grade: F Sue the school.
How did the world start? Well, that depends on how, exactly, you define “the world”, doesn’t it?
If you mean Earth as a planet, it started thanks to gravity pulling together a collection of dust and gas orbiting the early sun through a process called “accretion”.
https://news.uchicago.edu/explainer/formation-earth-and-moon-explained
Who started it? Nobody. It was gravity.
https://news.uchicago.edu/explainer/formation-earth-and-moon-explained
When did evil start, or did it always exist?
Animals have no concept of “morality” so good and evil didn’t exist until humans invented them. Sumerian cuneiform records early religious rites from 4,000 BC, but the concepts of “good” and “evil” like fire and the wheel pre-date written language and cannot be precisely dated.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-herkimer-westerncivilization/chapter/the-sumerians/
Are people inherently good or evil or neither?
Human beings are born as blank slates with no prior knowledge of good, evil, or anything else. All that is learned behavior. They are inherently neither.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10615/10615-h/10615-h.htm