Expert: Alex Wilding - 10/15/2008

Question
I have been asked a question by a work colleague who is teaching a very rudimentary intro to Buddhism at a Christian school and I want to ensure I answer the question correctly. His questions is " what is the Buddhist belief about creation??
I would appreciate an answer so I can be confident not to give an erroneous slant. Many thanks in anticipation,

Lilian

Answer
Hi Lilian,
The problem starts with the word "creation", which rather suggests that things were created by a creator: this point of view is not shared either by Buddhists or by modern science.
Certainly Buddhists do not think that the world was created by some superior being, let alone a loving one!
There are a variety of stories known in the Buddhist tradition describing the way the world may have emerged - many are substantially shared by other religions of Asian origin. The tendency is to assume that the world we know is temporary, and that universes evolve, then decay, and that other universes later replace them.
Emphasis is also placed on the idea that things emerge in response to, or together with, the actions (of body, speech and mind) of ourselves and all the other sentient beings (bugs, animals, perhaps even ghosts and powerful spirits) that are taking part in them. We all help to create and condition the world.
On the other hand, emphasis is also put on the fact that the world came into being long ago for reasons that are now pretty well forgotten, and that it is much more important to deal with the way we are living, acting, thinking and perceiving now than to speculate about ancient pre-history, interesting as that can be.
I hope this helps a bit!