All language subtitles for The Story of God with Morgan Freeman - 01x04 - Creation.HDTV.x264-RBB.English.C.orig.Addic7ed.com

Morgan Freeman: My home
is here in Mississippi.

I've lived in
many other places.

New York, la,
San Francisco, Chicago,

but this place defines me.

June-bug.

Got him when he was four
and a half months old,

undernourished,
but he had attitude.

Got a great walking gait.

It's the smell of
grass in the spring,

the sound of birds.

I just know I'm home.

My parents lived
right here on this land and

you can't understand me
without understanding where

I was created.

Every religion has
a creation story,

so, what do those stories
tell us about who we are and

where we came from?

I'm setting out to
discover where we began...

Jodi magness: Jerusalem
is conceived of as Eden,

as paradise.

Morgan Freeman: To unearth
civilization's oldest roots...

Man: This is the Mayan part.

Richard Hansen: This is
the Maya Genesis story.

Morgan Freeman: To locate the
Genesis of religion itself...

Amy bogaard: People are
literally living with ancestors.

Morgan Freeman: And I'll go
back to the dawn of time...

Benda paranjape: Hindus do
not believe in one creation.

They say that these
are cycles of creation.

Morgan Freeman: To discover
if science and religion,

can co-exist.

Monsignor sorondo: The big
bang is not creation because

we don't know what
was before the big bang.

Morgan Freeman: There are
billions of us on this planet.

It's hard to believe
we all came from one man

E

but we did.

Who were they?

When and where did they live?

Jewish, Christian and
Muslim traditions trace us

all back to Adam and Eve.

The book of Genesis
says they came from a

place called Eden,

near the tigris and
euphrates rivers somewhere

in the ancient near east.

No-one has yet found the
location of the garden of Eden,

though many have tried,
but why do we want to find it?

Well, the reason
is interesting.

The garden of Eden doesn't
just represent the beginning

of humanity, it is the
beginning of our conversation

with god and finding out
when and where that took place

would tell us an awful
lot about who we are.

So I'm off to Jerusalem.

This is one of the
oldest cities in the world.

There's evidence of people
living around here for more

than 7,000 years.

Today, it's the religious
center of the Jewish world.

It was around here that
Genesis was first written down,

about 2,500 years ago.

Archaeologist Jodi magness is
taking me to the church of the

holy sepulcher, where
there is a little known link

to the garden of Eden.

So this is it, this is the
church of the holy sepulcher.

Many christians believe
this is the site where Jesus

was crucified and buried,
but another ancient tradition

says it's also the
burial place of Adam.

Jodi magness: The area
that we're walking into here

is underneath the
rock of golgotha,

which is the rocky outcrop
on which christians believe

Jesus was crucified.

And this is called
the chapel of Adam.

There's a tradition which
goes way back in christianity

which connects this
spot to Adam, the first man.

When Jesus was crucified on
top of the rock above us...

Morgan Freeman:
Mm-hmm, yeah?

Jodi magness: His blood
flowed down through a crack in

the rock and Adam,
the first man,

lay buried underneath and when
Jesus' blood flowed onto Adam,

Adam was then resurrected.

Morgan Freeman:
Almost 1,700 years ago,

when Roman emperor
constantine built the church,

he also made a shrine
around this crack in the

rock of golgotha,
the chapel of Adam.

But doesn't this contradict
that section of the Bible that

says that the garden of
Eden was located somewhere

near the euphrates and the...

Jodi magness: Tigris.

Morgan Freeman: Tigris?

Jodi magness: Well, the
version of the story that

ended up in the book of
Genesis seems to place the

garden of Eden
somewhere in mesopotamia,

which is the area
of modern Iraq.

Morgan Freeman: But
how do think tradition...

Jodi magness: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Freeman: Of Adam
gets to be here in Jerusalem?

Jodi magness: Well, i
think Adam probably does have

a very special
connection with Jerusalem.

The garden of Eden,
or paradise,

becomes conceptualized as
the spot where the presence

of god dwells.

In early judaism,
in the time of Jesus,

the presence of god
dwelled in the temple,

on the temple mount, and
hence Jerusalem was conceived

of as Eden, as paradise.

Morgan Freeman: So you
are saying Eden could also

be a metaphor?

