Creation Myth: Where Did We Come From?

Myths were created to explain the inexplicable, and to emphasize the power of a God or Goddess. There are some myths that are part of religious traditions that are passed down from generation to generation. Flood myths were most likely created to scare people or to tell people how God or Gods gave them a do-over. Despite bearing some minor similarities the differences between the Bible, The Epic Gilgamesh, and Navajo flood story are clear.

Creation myths play an important role in our culture and even modern day society. They give us something to believe in when the unknown seems daunting. Ontological yearning is the need to know why, and not just accept what is. This is why we not only need creation myths, and myths in general, but actually seek them out. We find every possible reason to believe in them so that we are not faced with the unknown. This is the beauty of myths, we know that they are not true, they cannot be proven scientifically, or even logically, but they explain the unknown to us. It is because of this that we are so quick to believe them as if they are fact.

In every culture people have different creation stories from the ancient Aztecs to modern-day. Creation stories myths are symbolic since they are narratives of how the world began and how men were created. These stories or “myths” helped people in the past to explain the world around them (Long, 2015). However, people often use the term myth to describe these stories since they regarded as fiction while to some there true. Regardless, to who believes these “myths” but everyone has their own belief on the origin of the world.

Sumerians developing the first writing also helped to develop other forms of writing and language.

Our human species is dated back to more than 200,000 years ago, now if we can attain a significant lesson that our ancestors have passed down to us, it would definitely be to keep learning and writing. Many past generations and societies have been destroyed by diseases, famine, and due to their lack of knowledge and their capability to reason. Considering the Egyptians were very intelligent, few of their inventions that we still use till this day are geometry, the pen, and papyrus, which is used as paper. But even so, they were wiped out by the thousands from diseases. However, humans have yet to reach their highest potential but by attaining knowledge through literature, one can endure lessons from the past without having to experience it.

We now see these theories as inaccurate, due to the fact that they have been replaced by newer scientific models. In a modern light, it can be stated that creation myths describe not the origin of our cosmos but rather these myths allow us to gain a broader understanding of ancient theories and beliefs. During the time of their invention however, these myths were precisely an honest interpretation of the outer world, and therefore they served the exact purpose which is stated in their title, to explain the process of creation.

A Creation Myth is defined as “a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it”. Creation myths can be found in all aspects of human history from Ancient Egyptians, to Native Americans to modern day humans. Early humans used stories to explain the world around them. Some use animals, disasters and or even gods to explain why the earth is here. “How the World Was Made” is a creation myth because it explains the creation of the earth, explains how the natural world works and gives reasons to many social customs.

You need myths to find your truth. You have elaborate myths to compare to everyday experiences and to other myths. “Myths give a meaning to life (Campbell, 5). Mythology is a collection of stories based on one’s knowledge and stories of experience. Myths are clues to life meaning. They are clues to “spiritual potentialities” or your potential to develop spiritually and finding your inner self. For example, marriage creates a transformation in us spiritually because it transforms our perspective of ourselves and our ability to sacrifice.

So in my opinion, three of the most common creation myth motifs are people coming from organic material, destruction, and the jobs of the humans are to take care of the planet. Motif #1 My first motif involves the idea of people coming from organic materials. I chose this as my

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.

Mythology serves to create an explanation for why the world is the way it is. All religions have mythology in them and myths help people understand history. Myth can mean so many different things to different people. Some myths are total fiction, while others may have a hint of truth in them. But most myths are more of a symbolic and metaphoric truth, rather than a literal truth, because most of the time myths cannot be proven and people are not trying to prove that they are true. Myths become true to the people who believe in them and they use them as a sort of lens through which they see the world. They use myths to create explanations for themselves as to why the world is the way it is and they use them to help cope with the difficulties of life. Myths are a natural outgrowth of our imagination and our passions.

Where did humans come from? This is a question that is common throughout time. Mankind hungers to know where they came from in order to know where they are going. There are those that believe that humans evolved from apes, or that they sprang forth from some primordial cesspool. According to Genesis 2:7, God created man from the earth in his image. He breathed the breath of life into him and humans were given dominion over the earth. Job 10: 8-12 describes how God molded man like clay and pieced him together with muscle, sinew, and skin (Holy Bible: American Standard Version, 1995).

Myths – as they are known to most of the world – give insight into the pasts of various countries and religions as the people saw them. They have been used to explain phenomenons in nature or describe the tales of courageous and important men and women throughout history. Creation myths in particular define how the Earth itself was created, along with the universe, heavens, hell, people, and creatures that exist today. Genesis of Christian mythology, for instance, tells the story of how the single deity God spoke and formed everything from day and night to man and woman. Various African creation myths, such as with the Yoruba, explain the creation of the Earth through at least a couple gods working together and all life

Cultural and social evolution relys on the understanding of the past and learning from our successes and our failures. Therfore, record keeping was crucial to the nurturing the evolution of society. With the importance of record keeping being recognized, the Mesopotamians developed Cuneiform, the first recognized form of writing.. Initially, Cuneiform, meaning “wedge shaped”, existed as pictographs drawn in clay tablets by a stylus made of a reed. The tablet was baked in the sun making it practically indestructible. (World History book 7th edition) There were disadvantages to clay: large documents were heavy and once baked no changes

I have learned from the textbook that there are essentially two different ways that people have sought to understand their origins. The first has to with storytelling in the creation (or origin) myths. These myths are explanations of how a group of people decided their moral principles that allowed them to establish a set of rules for their relationships with each other, nature, and the supernatural world. The explanation of how these relationships worked and came to be further created distinct cultural and societal structures that each member of that community would follow and share. One of the creation myths I cam across while reading about Mesopotamia was that of the Babylonian people who believed "that humankind had been created from the