Creation Myths from Different World Religions

Creation Myths from Different World Religions.
For a long time, human beings have asked fundamental questions concerning the creation myths. To date, philosophers, theologians, and scientific researchers have attempted to unravel several theories regarding the origin of mankind (Freund, 2014). Since religion forms the base of human behavior and beliefs, the most accepted creation stories tend to come from religious affiliations. Interestingly, every religion has their unique creation myth. Some are somehow the same, while others are completely different. These beliefs are often passed from one generation to another in a continuous process. Every member of religion believes and trust their own creation myths. The essay describes creation myths from different world religions.
The Buddhist religion teaches more about the world creation. According to the religion, creation takes place repeatedly throughout time (Sproul, 2013). Unlike the Christians and the Muslims, the Buddhists do believe that a superior being is responsible for the creation of the world and the living things in it. They believe that the cosmos and the whole universe have always been existing. However, they believe that the existence of the universe is not static as it has been recreating itself over time. Moreover, evolution only gives a kind of history of how the given history unfolds. Their interpretation of Samsara means that the world is in a continuous state of constant recreation, leading to repetitions of births and deaths of the living organisms.

Therefore, they believe that the earth systems with the living things inside it have are infinite as they are capable of appearing and reappearing on a continuous basis.
In the Hindu religion, there are a variety of creation stories (Richardson & Leah, 2015). The Hindu creation story almost resembles the Tao creation story as both believed that the creation was done by one original being that resulted from nowhere. However, it differs with the Buddhist creation story. The Hindus believe that earth resulted from the disintegration of the body of Purusa. The Hindu creation story departs from the Taos when they argue that the body parts of Perusa formed both the earth and the heavens. There were the ancient Purunas Vedic books that evidenced that the universe formed from the breath of their God named as Vishnu.
Consequently, the Hindu creation theory has it that creation began in a void and hollow. This was coupled with an endless dark ocean that covered all the places of the earth (Richardson & Leah, 2015). There was giant cobra that floated on the waters as controlled by Lord Vishnu. It was then Vishnu commanded that it is the time to create the world that his Servant Braham vowed. A strong wind blew and swept the waters, making both Vishnu and his servant Braham to vanish. Moreover, Braham remained in the Lotus flower, floating and tossing of the sea. He was so powerful that he lifted his hands to calm both the seal and the ocean.
The Christianity creation theory can be found in the Bible, particularly the book of Genesis (Richardson & Leah, 2015). Here, God is believed to be the controller of all the creation and all the happenings of the world. The story of Christian creation describes the creation of light, darkness, and the living things. The creation of all these things took place in six days, according to the Christian creation theory and on the seventh day, God rested. By counting all the Kings of the generations of ancestors in the Bible, one would approximately calculate that creation took place like 4000 years ago. Moreover, in the current world, it is accepted that the creation story is more mythic and should be taken simply that a story that is used describe that God is all powerful. It is true that some Christians try their best to explain that the creation story was written by some human beings and not dictated by God Himself. However, many fundamentalists Christians argue that the universe really was created as described in Genesis and God was the main dictator of the whole process that took place.
The Taos also offer an interesting account of creation that tends to differ with all religions. According to Taos, the creation of the universe can be traced to empty elements of gases and chaos. Initially, these elements intermingled freely in the cosmos due to lack of an organizing principle. Eventually these elements transformed themselves into an egg shaped structure that also remained in the same state for several years. Eventually, the incubation period was over and the egg shaped structure disintegrated into two groups: the lighter and pure elements and the heavier and impure elements. The Taos believes that the heavier elements formed the earth, while the pure and lighter elements formed the heavens (Sproul, 2013). The disintegration forced that resulted from incubation of the egg shaped structure also led to the formation of a giant being. The giant being grew larger and molded the heavens and the earth with the assistance of the dragon and tortoise. Eventually, he died and parts of his body formed the sun and the moon. His blood formed the water bodies seen on earth while his flesh became the soils of the earth. His other parts of the body also formed other components of the earth like the wind, rain, thunderstorms among others.