Jodi magness: Right,
well, yes, of course,

Adam was the first human
and in Hebrew the word Adam,

Adam just means man.

Morgan Freeman:
Hold up, hold up.

You just said something
now, the word just means man.

Jodi magness: Yes.

Morgan Freeman: Adam...

Jodi magness: Yes,
also, the name Adam,

if you take off the
a and you just leave d-a-m,

in Hebrew, dam,
that means blood.

Or if you add
an a-h to the end,

adamah, means land.

Morgan Freeman:
Land itself into blood.

Jodi magness: Yep.

Morgan Freeman:
Ok, all right.

Could the story of Adam
and Eve's expulsion from the

garden also have
metaphorical meanings?

Adam and Eve lived
in a land of plenty,

but when they ate the
fruit of the forbidden tree,

they were cast out and
forced to work the land.

In other words, they
became the first farmers.

I'm heading to a region
where researchers are digging

up some of humanity's
oldest farming communities,

in central Turkey.

I'm interested in finding
out if the birth of farming

and the birth of belief
in god are connected.

Could this have been Eden?

Amy?

Amy bogaard:
Hello, come on over.

Morgan Freeman: Archaeologist
Amy bogaard has been digging

with a team here at
chatalhöyük for two decades.

Amy bogaard: Welcome.

Morgan Freeman: Thank you.

So, chatalhöyük,
9,000 year old settlement.

9,000 years old.

Amy bogaard:
Amazing, isn't it?

So at its maximum extent,
it's 13 hectares.

That would be like
20 football pitches,

Morgan Freeman: Ok.

Amy bogaard: In extent.

Morgan Freeman: Mm-hmm,
right, NFL football pitches

or soccer pitches?

Amy bogaard: I don't know,
probably soccer.

Morgan Freeman: Ok, but
they're all pretty much

the same size.

Amy bogaard: Yeah, you
can see that these houses are

densely crowded together.

There isn't much
space between them.

Morgan Freeman: There
is no space between them.

Amy bogaard: Yeah.

Morgan Freeman: They
had no windows or doors.

Amy bogaard: Every
house would have its own

entrance from above.

Morgan Freeman: It would?

Amy bogaard: Yes.

Morgan Freeman: Chatalhöyük
was a city with no streets.

The people who lived
here walked across town

over the rooftops.

Roofs were also
where they worked.

The people of chatalhöyük
were some of the world's

first city dwellers,

but I want to know
whether they were also some

of the first believers.

Did they think their
world was created by a god?

Amy takes me to a house
that may hold the answers.

What's the point of that,
red rimmed hole that looks

like a very definite,
has a definite reason?

Amy bogaard: It's a
typical sort of feature

that's found at chatal
which is a niche for hiding

things away, like the
cash obsidian, you know,

volcanic glass, 'cause
it's a valued, you know,

cutting material.

Morgan Freeman: You actually
don't find it everywhere.

Amy bogaard: Right.

Morgan Freeman: The most
important hiding places

archaeologists have
found at chatalhöyük are

beneath the sleeping areas.

Ok, so what are
those holes up there?

Amy bogaard: Those are
actually burial places,

those are
burial pits, where...

Morgan Freeman: Wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait.

A human being is not
gonna fit in there.

A baby, maybe.

Amy bogaard: The way they
can fit mature adults in pits

like that is to bind them
up very, very, very tightly

in a flexed position and
the holes are periodically

reopened and new individuals
added through the lifetime

of the house.

Morgan Freeman: Wow.

Amy bogaard: People are
buried under the platforms

so that people are literally
living with ancestors.

Morgan Freeman: It
sounds like this has

some religious content.

Amy bogaard: I
think you're right,

and they start to raise
questions about what you might

call ritual practice, which
seemed to have been crucial

for life in this community.

Morgan Freeman: Could
these burials be evidence

of belief in god?

Anthropologist Harvey
whitehouse is trying to get

inside the heads of
these early city dwellers.

Harvey whitehouse: So this
is a pretty authentic mock-up

of what a typical kind
of house in chatalhöyük

would have looked like.

These are the kinds of
objects that we'd expect to

find in one
of those houses.

Over here, we've got
examples of wall art.

You know, here
we've got bull heads.

We often find these
inserted into the walls.

In one case, I've seen them
arranged almost like a sort of

protective shield around
one of these clean spaces;

and we know that these
clean spaces were used

for sleeping on.

