likeness of creation myths?

Question

comparing creation myths from early civilizations. how are they a like

Answer 1

Many of the creation stories say mankind was made from mud, soil, clay etc.

Answer 2

There are many creation myths, some quite similar, some quite different. Ancient pre-christian traditions held that the world sat on a huge turtle's back (I think we can check that one off the list), or that the earth was made from the body of a fallen God (interesting from an astronomical perspective, since all the planets correspond to God's in Greek mythology, and the Earth may have in fact been made from a chunk broken off of one of them).
The Bible says the earth and the world were formed by God, but doesn't really specify how, except that Man was formed from the dust (which is scientifically also basically true since we are all made originally from naturally occuring compounds and minerals in the sea - which has a lot of dust at the bottom).
Then there is the Garden of Eden, which they believe lies in a formerly lush area of the Middle East - but then there is immediate mention of other people in the area and Cain going to live with them, so it doesn't really seem Adam and Eve were the only people, but the first really blessed by God with true "souls" (maybe an evolutionary step, I believe).
I love to look at the possible similarities between scientific fact and religious belief - otherwise they're both just dogma.

Answer 3

Well, most early civilizations agreed that creation was brought about be deities.
The Egyptians, for instance, believed that the creator, Amon, was born from a lotus flower. He then created the world and all life.
Most other ancient civilizations of that time (Mesopotamia, Assyria) believed the same basic thing, though their creator was not necessarily born from a lotus flower.
Greece believed that there was no creation, but that there only WAS. The Earth was th Goddess Gaia, and the Sky was the God Uranus.
Then came Christianity, one of the first forms of monotheism. They believed that God created the earth and all life in 7 days, and created only one man and woman. Obviously, this belief's stuck with us throughout the ages.

Answer 4

I am going to segue a bit: The middle east was not the center of the religious world or even the civilized world. More human beings thrived, had
Gods and civilizations outside the middle
east and the Mediterranean bowl than within it.

I guess you could say about the situation is that those most warlike and armed in the past and present will dictate Religious belief and histories. . . and answers on M&F.

Lieh Tzuy' (B.C.E. 500) wrote Chaos slowly evolves into everything including humankind and Gods.

Answer 5

What also would be interesting is an interpretive comparison between so-called "myths" and scientific theories. I suspect there are colorful similarities.

Answer 6

I just gonna say the creation of myths
they needed SOMETHING to do for the children, didn't they?

Answer 7

--THERE ARE INDEED several similarities with Bible accounts and mythology:

--CREATION account of Genesis can be compared:
*** ce chap. 17 pp. 199-200 Can You Trust the Bible? ***
**The Bible and Science
3 When the Bible was being written, there was speculation regarding how the earth was held in space. Some, for example, believed that the earth was supported by four elephants standing on a big sea turtle. Yet rather than reflect the fanciful, unscientific views existing at its time of writing, the Bible simply stated:
***“[God] is stretching out the north over the empty place, hanging the earth upon nothing.” (Job 26:7)
--Yes, over 3,000 years ago the Bible correctly noted that the earth has no visible support, a fact that is in harmony with the more recently understood laws of gravity and motion.
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***UPDATE 1***
*** it-1 p. 922 Genesis, Book of ***
--A comparison of the book of Genesis with the pagan creation accounts clearly demonstrates the superiority of the Bible account.....
....Thus, the principal Babylonian myth says that the god Marduk, the chief god of Babylon, killed the goddess Tiamat, then took her corpse and “split her like a shellfish into two parts: Half of her he set up and ceiled it as sky.” So the earth and its sky came into existence. As to the creation of human life, this myth states that the gods caught the god Kingu and they “imposed on him his guilt and severed his blood (vessels). Out of his blood they fashioned mankind.” (Ancient Near Eastern Texts, edited by James Pritchard, 1974, pp. 67, 68) Egyptian creation myths likewise involve the activities of several gods, but they disagree as to which city’s god (that of Memphis or that of Thebes) was the one who conceived the creation. One Egyptian myth relates that the sun-god Ra created mankind from his tears. Greek myths parallel those of the Babylonians.......Not one of such ancient sources furnishes us with the history, genealogy, and chronology that the book of Genesis provides. The writings of the ancient nations in general show uncertainty and confusion as to who their national founders were. The definiteness and detail with which Israel’s early history is presented is strikingly different..........In answering those who would reject many portions of Genesis as fables or folklore, Wilhelm Möller says: “I do not think that it can be made plausible, that in any race fables and myths came in the course of time more and more to be accepted as actual facts, so that perchance we should now be willing to accept as historical truths the stories of the Nibelungenlied or Red Riding Hood. But this, according to the critics, must have been the case in Israel.” (The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, edited by J. Orr, 1960, Vol. II, p. 1209)
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--CONCERNING THE demigods of mythology in comparison to the Bible please note:
(Genesis 6:1-2) “6 Now it came about that when men started to grow in numbers on the surface of the ground and daughters were born to them, 2 then the sons of the [true] God began to notice the daughters of men, that they were good-looking; and they went taking wives for themselves, namely, all whom they chose.”...4 The Neph′i·lim proved to be in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of the [true] God continued to have relations with the daughters of men and they bore sons to them, they were the mighty ones who were of old, the men of fame."

*** w01 11/15 p. 30 Noah’s Faith Condemns the World ***
***The Nephilim in Mythology?
-- Tales about liaisons between gods and humans—and the “heroes” or “demigods” born from these unions—were common to Greek, Egyptian, Ugaritic, Hurrian, and Mesopotamian theology. Gods of Greek mythology had human form and great beauty. They ate, drank, slept, had sexual intercourse, quarreled, fought, seduced, and raped. Though supposedly holy, they were capable of deceit and crime. Heroes like Achilles were said to be of both divine and human descent and were endowed with superhuman ability but not with immortality. So, what Genesis says of the Nephilim sheds light on the possible or even probable origin of such myths."

--TO BE CONTINUED

Answer 8

You are assuming they are all undoubtedly false.