Most Pagans I know believe in evolution...?

Question

And I know many follow different gods from one another sometimes. However, is there a universal "Creator God"? Is there text within your religion that has a story and a specific god/goddess that is responsible for creation of the world and how they created the world?

Answer 1

Well, First, Pagan is an Umbrella term for a multitude of different belief systems and religions (My pagan community calls each different system of belief a "Path", as in "I follow a Hellenic path.") And because of that "Pagans" have a multitude of creation myths.

As far as my personal path goes, I have a creation myth (a few in fact from a few different authors), but it almost mirriors evolution (in fact depending on how you interpret it, it actually spells it out). My Gods are not only seen as separate entities but as personifications of actual things as well. Symbols are very important in my myths and one story can hold five different meanings, all of which are important and pertinent. So the Goddess Nyx, is not only a separate Goddess of Night/darkness but is also, literally, the night/darkness. That being said, in my belief no one god is responsible for ALL of creation. Nyx created some of it; Gaia created some other stuff; Okeanos and Tethys created some... so on and so on. One God leading into the next, to the next, to the next.... (Evolution?)

But again, different beliefs, different myths, and so, some pagans will answer that they do have one single creator of the universe.

Answer 2

Pagans do "all" not, ALL believe in neither, God , gods, nor evolution. Any religion of antiquity has a creator god, who molded the earth. The God of the Bible, the account mentioned within, concerning the creation of the earth was written by Moses to counteract the various claims being made by the pagan tribes around the nation of ancient Israel of the time. The Babylonians had Marduk as their creator god, for example. The main difference was, that the account given by Moses to the Jewish Israelites of the time, was inspired by God - the real Creator of the Universe.

Answer 3

Raven is sometimes credited with creating the Earth (often by accident in a trick gone wrong) by Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. In at least one creation tradition, it was a piece of the sun He had carried back because it was shiny, but He caught fire and his ashes became the Earth. In a slightly different version, Raven is only blackened by the fire, and drops the piece of sun in the sea where it is extinguished and becomes the Earth.

Other Native Americans attribute the Earth to Rabbit Boy, who kicked a blood clot around until it became the Earth.

Some Native Americans from the East and Midwest attribute Earth to Turtle or Beaver, who brought mud up from a sea, which was all that existed before then.

Answer 4

There isn't any universal text for paganism. Since most pagans find a single text for their religion to be restricting and very flawed, we find no purpose for one such text. We rely on our own wisdom and that of our brothers and sisters as well as our relationship with divinity, whomever one holds that to be. And so, without a single text, there is no single creation story.

Answer 5

What you have to understand is that paganism is everything BUT one religion. We have a ton of religions, and a ton of creation-related mythologies.

I can't speak for all pagans on this one, but a lot of us feel that some of our mythology is meant to be taken allegorically and not to be taken as historically accurate in any sense.

Answer 6

There is no reason to believe in a universal creator, as the notion cannot lead to any useful conclusions. (Provable.) Evolution is a proven fact, so one may as well believe in it.

Answer 7

Paganism isn't a religion. There are only religions, or individual paths that fall withing the definition of being pagan. I believe that my parents helped me create myself. I believe we are all a part of what God/Godess in it's central meaning is. I also beleive that a "God" is anyone that is the complete master of something. For example, I am the God of sex.

Answer 8

My personal belief - recognises dieties as representative of the force of Nature. So the slow process of biological adaption is part of that Nature.

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Answer 9

that is nothing new!! many christians deny creation too ,,, gasp !! how u say that then?? .. christians deny this by their actions,, most in ignorance and many more stubbornly resit GOD trying to guide them throgh his creative power , has God given man a sign so that they can believe he alone is GOD>>??
THINK ABOUT IT ; bro mj

Answer 10

there is not one, but many pagan creation myths, depending on the pantheon they follow.

The earth was once a human being: Old One made her out of a woman. "You will be the mother of all people," he said.

Earth is alive yet, but she has been changed. The soil is her flesh, the rocks are her bones, the wind is her breathe, trees and grass are her hair. She lives spread out, and we live on her. When she moves, we have an earthquake.