Morgan Freeman: So, Harvey,
you're an anthropologist...

Harvey whitehouse: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Freeman: So you're
more into what people are

mentally into, right?

Harvey whitehouse: Well,
my imagination runs riot

in an environment like
this because I've seen the

kind of stuff that
comes out of the walls and

that they've been
taking out of the floors.

We know that there were
very interesting rituals

surrounding the
burial of human remains,

but those objects
would be periodically in

many cases brought out.

What they were
doing with them,

we don't really know,
but in many cases they were

put back very
carefully and replaced.

It's almost as if this isn't
just a domestic dwelling,

this is like a kind
of living temple.

Morgan Freeman: You
used that word, temple.

Harvey whitehouse: Temple.

Well, what is a temple,
you know, if not a sort of,

an environment in
which the ritual life of a

community is conducted?

And I think that's what is
going on in these houses.

Morgan Freeman:
Here in chatalhöyük,

there were obviously
all kinds of rituals,

particularly burial rituals,
but no sign of an organized

religion, so the question
remains unanswered for me.

Did religion allow
man to live together,

grow food?

Or did civilization give
rise to our belief in god?

While in chatalhöyük, i
heard about another excavation

just a few hundred miles
to the east that may hold

the answer for me.

It's an 11,000 year old site
that lies between the tigris

and euphrates rivers, the
biblical location of Eden.

Harvey whitehouse: Ok,
we're now in enclosure d,

the best preserved of the
enclosures that we have here,

so we've had radiocarbon
data and they've come back

as 9,400 bc,
plus or minus.

Morgan Freeman: It's called
göbekli tepe and here I may

find evidence of the
very first moments humans

worshipped the divine.

Stone age architects
built 20 monumental sectors

here made from
large t-shaped pillars.

Archeologist Lee Clare
leads the team trying

to decipher its mysteries.

Lee Clare: The two central
pillars stand in the middle of

a round oval building and
the wall surrounding it,

at regular intervals we
see smaller t pillars.

Morgan Freeman:
Fearsome animals were carved

into some of the pillars,

but the stones' t shapes
may represent the human form.

They could be men or
they could be gods.

Lee Clare: If you look
closely around the top,

the t is the head and
then we have on the side,

the broad side,
the arm coming down.

You can see a
belt buckle here.

They could be
mythological ancestors.

Alternatively, they could
be really the first deities,

first gods, that
these people were possibly

worshipping in this
circular structure.

Morgan Freeman: Lee and
most archaeologists believe

these stone circles
were used for rituals,

but no-one appears to
have actually lived here.

The people of göbekli tepe
were roaming hunter gatherers,

not settled farmers, so why
did they build a permanent

place to worship
tied to one spot?

Lee Clare: It's one of the
main questions we ask our self

at this site, so
why did they come?

Now, the thing is, at this
time the communities were

growing larger and larger
and there was more stress on

the local resources
and because communities

were growing, there was
obviously a risk of conflict.

People have problems keeping
track of relationships,

keeping track of networks.

Morgan Freeman: The growing
population meant that people

who scarcely knew each
other had to work together.

That was a
recipe for conflict.

[Grunting and thuds]

The religious rituals at
göbekli tepe may have eased

those conflicts.

Possibly for the first
time in human history,

people from different groups
came together around shared

beliefs and, in those first
formative moments of religion,

they may have shared stories
about where they all came from,

stories that
celebrated a shared past

and drove them
together to the future.

Göbekli tepe traces the
birth of religious worship

back more than 11,000 years,

long before there
were muslims, christians,

Jews, hindus, Buddhists.

People came together
to talk, eat, worship.

It could be that the
driving force behind our

greatest achievement.

Civilization, was god.

But today, we no longer
share one story of creation.

We live in a global society
made up of many different

cultures and science
has given us a new

perspective on creation.

It even claims to know
the ultimate secret of

our cosmic origins.

Can science and
religion agree on creation?

Morgan Freeman: The
story of our creation has

puzzled me ever
since I was a boy.

It began right here,

in a church in
greenwood, Mississippi.

♪ ♪

♪ [congregation members
singing inaudibly] ♪

♪ [congregation members
singing inaudibly] ♪

Morgan Freeman: I was about
their age when it happened.

