Good Example Of Stories Of Creation Essay

We live in a beautiful world – the one that has vast fields of green and oceans of blue; skies that get filled up with birds and butterflies; the horizon that changes its hue at dawn and dusk. We live in a world that continues to provide us with bountiful food, protect us from natural disaster, and keep us culturally and spiritually sound. This world keeps growing and developing faster pace through the years. One question still remains: how did earth come to exist?
Science has provided us with logical, rational, and scientific explanations as to how the world came to exist. Along with many other theories, it gave us the Big Bang Theory. However, naturally, people tend to have bias in their perception depending on the society they live in and the culture and tradition they observe. Some had difficulties accepting scientific theories, and kept their beliefs in folk lore, myths, and legends.
Different creation stories exist from around the world. For the purpose of this paper, we look into the creation stories of the Japanese, Greek, and the Catholics.
The Japanese believe that deities, Izanagi and Izanami created Japan. Their names mean “The Man Who Invites” and “The Woman Who Invites” respectively. Izanagi and Izanami were the last of the deities who sprouted from reeds planted on the once young earth. Elder deities were The Spirit Master of the Center of Heaven, The August Wondrously Producing Spirit, and the Divine Wondrously Producing Ancestor. Izanagi and Izanami were given a spear by the elder deities which they used to stir the ocean. Upon stirring the ocean, they took out the spear and the water droplet that trickled down from the spear created an island. They married in and inhabited the island. Eventually, both inspected their bodies. Izanagi discovered that his body had an extra growth, while Izanami discovered that hers lacked a small part. They decided that Izanagi’s extra growth must complete Izanami’s lacking part. They procreated , made the islands of Japan, and gave birth to deities of the sea, sea-straits,wind, mountains, rain, and so on and so forth. The last deity was the deity of fire which burned Izanami’s reproductive organ, killing her in the process. Izanagi grieved the death of the love of his life. He beheaded the fire deity; from its carcass, more deities rose. Izanagi searched for Izanami in the underworld with the goal of begging her to come back with him to the living world. However, Izanami no longer looked the same, and she was ashamed of this fact. She drove away Izanagi and closed the entrance to the underworld. More deities rose from Izanagi’s grieving bathing body and more deities rose from Izanami’s rotting body; this lead to the creation of humans.
The Greeks believe in a myriad of gods and goddesses that make up Mount Olympus. Their stories are rich in drama, action, love, and all other genres.However, their creation story remains short as it is only a small fraction from their rich and vast lore. The universe started from Chaos which was an formless void surrounded by meandering waters ruled by Oceanus. The Goddess of All Things, Eurynome, wanted to bring order to Chaos. Essentially, Eurynome created earth. Promtheus, a Titan and man’s champion at the time, was the one who fashioned human beings from clay and provided The Common Man with the necessities such as fire. Zeus, God of the Sky, discriminated the humans but he was able to finish Eurynome’s efforts in making order over Chaos.
For the Catholics, they believe that God created the world. The book of Genesis chapter 1 of the Bible narrates how God created everything in chronological manner. First, he created heaven and earth. He decided that this earth was too dark, so he created light. He separated light and darkness which made day and night. This was earth’s first day. God created the oceans and lands on the second day. He created trees and plants with fruits and seeds. On the third day, he created the sun, moon and stars. On the fourth day, he created the creatures living waters and flying high up in the skies. God created the land creatures on the fifth day. He then created man, male at first and then female from the rib of the male, in His own image and likeness on the sixth day. On the seventh day, he completed his work on earth and he rested.
These stories may have originated from different parts of the world but they do have notable similarities. For one, they all involved higher, supreme beings that created the world from nothing. It is a fact that human beings live in such a way that a supreme being is necessary for them to go on with their lives. They believe that they are but tiny specks in the vastness of the world, which is the reason why it is highly impossible that no One created it. Next, creation stories tend to have a step-by-step chronological manner of story-telling. In the Catholic creationism story, God did not merely simply created the world. Day-by-day, he created something which accumulated and lead to the existence of earth. Izanagi and Izanami did not just decide to engage in coitus and give life to everything, islands, deities and humans had to be created over a time frame. There is always conflict in creation stories such that these conflicts would later on better the situation of earth much like mistakes that we learn from. These elements are very much reminiscent of human’s unified and similar yet still very different perception of the creation of the world.

Works Cited

Catholic Online. Genesis – Chapter 1. 2015. Web. 19 April 2015. <http://www.catholic.org/bible/book.php?id=1&bible_chapter=1>
Elliot, Daphne. Greek Creation Myths. Encyclopedia Mythica. 2015. Web. 19 April 2015. <http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/europe/greek/greek_creation_myths.html>
Philippi, Donald. :The Origin of Japan and her People”. Creation Stories from Around the World. 2000. Web. 19 April 2015. <http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/CS/CSIndex.html>