Every religion has its own peculiar account of history that is not only different from the others but also the current scientific understanding. For instance there is no physical evidence of any early Mormon settlement in the Americas which they claim to have happened over 2,500 years ago - well before the time of Jesus! When we consider that their version of history contains numerous anachronisms (such as horses, elephants, wheat, barley, solk, chariots, windows, steel, swords etc that were not in the Americas at the time) this is totally at odds with accepted science eg archaeology, genealogy and linguistics. Therefore - either science is wrong, the Mormons are wrong, or, possibly, both are wrong!
Let us consider:
Australian Aborigines and the Dreamtime stories (Spiritic)
Biblical creation stories (Abrahamic)
Chinese creation stories (Taoic)
Hindu creation stories (Dharmic)
and several other (Animistic, Magic, Mystic, Siddhic, Superstitious) etcetera, such as Manichaeist, Vudun and Zoroastrian creation stories
That none agree indicates there is no one theory that fits all accounts. One or two or more may be partially right or they could all be wrong - and that includes the scientific view. Yet because of geographical isolation, cultural norms and value systems all may have 'evolved' from the one creation event (including the Big Bang, Mediocre Kerfuffle, or Tiny Little Pop.. depending on one's bent) into varying interpretations and theories.
Non-religious philosophers argue that Man invents religion to try to make some sense out of the seemingly chaotic world and to give some purpose to the randomness of life. Religious philosophers argue that without a higher spiritual being there is no reason-to-be and life is devoid of any meaningful purpose.
That a person may change their belief systems more than once in a lifetime illustrates that faith is an acquired facet of the personality, not something we are born with, like arms and legs. The tendency to develop faith may in itself be innate, but exactly what the object of such faith may be is left open at birth. The line that divides faith from belief may be more semantic than logical in that beliefs may be more easily changed and faith more or less fixed or fixated. Often faith is recognised by swearing an oath of allegiance to a single God or Dogma but even that is a formality rather than an actual state of consciousness.
Indeed, one may change faiths several times, including apostasy and agnosticism – or even flip-flop between Creationism and Darwinism! However, none of that resolves the differences in history between science and religion/s. These accounts are just observations, much like history itself is a set of observations, and there are many perspectives, resulting in differing sets.
What an oxymoron it is that what unites them all is their exclusivist nature - they all declare that they are the one true knowledge! (and mutually exclude each other) Hence the age-old paradox of life, consciousness, our capacity to feel and think (or not) and what to do with all of that. What sets humans apart from other lifeforms is the ability to act apart from the dictates of the senses and to choose rather than react automatically or instinctively as creatures do. Seagulls foraging discarded fries on the motorway do not look up at the Mack truck bearing down on them and muse, "You know what? I'm done with this life as a seagull. To hell with it."
One of the silliest, illogical and blind things about a human is that they decide that their own philosophy is superior to anyone else's - to the point of telling seagulls what to do. "No, you cannot commit suicide, Mr. Seagull; suicide is illegal in the State of Suchandsuch." Actually, seagulls follow their instincts and do not listen to humans. Probably just as well. It could even make them smarter than us.
So what do we do with all these different histories, religions, philosophies, etcetera? I say we start a war. Isn't that what we humans do, after all? Okay, now we're like seagulls fighting over discarded fries on the motorway again, and this time some of us don't make it out, despite our best efforts.
