AP Photo - FILE - The moon shines on the ancient Parthenon temple on Acropolis hill in Athens on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2006. Through the millennia, humans have asked: How did everything come into existence? Modern science's answer is the Big Bang Theory, which posits that the universe sprang in an instant from a sub-atomic fragment. The ancients, however, did not have $900 million machines to plumb the secrets of the universe. In the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle posited the world always existed, at the center of the universe.

AP Photo - FILE - This Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 file photo shows Michelangelo's fresco "La Creazione" ("The Creation") on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. Through the millennia, humans have asked: How did everything come into existence? Modern science's answer is the Big Bang Theory, which posits that the universe sprang in an instant from a sub-atomic fragment. According to Christian creation mythology, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." And then, over six days, God created the rest.

AP Photo - FILE - Faces of the Hindu god Brahman look out from towers at a temple in the Angkor Wat complex in Siem Reap, Cambodia on June 16, 1950. In the Hindu cycle of the universe, Brahman created Brahma, whose day lasts 4,320,000,000 human years. In the course of the day, Brahma creates the universe and destroys it, using fire and water. The next day, and every day for his 100-year lifespan, he does it again. Meanwhile, an infinite number of Brahmas are creating an infinite number of universes.

AP Photo - FILE - An Iranian Zoroastrian priest performs a ritual at a fire temple in Tehran, Iran on Monday, Sept. 12, 2011. In Zoroastrian creation mythology, the god of light, Ahura Mazda, created an egg-shaped universe of good - first spiritual, and then, after 3,000 years, physical. Then he made the perfect man, Gayomard, and the first bull. Meanwhile, another god - Angra Mainyu - created an opposite universe of evil, which contained everything but humans, which he could not make. So he invaded the good universe and killed Gayomard and the bull. But their seeds grew into the world's beneficial living things, and into a plant whose leaves formed Mashya and Mashyana, man and woman. Angra Mainyu's incursion introduced the bad things in the world, including the dark of night. Fire plays a central role in worship as a symbol of truth and the spirit of God. Prayer is often performed in front of a fire, and consecrated fires are kept perpetually burning in major temples.