At the infrastructure of nearly every culture is a creation myth that explains how Earth in its entity came to be. Cosmology is defined as being all of the assumptions we make about how the universe is arranged. Modern society has developed possible assumptions in regards as to how the universe came to be and in similar so did ancient cultures. These myths have an immense influence on people’s framework of reference. They all come from one early source and are divergent only because time and local cultural circumstances have exaggerated or modified them. Despite being separated by numerous geographical barriers, many cultures before and after Genesis have developed creation myths that share common aspects that are fundamentally derived from variations of the core theme of a God-given creation along with references to natural elements.
The Bible begins with two separate creation stories, differing significantly from one another, Genesis One and Genesis Two in which God creates man and women at different times. The first story runs from Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 2:3 and initiates with the fact that “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters…” (New International Version, Gen. 1.1). In the first story, creation takes six days and man and woman are created last after all the plants and animals are created. The second story begins at Genesis 2:4 and runs to the end of the chapter of Genesis 2:25 and initiates differently than the first in the context that the “heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made…” (Gen. 2.4). In the second story, creation takes one day, man is created first, then proceeds the creation of all the plants and animals, and in the end woman is created. To further reiterate what some people believe Genesis One and Two are no doubt contradictions based on the descriptions others have the intuition that Genesis One is the account of the creation of the universe and life on planet Earth as it happened in chronological order. Genesis Two is simply an expanded explanation of the events that occurred at the end of the sixth and creation day-when God created human beings.
Indian myth is confronted by imaginative riot of Vedic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainic deities that gives rise to the God-given creation as seen in Genesis. In the early myths of the Rig Veda it was said: “who verily knows and can declare whence came this creation? He, the first origin of this creation, whose eye in the highest heaven controls this world, whether he did or did not form it all, he verily knows it, or perhaps he knows it not” (Harrison 516). Edward Harrison articulates in his article “Creation of the Universe” that according to the Hindu law of Manu: “All was darkness, without form, beyond reason and perception, as if wholly asleep. Then the self-existent Lord became manifest making all discernible with his power, unfolding the universe in the form of its elements, and scattering the shades of darkness” (Harrison 516). Indian myth in terms of the aspect of darkness nearly resembles that of Genesis. In the first chapter of Genesis it is stated that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness” (Gen. 1.1-4). The similarities between the two is evident and coherent in both text content and in regards to a God-given creation.
In terms of practicality, the Chinese creation myths were finely structured in a way that described heaven was conceived as a well-organized bureaucracy in which the gods and goddesses devoted their time to compiling registers, making reports to one another, and issuing directives. As noted, Chinese creation myths follow the reoccurring core theme of a God-given creation, however, in this occasion there is more than one God. Later in the Confucian scriptures, the elements of ether, fire, air, water, and earth, each possessing its own degree of subtlety and each having correspondence with one of the five notes of harmony, the five flavors, and the five colors. In the chapter five of Genesis, the story of Noah’s Ark is presented and the element of water is the premises of the storyline. In God’s sight, Earth was corrupt and measures needed to be taken and therefore an end to all people was in play. God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out… I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish” (Gen. 5.13-17). The Chinses creation myths encompass both the core theme of a God-given creation along with references to natural elements. The natural element water in Chinese creation myths served the same purpose as God flooding Earth. God flooded Earth to get rid of wickedness and in Chinese creation myths replicate the same approach.
The essential categories of all creation myths are directly taught or at least reflected in Genesis. In the Biblical perspective, these concepts had their origin in a set of events which actually occurred and which were transmitted to later generations by the first humans. The first humans, Adam and Eve, gave their immediate descendants information which became part of later historical records, parts of which are found today in Genesis. As the descendants of Adam scattered, they carried what they remembered of the history found in Genesis. In time this history was modified, exaggerated, and changed as the various cultures developed. Nevertheless, in most cases the essential story remained the same. All of the creation myths appear to be basically derived from the factual events that Genesis is based upon, however, only small fragments of the original story are left.
The vast majority of these creation myths in which the goal is explaining the different phenomena of their world appear far too intricate to comprehend and questioning if they are credible or not is far-stretched even with the knowledge and discoveries that have been accumulating overtime, “so in this sense the universe is intractable, astonishingly immune to any human attempt at full knowledge” and as wisely articulated by Carl Sagan in the understanding of how much can the brain know with respect to a speck of salt, “we cannot on this level understand a grain of salt, much less the universe” (Sagan 2) Creation myths are not quaint relics of pre-scientific past. They help give meaning, purpose, and direction for people.