I remember the
minister reading from the

book of Genesis.

Minister: There are
807,361 words in the Bible.

It doesn't take
807,000 words for me

to believe the Bible.

It only takes ten words.

"In the beginning,

[congregation exclaiming].

God created."

Are y'all gonna be with me?

"The heavens and the earth."

Morgan Freeman: But for me,

this beginning was
a profound puzzle.

One moment there was
nothing, the next everything.

You're looking good.

Man: Trying to make it.

Morgan Freeman: If god
created the universe,

who was around
to create god?

When I got older, i
heard scientists had found

evidence of the big bang.

According to that theory,
the entire universe burst out

of a single point in an
instant of fiery creation;

and now that science knows so
much about our cosmic origins,

what place is there
for religious belief

in the beginning?

I want to know about the
islamic story of creation,

so I'm going to Cairo...

One of the largest
and oldest cities in the

Muslim world.

Islam has deep
roots in science.

Muslim astronomers were
charting the heavens soon

after the time of Mohammed.

I hadn't noticed that before.

What is it?

Ahmed ragab: This is the
minaret of al-Hussein mosque.

Morgan Freeman: Harvard
historian of islam Ahmed ragab

is taking me to one of
Cairo's spiritual centers,

the al-Hussein mosque.

♪ [Imam singing in
foreign language]. ♪

Ahmed ragab: So they start by
forming lines all facing mecca

and the lines are all closed.

You shouldn't have
any kind of gaps.

Morgan Freeman: Space between?

Ahmed ragab: Yeah.

Morgan Freeman:
In other words,

they just go toe to toe.

Ahmed ragab: Mm-hmm.

Morgan Freeman: Right, right.

Muslims come here every
day to give thanks to god

for all that he creates.

And afterwards, some
head just around the corner

to the two and a half century
old El fishawy coffee shop.

Speak to me about the
islamic concept of creation.

Ahmed ragab: In islam, the
beginning of the story starts

with this massive
cloud of smoke,

from which the heaven and
earth are pulled from inside

the smoke and then the earth
after that gets formed into

what it looks like before
the beings are created.

Morgan Freeman: Interestingly,
that is very, cosmic.

Ahmed ragab: Right.

Morgan Freeman: You think
right away about the clouds of

dust in the cosmos
that formed worlds.

Ahmed ragab: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm,
so this ideas about these

massive clouds and things
coming out of them is actually

very powerful in a lot of
mythological traditions around

the world and it is
part of this islamic

narrative of creation.

Morgan Freeman: In islam,
the moment of creation exists

alongside the scientific
view of earth's formation.

The same is true
for traditions much

older than islam.

Aboriginal people have
lived in central Australia

for tens of
thousands of years.

They've told the story of
this land's creation for as

long as anyone
can remember.

Duane hamacher:
Oh, this is beautiful.

Warren Williams: My
grandfather's family have been

caretakers for this
place and now it's gotten

passed down to me.

Morgan Freeman: Warren
Williams and the arrernte

people call this place home.

Duane hamacher:
This place is so big,

you'd have to
see it from space.

You could probably see
it on satellite image.

Warren Williams: Well, yeah.

Morgan Freeman: Cultural
astronomer Duane hamacher

tries to connect
aboriginal creation stories

to modern science.

So Warren is taking him
to where his ancestors say

it all began,

a bowl shaped
basin called tnorala.

It's traditional for
the arrernte to tell their

creation story at night,

when they can
see their creators,

the sky guards.

Warren Williams:
This sky tonight,

it's gonna be
really good tonight.

Duane hamacher: Oh,
they're all coming out now.

Warren Williams: Wow.

Morgan Freeman: The story
takes place in an era called

the dreaming, when the sky
guards lived in the milky way.

Warren Williams: The
dreaming is a period of

creation when
everything was beginning,

when the ladies were
dancing at a ceremony and

one of them had
a little baby in her arms.

So she put the
baby in a Turner,

like a, it's a
wooden cradle, but all

that dancing
started vibrating,

shaking the milky way
and the Turner fell out,

and it fell to earth
and created the crater

that we see now.

Duane hamacher:
That's fascinating because,

according to scientists,
it was an asteroid or a

comet that hit the
ground and what it did,

you know, a
massive explosion,

created this big
meteorite crater.

