Comparing Creation Stories

Each creation story highlights the most important aspects of the cultures that wrote them. Not only do they show the values of the people, but they can give us an insight into how these cultures might have been. Comparing the Atra-hasis, Rig Veda, Genesis, Yijing, and Popol Vuh has uncovered many distinct themes when focusing on the time and place the creation story occurred. Patterns found in creation stories from different parts of the world show how similar human beings are.

Creation stories told in the same time period as each other expose many parallels. The Rig Veda and the Yijing, written within 400 years of one another, have many fascinating similarities. Firstly, both creation stories follow a cyclical creation process and it can be assumed that the people believed life followed the same or similar process. Second, humans appear to be simply an object of creation, though we can be powerful. In the Yijing humans have always existed or rather were not created by one entity and in the Rig Veda the excerpt does not even mention humans at all. Finally there is a somewhat unique idea found in both, the idea of oneness, the theory the existent comes from the non existent. Genesis and the Popol Vuh would have started to be told at approximately the same time. Though they are worlds away from one another, there are still similarities to be found. To start, both of these creation stories have a linear creation process which life does not appear to follow. Humans are also completely obedient to the god or gods. They were either made or promised to worship and follow the will of their creators. It should be noted that when one creation story arose, the older ones did not die out. Having said that, as time goes on the creation storie...

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... stories. It is apparent that many values are similar, such as the need for agriculture, how closely a culture is to nature, and the fact that each of these societies had a divine power. Despite what anyone may say about how unalike humans are, we all seem to share basic needs. How interesting it is that many patterns these creation stories share, not just those which occurred in the same area, but especially how the time frame reveals as many, if not more. Overall, what can be learned is that humans seem to need to have someone to worship or something to believe in. With these similarities we can find more about what “being human” really means.

Works Cited

Weisner, Merry E., William Bruce Wheeler, Franklin M. Doeringer, Kenneth R. Curtis. Discovering the Global Past: A Look at the Evidence. Vol.1: To 1600. Ed. 3. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007. 20-43.