Comparisons of Creation Myths Essay - 2092 Words

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†¦show more content†¦Professors correlate Buddhism and Christianity, Hinduism and Islam, Confucianism and Hinduism, and Greek and Roman myth, since all of those pairs seem to follow similar patterns or derive their ideals from one another, even down to the same gods but with different names. They compare the Abrahamic religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism; the Dharmic or Indian religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Jainism; and the Taoic religions, encompassing a large group of with Taoism, Confucianism, and Shinto. These comparisons give us a stronger understanding of previous civilizations and their beliefs, and shows the patterns people make as a culture as they develop over the centuries. It should be noted that all creation myths tend to possess similar themes, despite differing story lines. As noted before, there exists the basic ideas of chaos before creation, and gods to form life. But then various myths show that, once life has been created, the gods tend to retreat from the humanity they create, instead watching them from afar and using specifically chosen and often religious contacts to spread their words and commands. This deusShow MoreRelatedThe And Hopi And Zuni Tribes1741 Words   |  7 Pagesand Zuni tribes have creation stories that were passed from generation to generation. These stories claim that the world, despite being made before man, is meant to be ruled by and sustain mankind. Daniel Quinn’s novel, Ishmael, imagines its own creation myths to showcase how these stories work and the messages that they send. The Native American myths referenced in this paper and in Ishmael rank mankind as more important than the Earth through the timeframe of the creation stories, the way EarthRead MoreEssay on The Myth of Prometheus and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein1296 Words   |  6 PagesThe story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is similar to that of a Greek tragedy and namely the myth of the titan, Prometheus. The characters as well as the plot are all similar between the two stories. Many have argued that Frankenstein is based on the Prometheus myth. I will attempt to show that there are many different parts of Frankenstein that are remarkably similar to the myth and draw a comparison between the two stories. 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Another similarity is both Grecian and Native Americans had the same idea of how humankind may have been born to inhabit their creations. The connection is they were created by the Gods, or God in the Cherokee’s case. To continueRead MoreCosmic Paper978 Words   |  4 PagesCosmic Creation Myths Across Taliah Daniels Hum/105 December 19, 2012 GLORIA PUGLIESE Cosmic Creation Myths Across Regarding Creation Although there are a great number of creation myths that are propagated by people of Chinese descent, virtually all of them acknowledge Pan Gu. Those that due generally state that Pan Gu was the first being and that all existence in the universe—especially the earth and the heavens—is comprised of this being. The general story of Pan Gu begins with hisRead MoreIndian And African Culture : Indian Culture931 Words   |  4 PagesAfrican culture both possess creation myths in their cultural background. 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In that egg is the yin and the yang, the notion of duality which brings an eternal harmony andRead MoreBible vs. Mythology994 Words   |  4 Pages Bible vs. Myth There are many similarities and differences between Greek Mythology and The Bible. Whether it’s the creation of man and women, or the universe, stories have been told throughout time and some can be alike and others completely different. There are people that have gathered, translated and recorded all of these events for us now to learn about. Whether a person believes it is true or not is up to them but if a God is real how come the stories between these two different beliefsRead MoreSacred Destination Paper676 Words   |  3 PagesKnowledge of good and evil was the initial sin committed by Adam and Eve that became known later as the fall of man, Adam and Eve died spiritually immediately following eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge, their sin separated them from God. Similar Myths The city of Dilmun in the Sumerian mythological was described as a paradise garden where no one got sick or died; it was the garden of immortality. Boulay (1990) stated,â€Å"Dilmun was a land intimately associated with Sumer and Akkad, and just like MeluhhaRead MoreFrankensteins Origin: Assessing Thompsons Argument for the Creatures Literary Ancestors 1443 Words   |  6 PagesThe greatest modern stories often hail from ancient myths, and Mary Shelleys novel, Frankenstein, proves no exception to this claim. Replete with references to John Miltons Paradise Lost and the ancient Greek myth of Prometheus, the story of Frankenstein seems, in many ways, very much like the Creature himself—which is to say, cobbled together from various scraps of previously existing parts. Terry W. Thompson, however, argues convincingly that scholars continue to ignore one of Frankensteins