Are Humans Created to 'Part-Time' for God? How Sumerian Mythology, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Brahminism, Buddhism, and Taoism Explain the 'Creator'? Why Western Gods Have Will and the Eastern 'Tao' Does Not Rule? The Fundamental Divergence of East and West on the 'Ultimate Source'!

Sun, 24 May 2026 12:50:00 +0800

When you clock in for work every day, have you ever wondered: “Why on earth am I here doing these things?”

Looking into ancient Sumerian Mythology, we find the reason humans were created is super down-to-earth:

The gods didn’t want to do hard labor, so they created humans to “substitute” them.

Major religions in the world have given completely different answers to “who the Creator actually is”, and the understandings in the East and the West are poles apart.

Sumerian Mythology: Humans are the “Basic Dispatch Workers” of the Universe

In the ancient Tigris-Euphrates river basin, Sumerian Mythology describes the origin of humans in a way that sounds just like a dispatch contract.

The world of gods had its own workplace issues too: lower-tier gods were responsible for hard work like farming and offering rituals. As time went on, they couldn’t stand it and went on strike to “protest to the upper management”.

The high-tier gods’ solution was: create a batch of humans in their own image to replace the lower-tier gods’ work.

Cosmic Workplace Role	Corresponding Religious Role	Job Description
Chairman	Supreme God	Rules the Universe
Senior Executive	High-tier God	Manages various domains (Sun, Moon, Weather, etc.)
Original Staff (Striked)	Lower-tier God	Originally responsible for hard labor
Substitute Dispatch Worker	Humans	Farming, harvesting, and sending grain to the temple

The purpose of human existence is very simple: farm, harvest, and submit grain to the temple for the god-boss to enjoy.

In the logic of Sumerian mythology, humans are tools “cloned” in the image of gods.

When tools are no longer controllable or lose their value, it is not surprising to be casually destroyed by the creator.

Judaism: Signed a Super Strict “Lease” with God

With the evolution of civilization, the relationship between humans and god upgraded from “dispatch workers” to “contracted tenants”.

Judaism believes there is only one unique God in the universe.

This God signed an extremely strict covenant with the Jewish nation:

If you keep my rules, I will let you live in peace on this land.

Lease Terms	Specific Regulations
God’s Role	The owner of the world, majestic and inviolable
Human’s Role	“Guests” in God’s house, must obey the rules
Dietary Rules	A piece of meat must go through 18 procedures from slaughter to the table
Consequences of Breach	God will bring destruction and expel the entire nation

The relationship between god and human established by Judaism is built upon “awe”. If you do not obey the law, God will destroy you.

This contract is only open to the Jewish people, other nations do not even have the “application eligibility”.

Christianity: Changing “Strict Management” to “Universal Love”

By the 1st century AD, the emergence of Jesus was equivalent to a cultural overhaul for this “cosmic enterprise”.

Comparison	Judaism (Old System)	Christianity (New System)
Requirement for Joining	Strictly obey the Jewish Law	Just agree by faith
Scope of Application	Limited to Jews	Open to all humanity
Boss’s Image	Majestic and fearful landlord	Loving Heavenly Father
Management Style	Tedious external regulations	Inner identification is more important than external behavior

Christianity cancelled the tedious “onboarding assessment”, changing it to joining as long as you “agree with the corporate culture” (by faith).

This revolution of “faith decentralization” allowed the Jewish story system to be taken out of the Jewish circle and spread to the whole world.

Islam: Promulgating the “Final Version of the Employee Handbook”

In the 7th century AD, Islam emerged in the Arabian Peninsula, presenting itself as the “ultimate revised version”.

It believes that the scriptures of Judaism and Christianity were altered by humans during their transmission. Therefore, Allah sent down the final revelation to Prophet Muhammad, which is recorded in the Quran.

Comparison	Judaism	Christianity	Islam
Attitude Towards Law	Extremely strict	Greatly simplified	Somewhere in between
Target Audience	Jews only	All humanity	All humanity
Core Emphasis	Covenant with God	Universal love by faith	Absolute submission to the one true God
Daily Practice	Tedious laws	Mainly inner faith	Five Pillars (five daily prayers, Ramadan, etc.)

The three major monotheistic religions share the same story system (Adam and Eve, Noah’s Ark, Moses parting the Red Sea), but adopt different scriptures, different records, and different understandings.

Whether it is Judaism’s awe, Christianity’s faith, or Islam’s submission, Western monotheism has a common core setting:

The source of the universe is a sole ruler full of will, who can think, judge, and reward or punish.

