The Book Of Genesis: An Ex Nihilo Creation Myth

So the story goes— God says, “‘Let there be light.’ And there [is] light,” he says “‘let the dry land appear.’ And it [is] so.” The book of Genesis outlines an ex nihilo creation myth, the narrative of God bringing the world from nothing. This cosmogonic myth addresses a question crucial to human existence: Where did we come from? It also addresses another human universal: Why are we here? We came from God and we are here thanks to Him, alive to serve Him, to be the “good” that God so hoped humanity would be. As Robert Segal writes, “[t]here is no study of myth as myth”. In this paper I will examine myth according to two perspectives (one of myth as a prescientific science, the second as a psychological point of view) and through two religious lenses (the Christian creation myth of Genesis along with the Hindu Rig-Veda hymns “The ‘Golden Embryo’” and “‘In the Beginning…”) as I explore the religious functionality of myth, and what that functionality indicates on a greater human scale. A myth is, by broad definition, a story of significance. Whether that significance is spiritual, cultural, or individual, it is a

Was there an above?” the Rig-Veda asks, “Who knows truly? Who can here declare it?” In the scheme of human universals, the Rig-Veda asks the most abstract. What was there before there was humanity? From where did our existence come and why do we continue to exist? Myth answers some questions and asks other. Myth allows us to both question our beliefs and solidify them, build new ideologies and reinforce preconceived notions. God is great, God is good; when God says there is light, there is light— when he names the darkness night we ascribe a human construct to the divine. When we ask of the Gods, what came before? What will come after? They have no answer but the myths they’ve written through our hands and told through our tongues. Through myth we’ve codified a theological language and transcribed our beliefs to narrative