Creation story

For more information, see the Wikipedia article:

Creation story

A creation story is a traditional account of how the world and/or humans came into existence. Such stories vary greatly across different cultures. They serve the purpose of explaining the origins of life, the earth, or the universe.

Forms

The most common forms of creation myths are creation from chaos, earth diver, emergence, ex nihilo (out of nothing) and world parent.

Native American

Native American creation stories typically focus on the creation of the Earth as opposed to the creation of existence itself. Also common is the theme of the Earth as the back of a turtle.

• In the Iroquois creation story, the Sky People lived in the sky as there was no Earth below. In response to the chief's daughter's illness, a hole for a tree was dug, but the tree fell down to the ocean below taking the daughter with it. After landing on the back of a turtle, a toad went after the tree, brought back magic dirt that brought forth the growth of the land. All the animals pitched in to make a magic ball of light to be the sun.[1]

• In the Navajo Creation story, the Insect People traveled through four separate world before creating the first man and women in the Fifth World, bounded by four sacred mountains fastened to the Earth by a lightning bolt, a stone knife, a sunbeam, or a rainbow.

• In the Apache creation story, there was nothing, then suddenly a disk appeared and the creator woke up as if from a nap. The creator promptly looked around creating the dawn. The creator rubbed his face with his hands, then rubbed his hands together to create Girl-Without-Parents, Sun-God, and Small-Boy. The four rubbed their hand together to create a ball of dirt, and took turns kicking it to make it bigger to become the Earth.

See also: Native American Religion

Judeo-Christian

The Christian creation myth is found in the very first chapter of the bible, genesis. Genesis 1 describes a different order and concept than Genesis 2, though many believe genesis 2 happened during genesis 1.

• In the Jewish/Christian creation story of Genesis 2 , God creates the first man Adam out of clay, then creates all the animals to be named by Adam. Then God creates the first women Eve out of Adam's rib. The two are given free reign over the magical garden they live in with the exception of a magical tree. However, a talking snake convinces Eve to eat of the magical tree, and Eve convinces Adam to eat from it too. This provides the two with knowledge of right and wrong. In order to protect God's other magical tree, Adam and Eve are cast out of the garden.

• In the Jewish/Christian creation story of Genesis 1 , he creates the earth in 6 literal days, then he rests on the seventh as an example to man to show them how to live. On the first day light was created. On the second day, the sky was created, and on the third day land was created out of the waters along with all the flora. On the fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars were created. On the fifth and sixth day, non land and land animals were created, respectively.

Islamic

The Islamic creation myth almost parallels with the Judeo-Christian one.[2]

Hindu

[3]

Chinese

[4]

Other Stories

• In the Norse creation story, the Earth was created out of the body of Ymir killed by Odin, Vili, and Vé, when the sons of Bor carried his body to the middle of Ginnungagap and made the seas and lakes out of his blood, the earth from his flesh, trees from his hair and mountains from his bones, rocks and pebbles from his teeth and broken bones. Midgard (Earth) was created as an inner stronghold (for the sons of Bor) out of Ymir's eyebrows. The first man (Ask) and women (Embla) were created out of trees found walking on the beach by Odin. Vili gave them understanding and movement, Vé gave them clothing and names.

• In the Australian Aborigine story the world was lifeless but all the prerequisites of life were there, then time split apart, and life burst forth. The watering holes which were previously only holes in the surface of the planet, became watering holes. The Ancestors emerged from the watering holes covered in mud. They opened their eyes and sang themselves into different animals.

• The ancient Egyptians believed three separate creation stories. There are some similarities. [5]
  • Atum arose out of the primeval waters. He masturbated. Moisture arose from his semen and dryness from his breath. Note: There is no explanation how a complex reproductive system capable of producing semen arose out of (what?). Moisture and dryness copulated. This and further copulations led to everything that exists.
  • Ra arose in an egg or a blue lotus due to some interaction between air and water. Ra created other gods and goddesses.
  • Ptah is eternal like the Judeo-Christian god concept. The world and the rest of the pantheon exist because he spoke the word.

• The ancient Greek creation myth states that in the beginning, there was nothing but chaos (personified by the deity Chaon). From Chaon emerged Nyx, primordial Goddess of Night and together they created the cosmos. Wishing to survey their work, the Earth was created and from it, Gaia (Mother Earth) was born. Wishing to end her loneliness, Gaia created Uranus, the starry sky, to take to husband and to cover her, the hills, and the fruitless deep of the sea, Pontus. Together they created the the elemental Titans, amongst others the world ocean Oceanus, the pre-Olympic sun Hyperion ("The High-One"), Iapetus (father of Prometheus), Rhea, Mnemosyne ("Memory"), Phoebe ("Light") and Tethys (wife and sister of Oceanus, mother of the world rivers). After them was born Cronos, the Titan God of Time and the Harvest. The Titans preceded the Olympians, who, led by Zeus, eventually overthrew them in the Titanomachy. The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus, the deepest and darkest pit of the Underworld. Only a few Titans were spared any sort of fate, mostly for not fighting against Zeus during the war.

• The Babylonian creation story was recorded in the Enuma Elish, which dates back earlier than the Bible. In this story, Marduk battles Tiamat, who is the goddess of salt water. He splits her in half, and in the process he splits the sky and the sea.

Modern cosmology

The modern, scientific understanding of how the universe began (and how the Earth was formed, and how life arose, and how humans evolved) can be seen as the latest in a long line of creation stories. In fact, Creationists (and postmodernist philosophers) sometimes try to represent these scientific theories as merely stories, on par with any of the others humans have invented through history. The modern explanations, however, are the only ones that have been based on careful analysis of scientific data. As such, they are the only "stories" that can be — and have been — successfully tested against observations of how the world actually works today.

See also

• Adam and Eve
• Creationism
• Origin of the universe
• http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/cordelia.htm - Mayan, Micmac, and Scandanavian myths