Creation Myths Compare and Contrast Essay 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. Throughout the plot of these four creation stories, it is visible that each culture has varying beliefs on how land was developed. For example, Cherokee Indians conclude that land was created by a water beetle who sculpted soft mud, where as Hawaiians believe that land emerged from the slime in the ocean. Both Europeans and West Africans teach that a supreme being used his or her powers to form land. In Genesis, God was responsible for the land, whereas in the Golden Chain story, a creature called Obatala was deemed accountable for creating the land. One similarity betweens these stories is that they all begin in an almost identical setting. In every myth except for
Creation stories are symbolic accounts of how the world and its inhabitants came about. These stories first developed in oral traditions, so there are multiple accounts of them from different cultures and societies. The Babylonian Creation story, the Genesis Creation story, and the Sumerian story of the Creation of Enkidu are examples of these and the similarities are interesting. As Dennis Bratcher states, “Because of many parallels with the Genesis account, some historians concluded that the Genesis account was simply a rewriting of the Babylonian Story. As a reaction, many who wanted to maintain the uniqueness of the Bible argues either that there were no real parallels between the accounts or that the Genesis narratives were
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth. The Earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep”. There are many stories that talk about how the Earth are created and they all vary depending on the beliefs of the writers. In these stories there are many similarities but there are also a few differences. A good example of these similarities can be found in a few creation stories such as Genesis, Creation by the Hopi, and The World on the Turtle’s Back by the Iroquois. In these three stories there are differences and similarities found when looking at how the Earth was created, where all the evil and good came about from, and how all of the animals got their names.
These Native American spiritual stories can be compared to the book of Genesis. Both of the stories and the book of Genesis all start with water at the beginning of the story. In "How the World Was Made" everything was all water and the animals lived above in the sky. "The Sky Tree" starts with the earth covered in water. The book of Genesis claims that the earth began in water. Another common characteristic between all three stories is how land came after water. In all three stories, land
Creation stories are tools used to try to explain the unexplainable. For centuries humans have been searching for answers to the what, when, why, and how questions that encompass life. Genesis and the Iroquois Creation Myth are two different stories that seek to describe the creation of Earth and the universe that surrounds it. Genesis describes a Christian perspective, particularly one of the most popular Western explanations to life on Earth. The Iroquois Creation Myth, on the other hand, takes a less traditional approach, while only mildly alluding to religion. The similarities between the two lie in the timeless battle of good versus evil.
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
Often a topic of debate, there are several different takes on the creation story existent in literature. Dependent on one’s religion, different beliefs about how the world we live in was created may arise. Looking deeper into the literature, one will realize there are also many similarities between creation stories. Based on the strong possibility that Genesis was influenced by the Enuma Elish, there are similarities that stem from the fact that they both describe the creation of a new world as well as differences in their interpretations and approaches to creationism.
Creation myths have varying optimistic views on the creation of man. However, most creation myths agree that a god or gods of sorts sculpted man from the Earth’s clay. The creation myths “The Golden Chain” and “The World on the Turtle’s Back” come from two different tribes, the Seneca and the Iroquois, and share an optimistic view of mankind as well as the idea that man is made from clay. Even though both the Seneca and Iroquois tribes both believe that man is made from clay, they believe that man is created using a different method than that of the other. The Seneca tribe believes that man is created by Obatala in a state of abnormality because Obatala is drunk, while the Iroquois believe that mankind was created in a normal state of mind
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
The first group of Native Americans, the Maidu origin story began with a turtle and the turtle was talking to Earth Initial. The turtle helps the Earth Initial by swimming to the bottom of the sea and the Earth Initial used the dirt under the turtle’s nails to create the earth. Additionally, Earth Initial invited his sister which is the sun and the moon his brother and that was the beginning of the earth. While in the Christian origin story the earth, heaven, sun, moon and stars were created by God.
In Genesis, the first book of The Bible the Christian and Jewish creation story is told. God spoke and his Word was done. He made the heavens and the earth. He made light and drove away the dark. On the earth he created the waters and lands and man and beast.
One reason that both Greek and Genesis creation stories are different is because the Gods in both stories create the universe in different ways. For example, “one half of the shell rose into the air and became the sky and the other became the earth.”(Greek) another example is, “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This shows that both stories are different because the earth was created in different way in both stories. Another difference that both creation stories have is that they both have different amounts of time in which they created the earth. For example, “with the wing she laid a golden egg and for ages she sat upon the egg.”(Greek) another example is “God saw all that he made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning – the sixth day.” This shows that both creation stories are different because it took ages to create the world in the Greek creation story, but in Genesis it only took 7 days to make the
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
There are three specific characteristics to look for when deciding if a story is a creation myth or not. To be considered a creation myth a story must describe how the universe, earth and life began. Explain the workings of the natural world and support and validate social customs as well as values. “How the World Was Made” is a creation myth because it describes how the world began, explains the workings of the natural world and supports social customs.
Many cultures have different interpretations of how the world first began. How civilization began has been the age old question since mankind started. In our text book there are many stories and examples of what people believed how man was created and many of the myths are very similar. The similarity I noticed the most was the fact the earth started out dark and being primarily covered in water. As the textbook also stated that science can even back up the theories of the earth starting covered in water which is very fascinating. It is interesting how many of the myths also include that creating the earth was a huge extensive process it did not just go “poof” and “ta-da” mankind is here. Evolution in our society can prove that mankind was very much a process and took over millions of years to create man. The two examples of creation myths I found the most similar were “The Song of Creation” and the “Popol Vuh,” the both started with complete darkness and water and evolution can also back up these
Just like Greek and Chinese creation stories there are many more of other cultures, but these two have a lot of similarities and differences of their creation of the being of earth, just like Greek have different gods then the Chinese and reasons why was earth created but similar on what existed before earth was created for living life.