Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Comparison of creation myths
Integration between science and religion
Comparison of creation myths
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Comparison of creation myths
Why do you think people develop creation stories? I believe that people develop creation stories because they wanted something to believe in. when the first humans were created they wanted to know how they got there so they made up stories to explain how the universe works and who is in charge of it. Why do people so strongly believe in creation stories? Do you think people today are more likely to believe a creation story than they were thousands of years ago? Why or why not? I think that people so believe in creation stories because they were never proven wrong. Science books have to be updated and revised. No I do not think that people today are more likely to believe a creation stories than they were thousands years ago because there are
a lot of other creation stories and there all also a lot of different religions and different kind of teaching about god and how the universe was created. Why do you think creation stories remain such an important part of a culture, even if some people doubt the events actually happened? I think that creation stories remain such an important part of a culture, even if some people doubt the events actually happened because the bible has never been proven wrong. The events that have happened in the bible are proven to be true by people who actually study the bible for a living.
Creation stories tell of how the world was created based on the Indians. In my home state of Washington State, Makah Indians told the story of the-Two-Men-Who-Changed-Things creation story. Chelan Indians told the story of a Great Chief above that created the Indians. Both have different cultural backgrounds and live in different places in Washington.
Many oral traditional stories have been told and passed down from person to person and family to family for thousands of years. Almost every story that has been told has either been altered or told in a different way so after 100 years of one story being told someone will decide to create their own version of it.
When I was a child I had been told a Christian creation story is different from the one that I had read in the book ? Iroquois. The differences between these two creation stories are: at the beginning of creation of the world, the type of people, and the meaning of the story.
Creation texts and most early pieces of literature all share many of the same themes, mythology, and to an extent, the same characters. In the days that early texts like The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Bible, and Popol Vuh, epistemology was of high interest to many philosophers and writers. To answer the questions of “How did we get here,” “Why are we here,” “What do we do here,” and other ontological ponderings, texts like these were written to give some reason. One consistent theme from early literature and creation texts is that early people had the tragic flaw of a thirst for knowledge and a lack of willpower, which is shown in The Epic of Gilgamesh, The Bible, and Popol Vuh.
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 phenomena 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 sprouting from a seed.
The Maori myth is a Polynesian story about the creation of the universe which according to Rosenberg was different from other creation myths because it begins with nothing and then progresses through a process of “nonbeing to thought to the creation of the universe and human beings” (351). Even though it may be different because it goes from “nonbeing to thought” instead of nothingness to a spoken word or action, it has many similarities to other creation myths in how it explains the origins of the Gods and how each one represents a natural event or aspect of nature and humanity. The myth begins with an “idea” that “was remembered” and then “became conscious” and then “a wish to create”, all of which created a “power to live and to grow, even in emptiness” (352). At this point there was still no being, only thought and desire which gives the idea that what is being addressed are the human attributes of feeling, sensing, desire and thought, this is where this story is different from other creation myths.
A common thread that connects most of these myths is the transformation of a seemingly perfect creation to imperfection. This devolution of life from a utopian existence to a dystopian existence varies from myth to myth, but each myth has it. I believe that creation myths contain these explanations because of a psychological desire all people possess. I believe that people desire to know why there is pain and suffering in the world just as much they desire to know the origin of life. Both of these things are essentially unexplainable.
The Navajo creation Myth story deals with the topics of story telling that are quite familiar to
The two creation myths chosen to compare and contrast focuses on the Norse culture of Iceland Vikings and the Genesis creation of the Hebrew origin of Christian culture. Both creation myths begin with an empty void where chaos or conflict develops. The Norse myth narrates a conflict between the fiery realm of Muspell and the dark, cold realm of Niflheim within the emptiness called ginnungagap and where nothing could grow. The Genesis conflict was between God and nothing, loneliness, and the need to create something beautiful.
Can religions and cultures be anything more than their history? Why do we have a concept of history in the first place? Obviously history exists, but like the human ability to conceive of the future, history seems to be a rare phenomenon tied with our ability for language and the telling of stories. What’s even more fascinating is the human ability to make up a history or to tell a story, such as a creation myth, that seeks to explain something that has not been witnessed by anyone and does not have any role in finding food or creating shelter. We do not have a physical need to know how the earth came to be or to know how it is that we came to be here. Still, creation stories exist in almost all human cultures and, amazingly, many share many of the same elements. The question is, why? Is it a coincidence that so many of them share the same elements? By looking at a comparison of two creation stories, we should be able to understand the meaning of these similarities better.
