When homo rudis [early man] studies the world around him, he sees people being born and dying, he sees his race multiplying from generation to generation, and wonders where it all started. Must there not have been a first man and woman, and if so — where did they come from? Being the first people, their creation must have been the work of others. The same must be true for animals and plants.

(Stephan Stenudd, http://www.stenudd.com/myth/creationmyths.htm)

the sun, moon, earth humanity, life, and stuff. Creation is usually a deliberate act perpetrated by one or more primal deities. A myth that accounts for the creation of the universe is called a cosmogony. Every civilization, every culture (even ours) has one or more creation myths that account for the creation of the universe.

Many accounts of creation share broad themes. Some common themes include:

1. The subdivision of specific things living and non-living, that make up the world from the stuff of primordial chaos.
   

2. The emergence of the land from some pre-existing matter; or very, very rarely, the creation of the universe ex nihilo (Latin: out of nothing). Actually, virtually all creation myths posit some primary matter from which the universe is created. Often the creation of the world is the product of procreation between a primordial divine couple (ie. earth (female) and sky (male), or  sweet water (male) and  salt water (female)).
   

3. The emergence of the gods as part of the creation of the universe. This is the case in many creation myths. Some primordial deities (often associated with sea and sky) create the universe, and also offspring who become the gods and goddesses of the pantheon. A myth that recounts the promulgation and generations of the gods is called a theogony.
   

4. The creation of the first humans. Usually the creation story also contains some “take home message” that explains the role and lot (condition of life or destiny) of men and women, and the proper attitude of humans toward their society, their leaders and their god or gods.
   

The term creation myth is sometimes used in a derogatory way to describe stories that are still believed today, as the term myth may suggest something that is absurd or fictional. While these beliefs and stories need not be a literal account of actual events, they may yet express ideas that are perceived by some people and cultures to be truths at a deeper or more symbolic level. Author Daniel Quinn notes that in this sense creation myths need not be religious in nature, and they have secular analogues in modern cultures. Some scholars have even described scientific explanations for the origins of the universe (the Big Bang Theory) and and the evolutionary ideology that has grown out of the theories of Charles Darwin as “creation myths.” Indeed, they do share certain traits with other “religious” myths. For instance:

1. They are a posteriori explanations for the origins of the physical outcome that they claim to describe. That is, the story, or, if one prefers, the theory, arises not from what we know about the beginning of the process, because we cannot know anything empirically about those beginnings since no one was there to take notes. Instead the theories grow out of evidence gleaned from what exists now. In essence, they are symptomatic theories. We know a series of facts about the universe in the here and now, and from those facts, we build a theory about what might have taken place that would obtain the current state. Then we claim that the theory is a scientific truth. “Primitive” creation myths work in the same essential way, positing “supernatural” agents rather then scientific explanations for the same events.
   

2. Particular scientific theories have gained a sort of exclusive primacy within the academic community that tends to exclude the introduction of new theories that might offer a better explanation. The existing theories become canonical, and it becomes very difficult to offer counter theories that might smack of heresy within the academic community. The “Big Bang and expanding universe,” theory, for instance, has been accepted as scientific canon within the scientific community for years (since about 1930). Even in the face of some evidence that indicates that the theory is incomplete or flawed, the theory is still accepted as scientific truth and criticism is not encouraged. In much the same way, particular creation myths gain primacy in most cultures and, except among the Egyptians who never met a myth they could not accept, alternative mythical explanations are discouraged.

Be that as it may, we will be looking at several different creation stories over the next few weeks. We’ll take a look at a couple of stories from Mesopotamia during the Bronze Age (ca. 2500-2200 B.C.). Next we will look at the Hebrew cosmogony found in the first three chapters of the Book of Genesis (Robert Alter translation). Finally, we will read the early Greek account of the origins of the world and of the gods in the Theogony by Hesiod.

Creation myths are the result of attempts by humans to determine the beginnings of things, or really, the beginnings of everything. A creation myth is a “mytho-religious” story or explanation that describes the origins of the the universe and everything in it —