In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep (Genesis 1:1-2).
It is thought that about 14 billion years ago, give or take a few 100 million, our universe existed as a very tiny very dense very hot mass which suddenly expanded and within a fraction of a second reached a sizeable portion of its present dimension. In 1949 the British astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle coined the term "Big Bang" to describe this notion of the origin of the universe. Ironically, he used the term in an attempt to disprove the rapid expansion model of the early universe. But the term stuck and there are few people today, scientist or otherwise, who have not at least heard of the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe. There has even been a popular television show called "The Big Bang Theory".
At its origin, a few thousands of a second after the big bang, the universe was so hot that it contained only subatomic particles which to an observer, albeit there weren't any observers around at the time, would appear as a dark formless void. Then as the universe cooled, subatomic particles coalesced into atoms beginning with the simplest of these, deuterium which consists of one proton and one neutron. With further cooling more complex atoms formed, then molecules, then on and on to planets, such as earth, with water and dry land. Then came life forms - plants, fish, animals then finally us human types.
Roughly speaking, the creation of the universe, the earth and life forms on the earth sequentially came about pretty much in the order put forth in Genesis. Furthermore, Just about every religion, in addition to Judaism and Christianity, has a creation story similar to that in Genesis. In this regard, Moses could very well have obtained his ideas about creation, as put forth in Genesis, from the Egyptians who raised him.
A common thread in all these stories is that life was created from dirt, rocks, minerals etc of earth, and that hominids (humans) were created after everything else. For example, among Native Americans, the Hopi story is that life came from a mixture of mud and the saliva of Spiderwoman in the order of plants, animals and finally man. The Jicarilla Apache story is that animals were molded from clay, then birds were made from rainwater and earth. Then man was created from earthen objects -- coral, gems, rocks -- brought to the creator, Black Hactcin, by the animals and birds. In oriental cultures the Japanese creation story has life "sprouting" from the earth with man coming last. On the other side of the world, the Norse people of Iceland say that man was created from the salt of rime ice.
What all these creation stories say is that life started from non-life then built upon itself from simple organic molecules to single celled organisms to the complex multi organ systems of plants and animals ending with the most complex organism of all -- humans. In this manner it could be said that creation stories encapsulate evolution in a metaphoric sense.
Creation stories are a component of a broader common thread among religions; namely, the worship of, or belief in, God as the creator. But, other than just believing, is there a common root element of creation that can be shared among all religions? I think that the answer is yes there is, and that it goes back to understanding the nature of the original material that a creative force (God, if you will) had to work with just after the big bang banged.
As mentioned, when the universe first exploded into existence the "void" was filled with subatomic particles. This then was God's original material used to construct the universe as we know it today. Accordingly, the formation of atoms from sub-atomic particles is the common root element of creation. However, what is often overlooked is the fact that this is a dynamic process in which atoms are formed, degenerate into sub-atomic particles, then form again adinfinitum. Therefore, understanding this dynamic process may help to form a framework with which to view creation and our place in it.
The science that studies the behaviors of atomic and sub-atomic particles is quantum physics (a.k.a. quantum mechanics, a.k.a. quantum theory). Einstein, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in quantum physics extensively studied the energy transference of sub-atomic particles as they change states within an atom (e.g., an electron changing orbits or being split from an atom). In so doing, he came up with the concept of entanglement in 1935. Basically entanglement says that when a sub-atomic particle, such as a photon, changes energy state it generates two sub-particles which then become entangled with each other in a time-space independent manner; that is, the entangled effect can occur even if the entangled partners are separated by an undetermined distance, and it can occur at any time present or future. Furthermore, even though separated in space and time, entangled partner particles essentially behave as a single entity -- the actions of one immediately affect that of the other. The fact that one particle can affect that of its entangled partner over any arbitrary distance Einstein termed "spukhafte ferwirkung", which roughly translates to "spooky action at a distance".
Entanglement has progressed since Einstein's day from abstract theory to being a part of the equations of quantum mechanics to having real application in things like computer chips, cell phones and USB drives, to name but a few. Along these lines, the prevailing thought in science today is that the behavior of sub-atomic particles (i.e., quantum physics) governs everything from the atomic to the cosmic level. Furthermore, it is thought that via entanglement all atoms within the universe are now, and always have been, interconnected.
Everything, including us, is composed of atoms and many of these have been around since they first formed a fraction of a fraction of a second after the big bang. Accordingly, entanglements generated from the subatomic actions of atoms within us may be what connects us at the spiritual level to all things past, present and future. In this context, entanglement is thought to be the mechanistic base of psychic phenomena such as telepathy and clairvoyance, and is most likely the embodiment of the Unitarian Universalist belief in a universal web of interdependence of which we are a part.
From a religious perspective, it is possible that entanglement is how prayer works. It has been well documented that prayer affects such things as healing, both physical and psychological. But rather than evoking some supernatural intervention by God, it could be that the healing effect of prayer is a natural phenomenon mediated by entanglement between the prayer giver and the recipient. Through entangled spirits, prayer may allow one person to evoke healing strength within another; strength that was there all along but just needed a boost.
On a cosmic scale, if all universal atoms are entangled such entanglement may constitute a collective conscious of the universe. Such a possibility has been proposed by some of the early pioneers of quantum mechanics. This collective conscious may then be what God is - the collective manifestation of all universal entanglements. So, born from the nature of the original material from whence the universe came into existence, God emerges as the collective universal will that guides creation. This then may be the common thread that ties all religions.