In 1859, Charles Darwin published his groundbreaking Origin of Species, which would introduce the seminal theory of evolution to the scientific community. Over 150 years later, the majority of scientists have come to a consensus in agreement with this theory, citing evidence in newer scientific research. In an average high school biology classroom, one may imagine an instructor that has devoted much of his life to science and a predominantly Christian class of about twenty-five students. On the topic of evolution, one of the students might ask, “Why would God have taken the long route by creating us through billion years of evolution?” while another student may claim “The Book of Genesis clearly says that the earth along with all living creatures was created in just six days, and Biblical dating has proven that the earth is only 6000 years old.” Finally a third student interjects with the remark “maybe the Bible really is just a book, and besides, science has basically already proven that evolution happened, and is continuing to happen as we speak.”
Chapters of Genesis have been interpreted in non-literal ways since around 1820; discoveries in geology before the arrival of Darwin’s theory have shown that the Earth is much older than Archbishop Ussher’s proposal that the world began in 4004 BCE (Ferguson 2012: 84). St Augustine himself suggested that the early books of the Bible were metaphorical and were written so the Bible would be accessible to those who were uneducated (Stewart-Williams 2010: 58). Many Christians today do not take the literal view of Genesis but still view God as the Creator despite Darwin’s theory surfacing over a century ago. Numerous believers maintain that discoveries in science that explain the process of creation just register the power of a Creator to ordain those laws (Ferguson 2012: 85). An explanation for this may be that many people who hold the belief that God is the Creator held this belief before encountering the theory of evolution (Stewart-Williams 2010: 51). They simply do not stop believing just because of this. A creator God may be an internalization that they have more than likely grown up with. Still, this could be a cultural factor as Christianity is embedded in so many societies
1b. Consider one particular religious or Indigenous worldview (indicate clearly which one you have chosen – if choosing an Indigenous worldview, choose a specific Indigenous culture). What are some of the key ecological insights or ideas found in this worldview? How do these ideas compare with insights from deep ecology, ecofeminism, social ecology, or an ecological justice perspective (choose one and indicate it clearly)? In what ways are they similar or different? Are there particular insights or ideas from this religious or Indigenous worldview that could be problematic from an ecological perspective? Are there other ideas or resources found within this religious or Indigenous tradition that could help to counter these or to shift it towards
Through the material taught in creation studies, I have expanded my biblical worldview and strengthened my trust in the redeeming power of God as the perfect creator. As I conducted my interviews, I realized many people are uninformed on the biblical creation accounts and there do not understand they are compromising with evolution. There were four main question that this course answered –How long were the days in Genesis 1? How old is the earth and life? Does man and apes share a common ancestor? Were Adam and Eve real people?
There are many similarities among most African creation stories. Likewise certain differences are also noticeable. For example, I chose four creation stories to make the comparisons between them. The first one is "An African Cosmogony." Here, Bumba is the creator. He created nine living creatures, after vomiting the sun and the moon, from which all other animals emerged. The second one, "An African story of the Creation of Man", is a story among the Shilluks of the White Nile which basically explains the different complexions among the various races on Earth. They believed Juok molded all men of earth while he wandered the earth creating the rest of the world. White men were created from white sand which Juok found in the land of the white. Red or brown men were created out of the mud of the Nile in Egypt. Black men were created from black earth found in the land of the Shilluck. According to this creation story, man was given all necessary parts to function. Each part had a reason for being. For example, Juok gave man arms in order for man to work. The third one, "God and the Five women" states the myth of the origin of earth, fire, water and woman, from the Thompson Indians of North Pacific Coast. This creation story states that Earth was created by Old One or Chief. He came down from the upper world in a cloud and created five Perfectly formed young women. To each of them he asked what they wished to be. The first one wished to be "bad". The second one wanted to be "good". The third one wanted to become Earth. The fourth one wanted to become Fire. And the fifth one became water. Finally, the fourth story, "Creation by Thought" states that man was created out of a thinking process by which he first created the Earth and then created man in resemblance of himself. The Earthcreator designed man out of clay. He gave man mind and thought, tongue, soul, and the ability to talk. All of these features came about out of a thought process.