Creation Myths

Cosmic Creations Paper

Katiuska Cabral

HUM/105

November 26, 2012

Professor Megge Fitz-Randolph

Introduction

Every culture has some version of a creation myth that is inherent to its beliefs. Even science has its own explanations for creation, and these are in many respects as uncertain as many of the mythological explanations for the origins of the Universe, the Earth, and all of the features and organisms that inhabit it. In fact, despite the vast differences that exist in varying versions of the creation myth, certain similarities exist between different mythologies—and can even be found in scientific explanations—that warrant at least a modicum of comment and comparison. Man’s place in the animal kingdom is one such similarity.

The Judeo-Christian Version

It is hard to imagine anyone growing up in Western civilization without having some knowledge of the story of Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden. It is probable that very few people, however, consciously think of this story as part of a creation myth. That is precisely what the first chapters of the book of Genesis in the bible are concerned with, however—an explanation of how the world came into being. In this version, the Old Testament God single handedly and unilaterally creates order out of chaos, separating day from night, land from sea, and woman from man. There is a highly apparent and even explicit hierarchy in the order and manner in which things are created, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Bible’s treatment of the creation of the animals.

On each day of the six days of creation, the Old Testament describes God creating specific features and creatures in a very specific order. Man is the last creature to be created (with a great deal of debate surrounding the creation of woman), and yet he is placed in charge of naming and organizing the other animals. In this sense, Adam (the first man) is made like a God, with the singular task of naming—and thus imparting...