Eastern Religions: There Is No “Boss” in the Universe at All

In Eastern religions, you will find that the universe here has no boss at all.

The image of the ultimate source has changed from a "willful anthropomorphic god" into an "extremely abstract concept".

Brahminism: The Endless “Karmic Shift Scheduling System”

The ultimate source of Brahminism is called “Brahman”. It is not a god who gets angry like in the West, but a kind of ultimate reality that transcends time and space.

Main Deity	Responsibility	Symbol
Brahma	Creates all things	Birth of the universe
Vishnu	Preserves the world	Operation of the universe
Shiva	Destruction and rebirth	Cycle of the universe

Brahminism’s caste system is highly linked to its mythology:

People of different levels come from different body parts of Brahma, from mouth (Brahmin) to feet (Sudra), and there are also the Dalit who do not even have “qualification to join”.

There is no god who issues orders, only a set of Karmic system:

What you did in this life (Karma) determines your job grade in the next life.

Souls spin in endless reincarnation, and the ultimate goal of cultivation is to achieve the “oneness of Brahman and Atman” and escape reincarnation.

Buddhism: Directly Deleted the Concepts of “Creator” and “Soul”

Buddhism was born from the soil of Brahminism, but made revolutionary reforms.

Comparison	Brahminism	Buddhism
Ultimate Source	Brahman (Ultimate Reality)	Denies the existence of an eternal source
View of Soul	There is a “Self” in reincarnation	Non-Self, no solid soul entity
Status of Beings	Caste system, distinct ranks	Equality of all sentient beings
Way to Liberation	Oneness of Brahman and Atman	Realize Emptiness to reach Nirvana

The core of Buddhism is atheism. It denies the “eternal and unchanging ultimate subject”, believing that the universe has no starting point and no all-knowing, all-powerful creator.

What Buddhism wants you to “realize” is the “emptiness” of all things:

Everything is a combination of causes and conditions; nothing is real and unchanging.

Taoism: The Highest Law is “Not Ruling”

Taoism believes that the source of the universe is “Tao”, an invisible, nameless, omnipresent objective law of nature.

The most shocking feature of “Tao” lies in its “profound virtue” (Xuande), which is completely opposite to the ruling god of the West:

Profound Virtue of Tao	Meaning	Comparison with the West
Creating but not owning	Creates all things but does not claim ownership	This is my world
Acting but not boasting	Nourishes all things but does not take credit	All good things are my arrangements
Guiding but not ruling	Lets all things grow but does not try to rule	I am the master of all things

The source of the universe is like an automatically operating system, without personal will, nor does it require you to worship it.

This also explains why when Buddhism spread to China, it didn’t suffer much from “maladaptation”, because Buddhism and Taoism share a common general direction:

They both do not think the universe needs a willful ruler.

The “Ultimate Goal” of East and West Is Completely Different

Because of the different understandings of the source, the ultimate goals pursued by Eastern and Western believers are also diametrically opposed:

System	Does the source have will?	Ultimate Goal	“Way to Resign”
Judaism	Yes (Majestic)	Live in peace in the Promised Land	Strictly abide by the contract
Christianity	Yes (Loving)	Be with God (Heaven)	Return to the boss’s side to enjoy retirement benefits
Islam	Yes (Authoritative)	Be with Allah	Complete the performance appraisal of the Five Pillars
Brahminism	Abstract	Oneness of Brahman and Atman	Cultivate to jump out of the shift scheduling system
Buddhism	No	Nirvana	Realize “there is no workplace at all” and resign completely
Taoism	No	Become immortal	Cultivate to unify with natural laws

The most perfect retirement in the West is “to be with the boss”, returning to God’s side to enjoy heaven. The best liberation in the East is “to resign completely”, jumping out of the entire system.

Western culture values “relationship and contract”: there is a clear agreement between god and humans, with rewards and punishments.

Eastern culture values “laws and liberation”: the universe has its own way of operation, and what humans need to do is to understand the laws, adapt to the laws, and ultimately transcend the laws.

Conclusion

Although modern science has risen for hundreds of years, we still cannot give a standard answer to the “ultimate source”.

What major religious systems provide is not so much historical truth as attempts made by humans to settle their hearts and define “who we are” in the face of the vastness of the universe.

Whether you believe you are a child of God, a traveler in karmic reincarnation, or a speck of dust in natural laws, in the face of the vast and boundless universe, we may all be doing the same thing:

Striving to find our own “meaning of existence” in this universe.

Reference

【一口气】速览佛、道、犹太、基督、伊斯兰，婆罗门文化 - YouTube

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