Comparisons of Creation Myths Essay

Who made who? Did God create humans or did humans create god? At first thought one

There was only water and bare, empty land. In the center of this nothingness was a great mountain. This mountain stood tall and proud and it reached all the way into the heavens. At the very top of this mountain lived a pair of every kind of animal. In the center of this heaven grew a tree. This tree was not just any tree, it was the sacred tree of life, and it was not to be harmed in any way.

For thousands of years, scientists have tried to interpret the concept of creation. However, before people had access to modern scientific equipment, they told creations stories. A creation story is a myth that explains how and why the earth was made. A few cultures with differing opinions on creation are Europeans, Cherokee Indians, West Africans, and Hawaiians. Europeans tell the story of Genesis and God creating the earth in seven days and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Cherokee Indians believe that the earth was created by a water beetle. In West African culture, they teach the Golden Chain story, and Hawaiians have the Kumulipo story to explain their beliefs on creation. Although each story follows a basic guideline, they all have distinct disparities.

All different cultures have their own creation stories, mostly all containing the elements of a Higher Power of some sort, how the power created the world, and the creation a human man. The Christian belief in the Genesis story has these key elements , as does the Iroquois creation myth, The World on the Turtle's Back. Although these two creation stories share similarities, they also have some stark contrasts. These contrasts include, how the two cultures of the Native American Iroquois tribe and then Christians view life and aspects of good and evil, the way each culture views nature and the impact that has on their culture, and finally the way the Christian God and the Iroquois gods are portrayed to

In the beginning of the myth, the gods Plumed Serpent and Hurricane created the first plant life and the mountains on Earth. As time went by, the gods felt there was something missing because there was no noise on the planet. They then created animals to live in the forests. Once the animals were created, the gods had the intention of having the animals speak. Without language, the animals could not worship the gods properly. This left the gods unsatisfied. With this, the gods decided to create humans. The humans would be able to worship the gods and the animals would stay in the forests to serve the needs of man.

The general purpose for all myths is to bring an understanding of unknown. The ancient people widely used myths to explain new phenomena and occurrences. The lack of scientific modes of theory formulation caused the people of old to come up with myths to fill the vacuum with the knowledge that existed during their time. The need by man to explain his origin and the origin of the universe led him to the formulation of creation and origin myths. Men of olds came up with myths to explain the mysteries they had no clue about including creation.

Origin myths deliver stories explaining how the world, humans or objects came to existence. Describing where the nation comes from, they are very important to the culture of given region. Therefore, each nation developed its own stories and beliefs; however, there are many similarities between myths of various religions and cultures. A good example would be Native American stories about origin and their resemblance to Greek mythology or to the Bible. Similarities can be seen in different spheres such as creation of humankind or even in the story about flood.

Ancient Creation myths are similar but at the same time are still very different. What is a myth? A myth refers to a fiction story or only half true story. What makes up a myth? It has several different characteristics that make it different from other types of stories. Ancient Greco-Roman myths are interesting because they talk about another religion and how they are being reflected. Hebrew creation myths are also interesting because they explain the power of God who made the universe in just 6 days.

The most popular creation myth, in present day is the “one god” myth. It existed yet, had a brief life and it was in the minority. Here Ptah was the closest thing to monotheism that the ancients had. This is a popular theme in Memphite theology, but it was present in parts of Egypt. Ptah supposedly had all that is manifest in thought and then created them with his Word (Baines, 1991). It is also said that the “one god” is and the other god names are used to personify an extension of the “one god” (Ancient Egyptian Religion pg. 2 and 3). Ptah creates the Ennead with thought and word. This monotheism was not very widespread and it did not last long.

Those who are raised within one religious tradition may find it difficult to understand the traditions of another religion. It is not until one is educated in the basics of the other major world religions, that it is possible to see the many similarities between them. Just as there are many similarities between the countries culturally, the major religions share more things than they are different. In viewing Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism with an open mind, it is easy to see the differences, similarities and ideals that make these religions as widespread as they are.

The motifs found in the creation myths are undoubtedly different from those found in any other type of myth. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of the creation myths is much greater than a primitive attempt to explain the mysteries of creation. Behind each creation myth is a vast variety of symbolism along with a number of motives which are often shared between cultures, despite vast geographical differences. My intention here is not only to discuss the purpose of the creation myths, but also to compare and contrast common themes which can be found in three selected works. These being, an Eskimo creation myth, the Ongwe creation myth and the Navajo creation myth.

Throughout history many civilizations and cultures have had their own ways of explaining the world and its creation. Each of these civilizations has created unique descriptions and accounts of such events. However, when comparing them to each other, are they really different? Look at the ancient Greco - Roman creation myths as told by Hesiod in his Theogony and Works and Days and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, when compared to the creation myths as seen in the Old Testament’s book of Genesis they may not be as different as one would think. Taking a more in-depth look at both Genesis and Hesiod’s and Ovid’s work more closely, the reader can see that on multiple occasions the myths have almost identical similarities which reflect their views in

Whatever was present in the beginning had managed to create all the rest, and the description of creators are of three categories, a single creator, multi-creators, and no creator. In Genesis, God is the single creator, and so is Brahman of India. The difference is that the God is immortal, but Brahman is mortal (Genesis, Genesis Project). In Chinese mythology, Pan Gu was the creator of everything but men, who were created by Nu Wa, a goddess (Lin 1-5). Other examples of multi-creators are in the mythology of Egypt and Seneca in which the children of the creator became

Everyone believes the universe and everything in it is created in a specific way, method, or concept. Different perspectives and unique ideas are great for individuality and being creative. Because of that, creation myth stories were created, they are stories based on the universe, humans, animals, the way they are, and so much more! They contain a lot of imagination and creativity, but they all happen to make sense in a way and are logical. Other than that, they make you think and wonder how and why things are the way they are. They can all be related to each other and differentiated, but you can see that in them there’s a cause and effect system that goes on in them. In the creation myth stories, they all needed self-assurance with compromises to accomplish their goals.

As human beings, we have our own general understanding of how our world came to be. Whether we are in church, the synagogue, or the temple humans have established ideologies. Humans use the creation myths to bring about some understanding as to how humans magically or purposely inhabited the earth. However, even though myths satisfy this yearning for how and why, the scientific world revolted with the idea that creation myths are no longer satisfactory. In unison paleoanthropologists and archeologists along with many other historians said that we as humans need a scientific, concrete, and factual basis for our existence. As a result of many years of research and discovery the scientific world came to two conclusions. Either “Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens in each region of migration (Spodek 16)” most notably known as Candelabra. Or the “Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens only once- in Africa (Spodek 16)” most notably known as the Noah’s Ark model. Through my journey of understanding both schools of thought I began to rethink the basic sugar coated origins of humanity that teachers spoon feed in high school. Spodek along with the associate authors shined a little light on the fact that Homo sapiens most likely stemmed directly from Africa and migrated to other places in the world. Which leads me to my thesis: Homo erectus evolved into Homo sapiens only once in Africa, and then emigrated to the rest of the world.