The simplistic explanation is that everyone - apart from a relatively small number of South Americans and decadent western atheists - believes the world to have been created, and so needs a story to explain how. But the fact that large numbers of people, even the vast majority, believe something is not a good enough reason to suppose it is true.
How was the world created? There are a bunch of ways different beliefs on how the world was created and it mainly has to do with religion and the way people believe in something. The story “The World on Turtles Back” shows how the Iroquois believe the world was created. The story of Genesis is creation story on how the Christians believe the world was formed. “The World on the Turtles Back” and Genesis are two stories that can be so different
Those are a great example saying that even though the truth isn’t always what it seems to one person, it is the point of view of one specific person. This gives an enormous insight on how society works today. There are so many points of view and ways to view a story that no human being ever really knows the whole and real truth to any situation except Mother Earth. Every other side to a story is only a mere opinion for as far as anyone else may know. How are we to know anything that is entirely true?
The Drama of Scripture written by Bartholomew and Goheen takes the reader on a journey through the entire Bible in six short “acts.” The first Act discusses creation and the establishment of God’s Kingdom. In the beginning was complete darkness. Then, God created light and divided the heavens and the earth. He then split the waters and the seas, creating dry ground on which the rest of creation could walk. He proceeded to make plants and flowers and the sun, moon, and stars. He created days and seasons and animals of all shapes and sizes. And then, to add the finishing touch, God created men and women, male and female, He created them. The book states that “the Genesis story is given so that we might have a true understanding of the world in which we live, its divine author, and our own place in it” (Bartholomew, 29). Genesis 1-3, the story of Creation, is prevalent because it introduces the author of creation, humanity, and the creation upon which humanity’s drama unfolds.
Creation stories written great time periods away from one another are shown to be very different. Our earliest creation story, the Atra-hasis and a more recent one, the Yijing were written centuries away from one another, this can be proved by the beliefs of the people. The Atra-hasis told its people to worship the gods and complete their tasks whereas the Yijing only described how man could utilize the earth for further development. Similarly, the Atra-hasis and Rig Veda have the same differences. When written in different time periods, creation stories do vary.
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.
To many people stories are just a way to pass time, to escape from reality, that they do not serve any real purpose. However in Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie If there are no stories then many of the characters lives would be changed drastically
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.
Take the Salinan Indian Creation Story for instance. Most creation stories explain the world as being created by a male human-like figure. This is not the case, for the Salinan people. They believe that they were created by a bald eagle. This bald eagle with the help of a coyote gave man life (The American Yawp Reader). The Hebrew creation story that has formed the basis of
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.
The Christian world view tells us in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (ESV). This is the basis for our real story of how the world begun. The world on the other hand has many different stories, some believe we evolved from apes after a cosmic big bang created the universe, some believe in their own deity who created the world. As Bartholomew and Goheen point out, in today’s world there is a commitment to pluralism. They state that this world believes that we “should not even look for any such overarching story, one that could be true for all people, all communities, all nations – for to find such a thing would imply that not all stories are equally valid” (Bartholomew & Goheen, 2009, p. 12).
Ninian Smart covers the study of religious texts within his model, the seven dimensions of religion for the study of religion. The particular dimension that can be specially linked to the study of religious texts would be the narrative or mythic dimension, which Smart defines as the story side of religion. Smart also makes the point that the handing down of stories whether they are historical mysterious future telling or heroic is typical of all religions or faiths. “These stories often called myths. The term may be a bit misleading, for in the modern study of religion there is no implication that a myth is false.” (Smart, 1998) The stories that religious texts are based on are usually based on history or not as the case may be. The stories concerning creation are obviously before history and are usually concerning the subject of how death and suffering came into being.
But no one really knows where the world really came from exactly, why? Because nobody was really there to personally witness the formation of the world and/or the universe.
People from early civilizations created myths which they followed in their everyday lives. These myths carried three details to explain how the world was created. Those three details were
The human scribes who wrote down the events of Genesis were recording the events of the world as God created it. However, while they were inspired by divine events, these authors were humans influenced by the outside considerations that all human writers incorporate into their works, no matter how important or trivial the concepts. In this case, the writers would have been very much aware of the presence and content of other, parallel creation stories with similar historical and even religious tropes.
In the Western world, the most well-known creation story is in Genesis (Myth A), in the Old Testament of