Consequently, the difficulties linked to the Christians creation theory are more insurmountable. The evidence sought from fossil records, evolutionary biology, archeology, geology, paleontology, Physics and Human history are clear evidence that the earth was formed some years back (Richardson & Leah, 2015). There are two Genesis creation stories that are namely the first creation and the second creation story. The first Genesis creation story is found in Genesis 1: 1, 2:3 and the second creation story is found in Genesis 2:4-25. The two creation stories in Genesis were written by different people each retelling the Mesopotamian myth from a slight different point of view referred to as God. Again, each feature used in the story showed different elements, different symbolisms and the use of different writing styles. In the first creation story God is seen to be much more responsible, thus the phrase Elohim is used 34 times. In the second account of creation, God is said to be specific, thus the phrase YHVH is used 20 times.
According to Freund (2014), Judaism also shares a lot on creation myths with the Christians. Just like Christians, Judaism believes that God created the man and the whole universe and the concept of human evolution is a heathen concept. The Judaism share with Christians and Muslims that God created the earth in about 6days before creating the man and putting him in charge of all that lives on earth.
Just like the Christians, the Sikhs believe that humans and the universe were the creation of God. Unlike the Christians who believe the creation took seven days, the Sikhs does not care of the number of days of creation. All they believe is that the humans together with all the living things on earth were the creation of God. The Sikhs also believe that the evolution on the earth is all part of God’s plan. The Sikhs also believe that the scientific developments explain the evolution as planned by God. Therefore, none of the information written in Sikh scripture concerning creation contradicts scientific explanations.
The Islamic story of creation also tends to share with the Christianity and the Judaism. Just like Christianity, Islam is the view that the man and woman to be created were Adam and Eve. The Christians and Muslims believe that humans being faced the wrath of God due to the sins committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (El-Sabaawi, 2005). The only difference between the Bible and the Quran is that the former provides a more pronounced and detailed account of creation. The Christian and the Muslims believe that God created the humans, the earth, and the whole cosmos. The Muslims agree with the Christians that God is fully in charge of all forms of life in the universe. Therefore, the Muslim myth of creation is very close to the Christian myth of creation.
Jainism tends to hold a very divergent view concerning creation. Unlike other religions, the Jains does not believe that some superior being is responsible for the human creation nor the universe. The Jains believe that the humans and all the things that exist on the earth and the whole universe are a result of universal natural laws (Richardson & Leah, 2015). The Jains myth of creation is more scientific as they believe that it is not possible to create something out of nothing. Therefore, they believe that the souls of all the living things have always existed at all times. The Jains differ with the Christians, the Muslims, and the Sikhs who believe that God created the humans and the universe. The Jains argues that it is not logical for immaterial god to make any material in the universe.
In conclusion, religious background provides the strongest creation myths due to the strong belief in religion. However, these religious myths tend to vary from one religion to another. Hinduism and Buddhism tend to have a complex account of creation that does not resemble other religious creation myths. Despite the differences, the Christian creation myths tend to be very close with the Islamic creation myth. The Tao also have their unique account of creation as they do not believe in the hand of a superior human being for the creation of the universe. However, the Jainism creation myth tends to be the most extreme creation myth as it differs with most religions. Unlike other religions, the Jains does not believe that neither the earth nor the human beings were created by a superior being called god. Therefore, the fundamental questions concerning the creation myths will still exists due to the divergent nature of the creation myths from different world religions.
References
El-Sabaawi, L. (2005). “No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam.” The Middle East Journal 59.2 (5): 339.
Freund, P. (2014). Myths of Creation. Peter Owen Publishers
Richardson, E & Leah, M. (2015). Islam for Beginners: Basics of Islam and Muslim Customs, Amazon Digital Services
Sproul, B.C. (2013). Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World. HarperOne Publishers