“It is almost impossible visually to address the question, 'Why are we here?'”

Creation, creativity, imagination and art

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the universe is created from nothing by a God of infinite wisdom. Creation myths from other religions see the universe arise from conjuring tricks, sculpture, drunken conflicts, chance or accidents.

“Every culture has a myth of how the earth was made and human life began. It is almost impossible visually to address the question, 'Why are we here?',” said Neil MacGregor, former director of the British Museum and author of the book “Living with the Gods.” “But if a religion has representational art, then Creation will everywhere be a major theme.”

The best known example is arguably Michelangelo’s painted ceiling in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, depicting Creation as told in the Book of Genesis, said MacGregor, which culminates in the giving of life to the first human, Adam.

Audiences and academics have long asked if Michelangelo -- a polymath with excellent knowledge of human anatomy -- hid a more human shape in his masterpiece: the outline of a brain or a uterus containing a placenta, depending on interpretation. If true, this depiction follows in the line of a long tradition, going back to early ancestor figures and goddesses of fertility: mixing images of supernatural creation with the ongoing miracle of human life.

Even religions without representational art have strived to illustrate Creation. “In Islam, where only the word can be represented, there are beautiful calligraphies of God’s word ‘Be!’, by which Adam, the first human, was given life,” said MacGregor.

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