Morgan Freeman: Duane wants
to know more about the Turner,

or cradle, that Warren
and his ancestors see as the

cause of their creation.

Warren Williams:
This one here.

Duane hamacher: So you can
see the milky way quite clearly

and that looks like that
Turner from the front falling

out of the milky way.

Warren Williams: Yeah.

Duane hamacher: In
western astronomy,

we call that corona australis.

That constellation
means the Southern crown.

But you're right, it looks
exactly like a Turner falling

out the milky way.

Warren Williams: It looks
like an upturned cradle.

Morgan Freeman: At daybreak,
Duane asks Warren to show him

exactly where the
star baby landed.

Duane hamacher: Goes
right through here?

Warren Williams: Yeah.

Duane hamacher: Check it out.

Morgan Freeman: It's right
in the center of the meteor

impact crater geologists
called gosses bluff.

Duane hamacher: So this is it?

Warren Williams: Yeah,
this is where it began.

Well, the rocks fell down here
to the ground and formed this

and the first
man got created,

the first woman
got created and, like,

now I'm here
because of them.

It started here, just
fell from the sky at night,

made all this.

Duane hamacher: Science has
never really considered some

of these old creation
stories to have any validity,

and what we're finding out
is that the creation story

from the aboriginal
perspective and from the

scientific perspective,
here at tnorala,

Warren Williams: Mmm.

Duane hamacher: Are identical,
they're exactly the same.

Morgan Freeman:
For the arrernte,

life began here and
tradition requires a greeting

to the ancestors whenever
you enter this sacred space.

Warren Williams: Hey!

[Foreign dialog].

Morgan Freeman: Science
can live side by side with

aboriginal and islamic
accounts of our origins,

now I'm curious
about science and the

judeo-Christian
creation story.

So I've come to Rome, where
Michelangelo's breathtaking

sistine chapel ceiling
depicts the book of Genesis.

In six days, god
creates light,

makes the sun and the
moon and creates man.

I've come to speak with
the pope's chief science

representative, monsignor
Marcelo Sanchez sorondo.

Now, you are the
chancellor of the pontifical

academy of sciences.

Monsignor sorondo: Exactly.

Morgan Freeman: When did
that get started and why?

Monsignor sorondo: In 1603.

Morgan Freeman: 1603?

Monsignor sorondo:
And three, yes,

and the leader of the first
generation was Galileo and the

idea is to have a new
academy to develop the

scientific reason of things.

Morgan Freeman: So we have
the two different approaches

to the idea of creation.

There is Genesis and
then as the big bang.

Monsignor sorondo: The big
bang is not creation exactly

because we don't know what
was before the big bang.

Morgan Freeman:
My question exactly.

Monsignor sorondo:
And for this reason,

creation is nothing
to do with the big bang.

The other thing is the
idea of the Bible is not a

scientific idea of creation.

Morgan Freeman:
In other words,

science can't prove
it or disprove it.

Monsignor sorondo: Exactly.

We say in the Bible is
the idea of creation,

but in the geological
sense of creation,

not the scientific...

Morgan Freeman:
Not in scientific.

Monsignor sorondo:
Sense of creation.

Morgan Freeman:
Thank you, thank you, indeed.

The catholic church no longer
sees the book of Genesis

as the literal
description of creation.

In fact, the first scientist
to propose the big bang,

George lemaître, was a
priest and a member of the

pontifical academy
of science.

So how exactly does belief in
god fit into modern cosmology?

So this incredibly
high vaulted ceiling,

it's just like
reaching for heaven.

Father tanzella-nitti:
Yes, in a certain sense.

This is a
representation of heaven.

Morgan Freeman: Oh!

Father tanzella-nitti:
Of a theological heaven.

Morgan Freeman: I'm meeting with
father giuseppe tanzella-nitti,

a scientist at the
Vatican observatory.

I'm very, very
fascinated by you.

You are an astronomer
and you are a holy man.

Father tanzella-nitti: Yes,
my field of study was radio

galaxies, quasars, extra
galactic objects and it was

another kind of heaven.

I remember that, when we
take a galaxy spectra,

I used to pray during the
waiting for the spectra and to

say, "god, I thank you
for this marvelous universe

that you gave us."

Morgan Freeman: There must
have come at some point a

question for you about
the nature of creation.

