Christianity and the Navajo Creation Stories - Assignment Example

Comparison between Christianity and the Navajo Creation Stories. For many centuries, many religions around the globe have had different creation myths though some contain similar attributes. Clerics and scientists have tried to analyse different creation myths, but they all differ in so many ways. Religion is the backbone of each and every culture which shapes its future. Therefore, all cultures do have a sense of genesis. They all have a tale to tell about the origin of the heavens and the earth. It thus becomes very essential to study different cultural creation myths in order to learn and above all respect the variety of cultures globally. This paper will focus on two creation myths; the Navajo and Christians creation myths (Goodings 2008). The Navajo creation story is very complex. It starts in a world of darkness on a piece of land surrounded on four sides by water. Each side had a unique definition and it represented direction and colour. The East was represented by colour white, yellow for West, black for North while blue represented the South. On the piece of land were the insect people. No god was present as compared to the biblical account (Stan 1989). There was no creator but only the emergence of the insect people in a piece of land surrounded by water on all sides. It can be compared to a small island. After the insect people left the first world, they would go to the second world that was composed of the bird people. They would be asked to leave after arguments between them. Furthermore, when they emerged into the third world, they would meet the grasshopper people. They were travelling to different worlds to look for other people. On the other hand, the mountains that existed also faced specific people. However, when they travelled to the North, they came across a farming community known as the Pueblo people that taught them how to farm. They were also taught survival techniques (Santella 2002). At this point in the creation myth, the first god appeared to the insect people during the first autumn. The god was named as the talking god who appeared with other four gods. The four god were distinguished in terms of colour. There was Blue body, White body, Yellow body and Black body. The Black advised the insect people to portray and be human like and less insects. He also advised them to cleanse themselves so that they would be like gods and that the gods would appear to them after twelve days (Curtin 1969). After the end of the stated period, the gods returned with the Black and Blue body gods carrying buckskins while the White and Yellow body gods carried with them similar coloured ears that were in the form of corns. The buckskins were placed down and the corn-like ears were placed on top but enclosed by the buckskins. Afterwards, eagle feathers were placed on top and by the request of the gods, wind blow between them coming from the east heading to the west. When the buckskin was wide open, a man emerged from the white corn while a woman had been placed on the yellow corn. They were therefore known as the first male and female (Franz 1995). On the contrary, the men and women did not interact well. They occasionally argued and quarreled. The men believed that the sexual prowess of women made them hunt. However, it came a point where the women and men were at in loggerheads and their relationship broke up. The women went and resided on the other side of the river. During that period, women and men engaged in immoral sexual activities, though they never lived together for four good years. The women masturbated a lot while the men had sex with dead animal parts such as the liver of deers. As a result of immoral sexual acts, a beast full of monstrosity was created and later the people were punished by plagues and other diseases. They were also punished while the crossing the rivers when their daughters were taken by cayotes (Freud 1969). On the contrary, Christians believe differently as compared to the Navajo people. Christians myth of creation is based on the biblical account found in the book of Genesis chapter one. The world was full of darkness and God existed as the triune; God the Father, Son who was Jesus Christ and God the Holy Spirit. God had the abilities to create something from nothing (Dough 2014). The Christian myth stipulates that God created the world within six days and rested on the seventh day. He created light on the first day and he saw that it was good. He then created the heavens, land and plants, sun and moon followed by the creatures of the earth. On the sixth day, he decided to create man in his image and he gave him power to rule over the earth. The first man to be created was named Adam by God and Christians believe that he was the father of all mankind (Every 1970). God saw that Adam was lonely and needed a companion to unwind his boredom and also for the purposes of procreation. He created a woman named Eve from Adam’s left rib and together He placed them in the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden, they could eat whenever they wanted except the fruit that was in the middle of the garden which was forbidden. They were told that if they would eat it, they would end up dead. However, one day, the Satan appeared to Eve in form of a serpent. Satan convinced into eating and sharing the fruit with Adam. Satan was successful because Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and immediately they realized that they were naked. Later God found out and the serpent was cursed to eat soil and that man would kill it by hitting it hard on the head. Man too was cursed that he would eat from his labour and that the serpent would bite his ankle if he did not kill it first. The woman on the other hand was cursed by having pain during child birth (American Bible Society). The two myths have various similarities as well as differences. In the Navajo creation story, when men and women indulged in immorality, they were punished by the gods with a beast to destroy them. The gods also sent plagues to them. In the Christian account, Adam, Eve and Satan were punished through a curse while Satan disguised himself as a Godly creature and tricked Eve into luring Adam to eat from the forbidden fruit. On the contrary, differences are visible. The Navajo people believed in gods and thus they were polytheistic. The Christians believed in one God and were monotheistic (Stan 1989). Moreover, God was the sole creator in the biblical account while in the Navajo tradition it was several gods. In other occasions the universe was created in six days by God but the Navajo myth does not state how long it took to create the universe. In addition, there were sacred numbers such as four in the Navajo story of creation. The Christian’s sacred number was seven which was later named as the Sabbath day. It was a day of worship and rest according to the New Testament (Boutenef 2014). In conclusion, creation myths are different from one people to another. All cultures have a sense of identity and they account to the genesis of things differently. The Navajo people were unique as well as their creation myth. The Christians too are unique in the way their creation story is stipulated. Theirs is based on the biblical account of creation. Finally, it is wise to posses vast knowledge on creation stories so as to appreciate all the different peoples of the world. Works Cited Goodings. Creation story. Oxford: LC, 2008. Print. Santella, Andrew. The Navajo. NY: Childrens Press, 2002. Print. Stan, Susan and Luciano Lazzarino. The Navajo. VB, Fla.: Rourke Publications, 1989. Print. Franz. Creation myths. Boston: Shambhala, 1995. Print. Every, George. Christian mythology. Feltham: Hamlyn, 1970. 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. American Bible Society. Genesis 1, 1995. Web. Mar. 30, 2014. Retrieved from: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=CEV Doug, Linder. In the Beginning: Two Stories of Creation, 2004. Web. Mar. 30, 2014. Retrieved from: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/gen1st.htm Read More