While a few of these theories may overlap, the basic premise of each account is different. And I’m also not a astrophysical or cosmological expert, so I don’t go too in depth with each complex theory.

10. Mayan Account
Three water serpents and three heaven dwellers created the Earth, according to their sacred book, the Popol Vuh.

At this time, not much is known about astronomy and the cosmos, so the people basically believed that the Universe was much smaller than it really was, and the Earth or was at the center of it.

9. Ancient Creation Stories
Many people who lived during the ancient days of Greece and Rome believed in polytheism and some of their gods just “emerged from the void” and created everything.

Although some of the great thinkers and mathematicians lived during these times, and proposed theories that the Earth was not flat, nor was it the center of the Universe. People still religiously believed the opposite, similar to the Mayans, with limited knowledge.

8. Protouniverse
Not as common as the other scientific theories, in a protouniverse, matter is created from a white hole. Opposite of a black hole, which sucks in everything near it, a white hole “spits out” matter from nothingness at the speed of light.

7. Bouncing Theory
Also referred to philosophically as the Oscillatory universe model, it is a counter-theory to the cosmological argument. In it, the Universe is described as having an infinite number of beginnings and endings, where it continuously expands and contracts through numerous big bangs and big crunches.

6. Intelligent Design
This belief is common not only among most differing religions, but also non-theologians. While not necessarily being “God created the universe”, something of a higher power, or super-scientist, designed everything and did not necessarily act alone. The basic idea of this theory is that some sort of entity outside our knowledge of existence created everything throughout the observable universe.

5. Bubble Universe
With this theory, our universe is one of many multiverses that formed through a vacuum. Proponents of the bubble theory state that decaying regions at different points in the multiverse’s history may be responsible for the disappearance of the “smaller universes” inside it. According to the energy changes of the “parent universe” multiverse, if the level changes become too large, our entire universe may just erase from existence.

4. Biblical Account
A popular Christian belief that God created the Heavens and the Earth and the rest of the universe in seven days. While the age of the universe is still disputed amongst various sects such as Catholicism or Lutheranism, some still believe the age is only 6000 years old.

3. “Always Has Been”
A common philosophical argument, which is a counterargument to the existence of God. The basic underlying idea is that since theologians do not offer a clear answer to “Who or what created God?”, they argue “Why can’t the Universe just ‘be’?” Just as God doesn’t have a beginning or an end, the Universe could be argued for in the same fashion.

2. Big Bang
Probably the most common theory on this list, the Big Bang gives the Universe an age of 13.7 billion years. However, what caused the Big Bang is still unknown, and their are even more theories that try to explain it, such as the Theory of Everything, or “God started the Big Bang”, etc.

1. Holographic Theory
A much lesser known theory, and a personal belief of mine is that the cosmos is just like one large hologram. This theory may also give answers to ideas previously assumed impossible, such as faster than light warp-speed, or maybe even time travel, once the technology is advanced enough.

A sub-sect of this idea is that nothing, including our minds and bodies, do not exist at all. As some ask “Why is there something instead of nothing?”, a few reply with “There IS nothing”.

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