We think that there's,
like, a big schism between the

biblical sense of creation
and the other one is the

scientific sense, the big bang,
and it's all very different.

Father tanzella-nitti:
Creation from a theological

point of view is perfectly
compatible with the big bang,

because you need
always a first cause.

God the creator is
outside space time.

It's before any time, so
the act of creation is an

everlasting act because
creation is the way in which

god continuously
holds the universe.

Morgan Freeman: For
giuseppe and others like him,

cosmology not only allows
room for divine creation,

it offers new ways to
understand god as the master

of space and time.

I like what father giuseppe

says about creation
as a continuum,

that it didn't begin
and end with the big bang,

that it is god's
ongoing activity which

includes evolution.

Think what he was
saying is god does not

exist outside
space and time.

God is space and time.

The idea that creation is
ongoing sounds like a new one,

but it's not.

In the depths of the
Guatemalan rainforest,

lost cities reveal
the endless creations of

the ancient Maya.

Morgan Freeman: What if
there was not one moment

of creation, but many?

I'm heading out to
explore the remains of the

ancient Mayan empire...

Richard Hansen: There's
a little swampy grounds

where we're going.

Morgan Freeman: Where a
new discovery sheds light

on their Genesis story.

Few roads cut through the
dense jungle of northern

guateala today, but
archaeologist Richard Hansen

tells me that 2,000 years
ago this was one of the

great cities of the world.

Richard Hansen: We like
to think of Los Angeles and

New York as
being a modern city,

but these guys had the same
perspective of their own cities.

Morgan Freeman: Right.

They had water
delivery systems,

they had freeways...

Richard Hansen: Oh yeah,
very first freeway system

in the world.

Welcome to El mirador.

This pyramid is one of the
largest structures in the

world in terms of volume.

It's more than a half
a mile long at the base.

Morgan Freeman: At a
site called El mirador,

Richard found the remains
of an ancient city the Maya

knew as the snake kingdom.

It's such a rich
archaeological site,

he set up a permanent camp
in the jungle to explore it.

Richard Hansen:
This is the laboratory.

This is our doctor.

If you ever
get in a problem,

he can fix
you right there.

Morgan Freeman: Really?

Richard Hansen: He's
an outstanding doctor.

Morgan Freeman:
I got this.

[Foreign dialogue].

Miguel: Miguel.

Morgan Freeman: Miguel?

Morgan.

Miguel: Morgan Freeman, si.

Man: Nice to meet you.

Morgan Freeman: Yeah, it
was nice to meet me, wasn't it?

Man: It was, it was
very nice to meet you.

[Foreign dialogue].

Morgan Freeman: Set?

Richard Hansen:
Ok, let's do it.

Morgan Freeman: Richard is
taking me to see something

he's only just uncovered.

Richard Hansen: Ok, this is
one of the most interesting

excavations we have
right now.

Morgan Freeman:
Oh my goodness!

Richard Hansen: This is
art that was carved in stucco

hundreds of years before
Christ and it has incredible

scenes showing the
entire pantheon of

the Mayan religion.

Morgan Freeman: So what
we're talking about is,

this is the actual
story of creation here.

This is the Mayan Bible.

Richard Hansen: This is the
Maya Genesis story with all

the deities that are
needed to tell the story.

Morgan Freeman: Yeah,
this is unbelievable.

I mean, if you just think
about the fact that it wasn't

done in the 15th
century or the 16th century.

It was done 2,000
years ago at least.

This is the oldest version
of the Maya's sacred story of

creation that's
ever been found.

The focus is on two swimmers
carrying a severed head.

Richard Hansen: It's this
head right here that gave us

the clue who this might
be at the first place.

We think this is hunahpu.

This is father of the
hero twins that serves

the whole
process of creation.

Priestess: Gracias a hau.

Gracias al corazon del cielo.

Gracias al corazon
de la tierra,

gracias al
corazon del agua.

Morgan Freeman: Fragments
of this creation story

survive even to this day
in a religious ritual in

which I am privileged
to take part.

Ritual leader: Gracias,
al corazon de fuego.

Morgan Freeman: The ritual
recalls the saga of the corn

god being tricked into
going down to the underworld,

where he's decapitated.

His sons, known
as the hero twins,

set off to rescue him
but they can only get to

the underworld by
being burned to ash.

Richard Hansen: The ash
represents the hero twins.

