Comparing Creation Stories
Comparing Creations
World Views
The world and how it came to existence is an interesting concept that the human race feels a great need to try and explain. For centuries many religious leaders, philosophers and basically every day human beings have felt a need for an explanation; why are we here? How did we come into being? What caused the universe? These are the question that we’ve been asking since as long as we’ve lived. Today, we have so many explanations to these questions, however, which ones are valid? How can we even verify if they are legitimate? Many people find the answers to these questions in creation stories. A creation story is defining how our world came into being “and how people first came to inhabit it” (Wikipedia contributors. "Creation myth." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Nov. 2012. Tues. 13 Nov. 2012.) Through comparing, analyzing and interpreting two creation stories (the Christian Genesis and the Enuma Elish), I will determine which world views each story expresses to humanity.
Genesis is the Christian’s creation story that is the first book of the Old Testament. Genesis tells the story of how a higher being known as God creates the earth and the heavens. In six days, he creates all living creatures. He creates male and female giving them full domination over God’s other creatures. God creates man from dust and names him “Adam”. He mentions to Adam that he is free to eat from any tree except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God then creates women from the man’s rib and names her “Eve”. She is convinced by a serpent that it is okay to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve eats from this tree and convinces Adam to do so as well. This resulted in God punishing them for disobeying his wishes. God states that the serpent will now have to crawl on its belly, that childbirth for women will be a painful experience and that men will rule over women. God then forces Adam
World Views
The world and how it came to existence is an interesting concept that the human race feels a great need to try and explain. For centuries many religious leaders, philosophers and basically every day human beings have felt a need for an explanation; why are we here? How did we come into being? What caused the universe? These are the question that we’ve been asking since as long as we’ve lived. Today, we have so many explanations to these questions, however, which ones are valid? How can we even verify if they are legitimate? Many people find the answers to these questions in creation stories. A creation story is defining how our world came into being “and how people first came to inhabit it” (Wikipedia contributors. "Creation myth." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Nov. 2012. Tues. 13 Nov. 2012.) Through comparing, analyzing and interpreting two creation stories (the Christian Genesis and the Enuma Elish), I will determine which world views each story expresses to humanity.
Genesis is the Christian’s creation story that is the first book of the Old Testament. Genesis tells the story of how a higher being known as God creates the earth and the heavens. In six days, he creates all living creatures. He creates male and female giving them full domination over God’s other creatures. God creates man from dust and names him “Adam”. He mentions to Adam that he is free to eat from any tree except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God then creates women from the man’s rib and names her “Eve”. She is convinced by a serpent that it is okay to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eve eats from this tree and convinces Adam to do so as well. This resulted in God punishing them for disobeying his wishes. God states that the serpent will now have to crawl on its belly, that childbirth for women will be a painful experience and that men will rule over women. God then forces Adam
Cited: Wikipedia contributors. "Creation myth." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 11 Nov. 2012. Tues. 13 Nov. 2012. Bruce Metzger and Roland Murphy (EOS.), The New Oxford Annotated Bible (Oxford, 1991) Stephan A. Hoeller. “A Brief Summary of Gnosticism.” The Gnostic World View. Tau Stephanus, Gnostic Bishop. N.D. Web. Tues. 13 Nov. 2012 “Theological Theme and Message.” Biblica. The Zondervan NIV Study Bible. N.D. Web. Tues. 13 Nov. 2012