Editing Religious cosmology (section)

==Indian==

===Buddhism===
{{Main|Buddhist cosmology}}
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.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Blackburn|first1=Anne M.|last2=Samuels|first2=Jeffrey|title=Approaching the Dhamma: Buddhist Texts and Practices in South and Southeast Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ktWAQAk7XPkC|year=2003|publisher=Pariyatti|isbn=978-1-928706-19-9|pages=128–146}}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{citation |last=Harvey |first=Peter |title=An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0sg9LV_rEgC&q=buddhism%20introduction&pg=PA5 |year=2013 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |edition=2nd |isbn=978-0-521-67674-8 |pages=36–38}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Trainor2004p63">{{cite book|author=Kevin Trainor |title= Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PrloTKuAjwC |year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517398-7 |pages=62–63 }}</ref> In early Buddhist traditions, ''Saṃsāra'' cosmology consisted of five realms through which wheel of existence recycled.<ref name=jeffwilsonbudsam/> This included hells (''niraya''), hungry ghosts (''pretas''), animals (''tiryak''), humans (''manushya''), and gods (''devas'', heavenly).<ref name=jeffwilsonbudsam/><ref name="Trainor2004p63"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Robert DeCaroli |title=Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q_2XtkSRyTYC|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-803765-1|pages=94–103}}</ref> In latter traditions, this list grew to a list of six realms of rebirth, adding demi-gods (''asuras'').<ref name=jeffwilsonbudsam/><ref>{{cite book|author=Akira Sadakata|title=Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcYGAAAAYAAJ|year=1997|publisher= Kōsei Publishing 佼成出版社, Tokyo|isbn=978-4-333-01682-2|pages=68–70}}</ref> The "hungry ghost, heavenly, hellish realms" respectively formulate the ritual, literary and moral spheres of many contemporary Buddhist traditions.<ref name=jeffwilsonbudsam/><ref name="Trainor2004p63"/>

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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Akira Sadakata|title=Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcYGAAAAYAAJ|year=1997|publisher=佼成出版社|isbn=978-4-333-01682-2|pages=9–12}}</ref> It also shares many ideas and concepts, such as those about Mount Meru.<ref>{{cite book|author=Akira Sadakata|title=Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bcYGAAAAYAAJ|year=1997|publisher=佼成出版社|isbn=978-4-333-01682-2|pages=27–29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Randy Kloetzli|title=Buddhist Cosmology: From Single World System to Pure Land: Science and Theology in the Images of Motion and Light|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6QbvIDk3cJQC|year=1983|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass  |isbn=978-0-89581-955-0|pages=13, 23–31}}</ref> 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.<ref name=jeffwilsonbudsam>{{cite book|author=Jeff Wilson|year= 2010|title= Saṃsāra and Rebirth, in Buddhism| publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-539352-1| doi=10.1093/obo/9780195393521-0141}}</ref><ref name="Trainor2004p63"/>

===Hindu===
{{Main|Hindu cosmology}}
The Hindu cosmology, like the Buddhist and Jain cosmology, considers all existence as cyclic.<ref name="MichellDavies1989p37">{{cite book|author1=George Michell|author2=Philip H. Davies|title=The Penguin Guide to the Monuments of India: Buddhist, Jain, Hindu|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eqtNAAAAYAAJ |year=1989|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0-14-008144-2|page=37}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Sushil Mittal |author2=Gene Thursby | page = 284 | title = Hindu World | publisher = Routledge | date = 2012 | isbn=978-1-134-60875-1 }}</ref> 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 scriptures, the ''[[Rigveda]]''.<ref name="Lochtefeld2002p156">{{cite book|author=James G. Lochtefeld|title=The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Hinduism: A-M|url=https://archive.org/details/illustratedencyc0000loch|url-access=registration|year=2002|publisher=The Rosen Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-8239-3179-8|pages=156–157}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Lochtefeld2002p156"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Randall L. Nadeau|title=Asian Religions: A Cultural Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T0WcAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT137|year=2014|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1-118-47195-1|pages=133–137}}</ref><ref>Charles Lanman, [https://archive.org/stream/sacredbooksearly09hornuoft#page/48/mode/2up To the unknown god], Book X, Hymn 121, Rigveda, The Sacred Books of the East Volume IX: India and Brahmanism, Editor: [[Max Muller]], Oxford, pages 46–50</ref> The Vedic literature includes a number of cosmology speculations, one of which questions the origin of the cosmos and is called the [[Nasadiya sukta]]:
{{quote|
<poem>
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 (gods) 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.
</poem>
|''Rig Veda 10. 129''<ref>{{cite book|author=Kenneth Kramer|title=World Scriptures: An Introduction to Comparative Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzUAu-43W5oC&pg=PA34|date=January 1986|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-2781-8|pages=34–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=David Christian|title=Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7RdVmDjwTtQC&pg=PA18|date=1 September 2011|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95067-2|pages=18–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Robert N. Bellah |title=Religion in Human Evolution |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTDKxrLRzp8C |year=2011|publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-06309-9 |pages=510–511 }}</ref>}}

Time is conceptualized as a cyclic [[Yuga]] with trillions of years.<ref name="Chapman2002p8">{{cite book|author1=Graham Chapman|author2=Thackwray Driver|title=Timescales and Environmental Change|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__2EAgAAQBAJ|year=2002|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-78754-8|pages=7–8}}</ref> In some models, [[Mount Meru]] plays a central role.<ref name="Rocher1986p124">{{cite book|author=Ludo Rocher|title=The Purāṇas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n0-4RJh5FgoC|year=1986|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978-3-447-02522-5|pages=123–125, 130–132}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=John E. Mitchiner|title=Traditions Of The Seven Rsis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=phGzVwTTp_gC |year=2000|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-1324-3|pages=141–144}}</ref>

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]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Deborah A. Soifer|title=The Myths of Narasimha and Vamana: Two Avatars in Cosmological Perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OoFDK_sDGHwC&pg=PA51|year=1991|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-0799-8|page=51}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Roshen Dalal|title=Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC&pg=PA83 |year=2010|publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-341421-6|page=83}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=John A. Grimes|title=A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qcoUFYOX0bEC&pg=PA95 |year=1996|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-3067-5|page=95}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Bolton|title=The Order of the Ages: World History in the Light of a Universal Cosmogony |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=72ksMogzRvMC&pg=PA64 |year=2001|publisher=Sophia Perennis|isbn=978-0-900588-31-0|pages=64–78}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Donald Alexander Mackenzie|title=Mythology of the Babylonian People|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HTrXAAAAMAAJ |year=1915|publisher=Bracken Books|isbn=978-0-09-185145-3|pages=310–314}}</ref>

===Jain===
{{Main|Jain cosmology}}
Jain cosmology considers the ''[[loka]]'', or universe, as an uncreated entity, existing since infinity, having no beginning or an end.<ref>"This universe is not created nor sustained by anyone; It is self sustaining, without any base or support" "Nishpaadito Na Kenaapi Na Dhritah Kenachichch Sah Swayamsiddho Niradhaaro Gagane Kimtvavasthitah" [Yogaśāstra of Ācārya Hemacandra 4.106] Tr by Dr. A. S. Gopani</ref> [[:Category:Jain texts|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.<ref>See Hemacandras description of universe in Yogaśāstra "…Think of this loka as similar to man standing akimbo…"4.103-6</ref>

[[Mahapurana (Jainism)|{{IAST|Mahāpurāṇa}}]] of Ācārya [[Jinasena]] is famous for this quote:
{{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.}}