She'll mix up the corn
with the ashes and that goes

into the water.

Morgan Freeman: As
their ash sinks into the

subterranean waters,
the hero twins regenerate.

They return to earth
with the corn god's head and

plant him in the ground.

It is from this
corn that the first Maya

people are made.

Richard Hansen: Now the
hero twins are in the river,

so this is what they're gonna
be serving and passing around.

In a sense, we all become
a part of the hero twins'

story by doing this.

♪ ♪

Morgan Freeman: We don't
perform rituals to celebrate

Adam and Eve, but the
hero twins were crucial

to Mayan culture.

Their story of death and
rebirth was tied to the growth

of their staple crop,
corn, an act of creation that

the Maya depended
on every year.

And, Richard tells me,
their architecture also

focused on creation.

It mirrored a source of
power they saw in the heavens.

To show me how, he
takes me 40 miles away to

the ruins of
the city of tikal.

♪ ♪

The temples here are
arranged in groups of three,

a triad.

So Richard, now, I can
sense here that there is

a pattern, but
something's missing.

What am I missing?

Richard Hansen:
Well, there is a pattern,

Morgan, this is a
definite pattern here and

it's consistent through
centuries of time.

There's one big
building over here with

the stairway facing inward,

another building over
here with the stairway

facing inward.

Morgan Freeman: Ok, and
a third one, what, what?

Richard Hansen: The third
one was right in front of us.

Morgan Freeman: Oh.

Richard Hansen:
There's the third structure.

It's been dismantled,
of course, it's gone now,

but the big building
was right in front of us,

it was as high or higher,

which was built to make
the triad, three stones.

Morgan Freeman: Richard
and other experts believe

that this arrangement of
stone temples is a deliberate

echo of a triangle of stars
in the constellation Orion.

At the center of the
three stars is a fiery nebula,

a cosmic cloud
of star creation.

Richard Hansen: We know
from contemporary Maya that

there is a celestial heart.

The inside of...

Morgan Freeman: A celestial...

Richard Hansen: Orion, it's
in the constellation of Orion.

Morgan Freeman: Even today,
when the Maya light a

traditional fire, they begin
by flagging three stones.

A fire of creation
emanates from their center,

just as it does with the
triad of stars in Orion.

You're telling me that
the Mayans got this triad,

this manifestation
of creation,

from the constellation Orion?

Richard Hansen: It
looks like this is what they

were looking at.

We know that they were very
aware of three primary stars,

so the Maya were able to
replicate that pattern with

these three stones in
these three structures and

that is replicated over
and over and over again.

They're tying us
to the heavens.

They're letting us see
the creation symbolically.

Morgan Freeman:
Looking around here,

I'm struck by the scale
of what the Maya created.

Huge cities,
colossal pyramids.

It was a civilization
whose religion was focused on

creation and the continued
regeneration of creation.

And yet it all crumbled.

Everything the Maya
created, collapsed.

It strikes me that we don't
spend enough time celebrating

the paths our
ancestors trod to get here,

or giving thanks for the
forces that sustain our lives.

But there is one culture
that gives thanks for its

creation every day and I'm
in varanasi, India to see it.

India is home to
a billion hindus,

the third largest
faith in the world.

It has many gods and
many creation stories.

One of the best known
centers around the river

that gives them life...

The Ganges or ganga.

Benda paranjape: Morgan,
now we are at the river ganga.

Morgan Freeman: Ganga.

Benda paranjape: Ganga,
the holiest of the holy rivers

and the center
of hindu universe.

It only exists because
it is the sacred, the pure,

the holy from the heaven.

Morgan Freeman: It
only exists because...

Benda paranjape: You believe.

Morgan Freeman:
You believe it's true.

Benda paranjape: Yes.

Morgan Freeman:
Ah, ok, love that.

I love that.

Historian benda paranjape
takes me to a shrine to ganga.

Benda paranjape: Careful.

Morgan Freeman: Yes,
ganga's not only a river,

but a goddess.

Benda paranjape: So the
idea is that you bow down even

before you enter the shrine,

but not for a
short person like me.

Morgan Freeman: Ah!

[Laughs].

Benda paranjape: And
then you'll come to a place

where you see mother ganga.

Morgan Freeman:
What's she holding in her

upper left hand?

