The Christian Story of Creation - Assignment Example

Creation Myths It is of importance to that all cultures, people, places and religions have a beginning implying that someone or something had to create the land, animals, sea and people. Therefore, the stories of creation from vary across cultures and each culture is unique in the way it expresses or addresses the issue. However, though sometimes the ideologies vary, they do to some extent share similarities (Leeming 2010). On the other hand, these creation stories have been passed from generation to generation according the traditions of the various cultural groups across the world. It is therefore fundamental to note that the creation myths are building blocks upon which the future of the different cultures based on. Despite the differences between the different myths, the similarities are quite remarkable. The purpose of this study is to fully examine the Christian creation myth to that of the Apache people. Hence, the best approach is to study each myth separately so as to fully understand it in order to compare and contrast. The first myth will be the Christian creation story because it is widely known globally (Brown 2006). The Christian story of creation clearly states that in the beginning there was God who created the heavens and the earth. God existed as the trinity; God the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. The earth was engulfed by darkness and thus when God created light; he saw it was good whereby he separated the light from the darkness. The light he termed as day and the darkness as night. This happened on the first day of creation. On the second day, God separated heaven and earth and then evening and morning were created. The myth further continues until the sixth day when man was created. On the third day, the land and sea were separated. The water was gathered in one place. In addition, vegetations were created and were planted in the very same day. On the fourth day, the moon and the sun were created. Since the sun was the greater light, it was made to rule the day while the moon as the lesser light to rule the night (American Bible Society 2014). On the fifth day, God created the creatures of the sea, land and sky and commanded them to multiply. On the sixth day, man was created in the likeness of God. Thus, man was created in the image of God. God further saw that man was lonely and so he created a woman from the rib of a man. Woman was created to be man’s companion. Moreover, God blessed them and told them to fruitful and multiply to fill the earth (Bouteneff 2008). Man was given the authority to command all earth and to name all the creatures of the sea and sky together with the plants. Green plants were given to man for food. After the completion of creation, on the seventh day, God blessed it as a day of rest as He too rested on this day after his creation work. All Christians thus believe in this creation myth and it forms the backbone of the Christian religion by faith (John 2014). Before the Europeans discovered the Americas, there lived the Apache people in the United States. They were indigenous Native Americans before the European settlers. Their hearts and souls were one with the surrounding environment and the land. The Apache people had a very unique and developed society which included everything appertains to life (Casey 2006). Their creation myth was very interesting. In their story, nothing existed in the beginning. There was no earth but only darkness hovered everywhere. It was believed that from the darkness appeared a white and yellow disc that was suspended in midair. The disc housed a small but bearded man known as the Creator. Therefore, in the Apaches religion, there existed only one main Creator known as Ussen and then lesser gods. The Apache people were polytheistic implying worship of more than one God . (Friedman 2011). Ussen the creator further found a girl without parents asking about earth. There also existed black, blue, yellow and white as sacred colors which acted as guidance for the Apache people during prayers. The colors also signified the colors of the threads that Tarantula used to pull and stretch earth. During the creation, Ussen created gods, heaven, plants, earth and animals all from his sweat. Ussen sent a lesser god in the name of the Lightning maker to encircle the world whereby he returned with two girls and a boy . (Curtin 1969). The boy and girls were uncivilized with no eyes, mouth, ears or even the nose. They also had arms and legs without toes. They were placed in a sweathouse created by the girl without parents whereby they came out with all the missing body parts for instance toes and noses. The boy was named Sky-Boy to man the sky people. One girl was named Earth-Daughter to be in charge of earth and its crops while the other girl was named as Pollen-Girl and was given the mandate to provide health care for all earth’s people. Furthermore, Ussen thought it would be a funny idea to create animals ranging from sea creatures to the birds of the air which He did so. In addition, the Apache people’s creation included a flood and when it was over, the Lightning-Rumbler was put in charge of water and the clouds (Brown 2006). The Christians and Apache creation myths included a couple of characters, but they had one character in mind who was the God the creator. Thus, both stories have various similarities. The Apache people believed that the creator created beings such as the Earth –Daughter in charge of earth and its crops. It implies that these beings were given the mandate to rule over certain aspects. The same case is similar to Christians where man was created and given the entire authority to rule the earth. He was even the mandate to name all creatures and plants of the world. On the other hand, in the Christian myth of creation, the book of Genesis, after the people had sinned, God sent a flood to wipe out all those who sinned against Him (Casey 2006). The Apache people also believed that there was a flood and after it was over, the Lightning-Rumbler was put in charge of water and the clouds. In the two stories of creation, the Creator was the sole Supreme Being in charge of everything. Above all, the stories were similar because the involved the creation of people, land, animals and the heavens (Freund 1965). On the contrary, the two stories differ in many ways. Christians were monotheistic because they worshipped one God while the Apache were polytheistic because they believed in many gods. In the Christian myth, God created everything by himself while in the Apache’s myth, Ussen the creator had made many lesser gods to govern the world. God in the Christian story rested on the seventh day while in the Apache story nothing was mentioned about resting. Ussen the creator portrayed human like characters whereby we are told that he created substance out of sweat. the use of numbers in both the Christian and Apache people is very prominent. The number four in the Apache myth was sacred while in the Christian faith it was the seventh day which later was known as the sabbath day (Brown 2006). In conclusion, different cultures around the world have different myths about the origin of the universe. The Christian believed that God created the universe in six days and rested on the Sabbath day. He gave man the mandate and authority to rule over the earth. In the Apache story of creation, they believed in Ussen the creator who later made lesser gods to govern the universe. They were polytheistic while Christians were monotheists. The Apache consider four the sacred number and during dances and rituals they sang in fours. On the other hand, Christians consider seven the sacred number where they worship God and rest. It is therefore upon every individual to learn about the different creations myths and respect the cultural diversity in the world. Works Cited John van Wyhe. The Creation Stories of Genesis. Web. Mar. 30, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.victorianweb.org/science/science_texts/genesis.html American Bible Society. Genesis 1, 1995. Web. Mar. 30, 2014. Retrieved from: http//www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=CEV Friedman, Mark and Peter Benoit. The Apache. NY: CP, 2011. Print Leeming, David Adams and David Adams Leeming. Creation myths of the world. S.B, CA: 2010. Print. Brown, Clare. The creation myths. London: Bloomsbury, 2006. Print Casey, Carolyn. The Apache. New York: Marshall Benchmark, 2006. Print. Curtin, Jeremiah. Creation myths of primitive America. New York: B. Blom, 1969. Print Freund, Philip. Myths of creation. NY: Washington Press, 1965. Print. Bouteneff, Peter. Beginnings. Grand Rapids, Mich. BA, 2008. Print. Read More