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Differences Between Monotheistic And Polytheistic Creation Stories

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After reading the creation stories from the Abrahamic tradition (Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, and John) and Mediterranean/Near Eastern polytheistic traditions (Hesiod, Ovid, “Enuma Elish”), I learned that there are a lot of commonalities and differences between the monotheistic and polytheistic creation stories, basically explaining cultures and how they originated. For example, looking back at the Abrahamic tradition, the creation story shows God as a singular God with omnipotence and that he created the world from scratch in six days and rested on the seventh day. It is also said that God creates human beings in his own image and hands the world (Earth) to them to take control over. Growing up, I was told this in Sunday church school as well. …show more content…

Looking at the creation stories from various Mediterranean/Near Eastern polytheistic traditions, they talk about ‘multiple’ gods and goddesses who created the world through many different means, and these stories often show the gods and goddesses as very powerful but with character flaws like the huge possibility of war between them, which I personally feel is a human trait because, in modern-day conflict, power stems from within humans. One of the commonalities between these creation stories is the idea of chaos coming before creation because, for example, in the Abrahamic traditions, God created order and everything out of nothingness, which could be interpreted as chaos, and that connects with the polytheistic traditions because the gods also struggled against chaos to create order. One difference I learned while reading these is the relationship between the creator(s) and humans because, as I said earlier, in the Abrahamic tradition, humans are created in God’s image and God hands over the world to

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Specifically meaning, the nature of God is monotheistic. Genesis 1-3 consists of the creation of the world, the creation of man and woman, and the fall. The creation of the world explains how God made the world in seven days. Within the creation of the world, the narrative describes how God made everything. He made the night, day, sky, water, earth, animals, plants and stars.

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Between “The Babylonian Creation Epic” and “Theogony” there are many similarities and differences that can be found. One similarity between these two is the idea of two beings, Tiamat and Apsu (fresh and salt water) and Gaia and Ouranos (earth and sky) who couple together and give birth to the first gods. In Gaia and Ouranos’s case, these ‘gods’ are called Titans. In the Babylonian story Marduk, a son of the gods, kills Tiamat and creates humankind from the blood of one of the gods who stood on her side. Whereas in “Theogony” Ouranos is hated by all of his children and ends up castrated by his son Kronos.

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In the time period, the world was full of polytheistic religions, like the Ancient Egyptian religion, and therefore the transition from henotheism to monotheism was extremely significant in history. The start of this transition can be seen in the story of Noah’s ark, especially in comparison to the flood from the Epic of Gilgamesh. These two stories are undeniably linked and share many similarities. An important difference between the two is that the Mesopotamian story contains many gods and the Biblical story only contains one God. Creation myths are essential to a religion because they give an explanation for the origins of the world, and usually revolve around certain deities.

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Each culture establishes their own story of creation, as well as their own portrayal of who is “the supreme creator”.

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1. What phenomenon or practice does each story seek to explain? Pay close attention to the power relationships. Each study seeks to explain origin myth and creation myths. For instance, in the story titled, How the World was made discusses about how the world was constructed, how it began, and how people first came to inhabit it which is a origin myth..

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Hesiod’s account of creation, as outlined in the Theogony offers one of the most detailed and accepted theories of creation in the Greek culture. On the other hand, the Biblical account of creation, regarded as a Hebrew culture creation account, is to date one of the most widely acknowledged and accepted versions across various cultures seeking explanations for the origin of life and the earth. However, even though these creation accounts originate from two different cultures, they share some thought-provoking parallels in terms of their content and intentions, as well as some contrasts that make each of the creation accounts unique. Both Hesiod’s and the biblical creation accounts are similar in that they argue that prior to the beginning of creation events, the earth was merely a void that had no shape or form and this void was filled with darkness.

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The judeo-Christian story is very well known creation story. The Christian religion is very familiar to this story. The other story is called Iroquois creation this is a Native American story of how the Earth came to a beginning. There is many similarities and differences in this story. One of the differences is that in the Christian story the Earth was made by God.

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The Cherokee creation story and the biblical account in Genesis 1–3 present contrasting viewpoints on the origins of the universe, offering insights into the way different cultures perceive the beginning of the world. While both narratives incorporate elements of creation and a significant flood, they differ significantly in their cosmology, moral implications, and the nature of their deities. Firstly, the Cherokee creation story portrays a world initially characterized by peace and contentment, with no evil or sorrow. However, evil infiltrates this utopia, corrupting the minds of the people and leading to widespread wickedness (“Cherokee Creation Story,” 1996, para. 3).

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The Mayan creation where it takes Tepeu and Gucumats 3 attempts to make man, and even on the third attempt the human’s eyesight was as good as the Gods, so they removed some of it. IN the Inuit creation myth Raven didn’t mean to make man and doesn’t know how to take care of man at first. Then in the Egyptian creation Atum doesn’t even mean to make mankind, and in the Yoruban myth, it takes multiple attempts to make mankind

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Whereas, in Genesis God is referred to in third person and his actions, as commands. Stories and characters different, they might contain. The message did not change all that often throughout these texts. As Harrison in Creation of Universe notes, “we begin by turning to the creation myths that might offer insight into the views of earlier societies on the birth and death of the universe.” It is interesting to see scriptures written for different religions through different times contain such similarities in their theme.

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Every religion has its own way of describing how life and earth came to be. It is a very disputed topic. The stories Genesis and Popol Vuh are two religions way of explaining this controversial idea. They come from the religions Christianity and the Quiché Maya. There are many differences between the two tales; however, there are also quite a few similarities.

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There are hundreds of motifs scattered throughout the world about many vastly different creation myths. There are some myths linked with only a few motifs, and they originated from the same continent. Then there are also myths which originated from the other side of the world and share so many motifs one would think they were just a hundred miles away. With so many different motifs, it remains unclear and unproven as to how so many different cultures can share the same theory about how Earth and humans were created. Although there are so many fascinating motifs about the creation of the world and everything on it, I believe these three are the most common motifs shared by creation myths: nothingness (chaos) in the beginning of time, humans

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Many with a modern, Christian worldview believe there is only one God and He created the world. The Mesopotamians, according to the Enuma Elish, believed in multiple gods and they seemingly were constantly fighting amongst themselves. Tiamat was the name given to chaos and it was through her defeat that the world was created. Later in the story, Marduk creates humans to essentially be servants to the gods.

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The creation of the world is something that a lot of us don’t know about. In science tell us that the world born the Big Bang of dark energy. In the Bible and the Greek mythology tell us that the God is creator of it. The world’s creation of the Bible and the Greek mythology have a lot of things in similarities and a lot of things that are different.

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