Benda paranjape:
She's holding a lotus.

That is supposed to be a...

Morgan Freeman: A lotus?

Benda paranjape:
A mark of purity,

Morgan Freeman: Right.

Benda paranjape: Because
lotus emerges out of mud,

but it does not take
any stains of mud.

Morgan Freeman:
In the beginning,

hindus believe ganga
flowed in the heavens,

but she was held captive
by the creator god brahma.

Then brahma decided to send
the river ganga down to earth.

Benda paranjape: But
there is one problem,

that ganga has got such
mighty force and if she

comes in the earth,
the earth will drown.

Morgan Freeman:
So the god Shiva,

blocked ganga's fall,
gathering her waters in

the locks of his hair.

Benda paranjape: So Shiva
just opened one lock of

his hair and the ganga flow.

She's the mother because
she gives birth to everything.

Morgan Freeman: This holy
river came from the river in

heaven that we
call the milky way.

Benda paranjape: They say
that milky way actually is a

reflection that you
see in those waters which

are still beyond.

Morgan Freeman: Scientists
have dated the universe to

about 14 billion years,
best we can figure.

Hindus have it at what?

Benda paranjape: Hindus do
not believe in one creation.

They say that these
are cycles of creation,

Morgan Freeman: Ok.

Benda paranjape: And the
primordial creation could be

something like
8.6 billion years old.

Actually, this whole creation,

it is very difficult
to comprehend because we

say that gods like brahma
has created the universe,

but then they ask
a question,

"who created brahma?"

Morgan Freeman: Right.

Benda paranjape: And then...

Morgan Freeman: That's
always the question, though.

Creation happened and
then the gods happened.

Benda paranjape:
They say that the sages,

when they were
in their trance,

they got that revelation,
that how the creation happened.

But since it isn't that
level of consciousness,

you and me, we commoners
will not understand it,

so we believe
that it's beyond us.

Morgan Freeman: The hindu
philosophy is not to try to

solve the riddle of creation
that happened long ago.

It's to give thanks
every day for the forces

that allow us to be here
and continue to sustain us,

including the river Ganges.

Benda paranjape: You
can come a little close.

We are going to
see the ritual,

which they call it aarti.

Morgan Freeman: Aarti?

Benda paranjape: Yeah,
it means showing the lamb

to the god.

Morgan Freeman: The
aarti has taken place on the

banks of the holy
river every night for

hundreds of years.

Benda paranjape:
The prayer is that

'god, you are like my father,
you are like my mother, '

Morgan Freeman: My mother.

Benda paranjape: 'My
whole existence is you.'

Morgan Freeman: My
whole existence is you.

Benda paranjape: You.

I'm just like a shadow.

Morgan Freeman: I am a vessel.

Benda paranjape:
That contains you.

That's wonderful.

Morgan Freeman:
Seven priests offer

all the
elements to ganga...

Water, air, earth in
the form of flowers,

and the most
important of all, light,

which represents our souls.

♪ ♪

As the ceremony closes,
people gather at the water's

edge to place the
light of their own souls

in a tiny vessel.

Benda paranjape: This
is our individual way of

offering ourselves to
the river and, uh, candles

that take our
soul to the river.

Morgan Freeman: It's
the light of my soul.

Benda paranjape: My soul
and it says that you take it

wherever you
think it good for me.

♪ ♪

Morgan Freeman: The
hindu version of creation

appeals to me.

It says the gods
weren't even around at

the original creation.

They have this great
saying from the rigveda

about the beginning.

There was neither
non-existence nor existence.

It's saying the idea is
beyond human definition,

beyond human intellect.

Just, accept it.

[Explosion]

Where did we come from?

A man and a woman
banished from paradise,

who began to work the land?

Hero twins planting
the corn they need to

start a civilization?

A great river that gives
life to an entire people?

These ideas about
where we came from are

the oldest stories we have.

They are shared words
and distant memories that

form the glue of
our civilization.

We don't all share the
same creation story.

We all come from
different places,

but all of us,
whatever we believe,

can share in one thing,

the wonder and gratitude
that we are here at all.

It is my fervent hope
that people will open their

hearts and
minds and see that,

our beliefs don't
have to divide us.

They have the
power to unite us,

to allow us together to
achieve remarkable things.

As it was in the beginning,
is now and ever shall be,

world without end.