After taking the woman and changing her to earth, Old One gathered some of her flesh and rolled it into balls, as people do with mud or clay. He made the first group of these balls into the ancients, the early world.

The ancients were people, yet also animals. In form some looked human while some walked on all fours like animals. Some could fly like birds; others could swim like fishes. All had the gift of speech, as well as greater powers and cunning than either animals or people. But deer were never among the ancients, they were always animals, even as they are today.

Besides the ancients, real people and real animals lived on the earth at that time. Old One made the people out of the last balls of mud he took from the Earth. He rolled them over and over, shaped them like Indians, and blew on them to bring them alive. They were so ignorant they were the most helpless of all the creatures Old One had made.

Old One made people and animals into males and females so they might breed and multiply. Thus all living things came from the earth. When we look around, we see part of our mother everywhere.

The difficulty with the early world was that most of the ancients were selfish and some were monsters, and there was much trouble among them. They were also very stupid in some ways. Though they knew they had to hunt in order to live, they did not know which creatures were deer and which were people, and sometimes they ate people by mistake.

At last Old One said, "There will soon be no people if I let things go on like this." So he sent Coyote to kill the monsters and other evil beings among the ancients and teach the Indians how to do things.

And Coyote began to travel on the earth , teaching the Indians, making life easier and better for them, and performing many wonderful deeds.

Greek creation myth:
In the beginning, Chaos, an amorphous, gaping void encompassing the entire universe, and surrounded by an unending stream of water ruled by the god Oceanus, was the domain of a goddess named Eurynome, which means "far-ruling" or "wide-wandering".
She was the Goddess of All Things, and desired to make order out of the Chaos. By coupling with a huge and powerful snake, Ophion, or as some legends say, coupling with the North Wind, she gave birth to Eros, god of Love, also known as Protagonus, the "firstborn".

Eurynome separated the sky from the sea by dancing on the waves of Oceanus. In this manner, she created great lands upon which she might wander, a veritable universe, populating it with exotic creatures such as Nymphs, Furies, and Charites as well as with countless beasts and monsters.

Also born out of Chaos were Gaia, called Earth, or Mother Earth, and Uranus, the embodiment of the Sky and the Heavens, as well as Tartarus, god of the sunless and terrible region beneath Gaia, the Earth.

Gaia and Uranus married and gave birth to the Titans, a race of formidable giants, which included a particularly wily giant named Cronus.

In what has become one of the recurrent themes of Greek Mythology, Gaia and Uranus warned Cronus that a son of his would one day overpower him. Cronus therefore swallowed his numerous children by his wife Rhea, to keep that forecast from taking place.

This angered Gaia greatly, so when the youngest son, Zeus, was born, Gaia took a stone, wrapped it in swaddling clothes and offered it to Cronus to swallow. This satisfied Cronus, and Gaia was able to spirit the baby Zeus away to be raised in Crete, far from his grasping father.

In due course, Zeus grew up, came homeward, and got into immediate conflict with the tyrant Cronus, who did not know that this newcomer was his own son. Zeus needed his brothers and sisters help in slaying the tyrant, and Metis, Zeus's first wife, found a way of administering an emetic to Cronus, who then threw up his five previous children, who were Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Together they went to battle against their father. The results were that all of his children, led by Zeus, vanquished Cronus forever into Tartarus' domain, the Dark World under the Earth.

Thus, Zeus triumphed over not only his father, and his father's family of Giants, he triumphed over his brothers and sisters as well, dividing up the universe as he fancied, in short, bringing order out of Chaos.

He made himself Supreme God over all, creating a great and beautiful place for his favored gods to live, on Mount Olympus, in Thessaly. All the others were left to fend for themselves in lands below Mount Olympus.

Zeus made himself God of the Sky and all its phenomena, including the clouds as well as the thunderbolts. Hestia became goddess of the Hearth. To his brother Poseidon, he gave the rule of the Sea. Demeter became a goddess of Fertility, Hera (before she married Zeus and became a jealous wife), was goddess of Marriage and Childbirth, while Hades, one of his other brothers, was made god of the Underworld.

Zeus did indeed bring order out of Chaos, but one of his failings was that he did not look kindly upon the people, those creatures that populated the lands over which he reigned. Many were not beautiful, and Zeus had contempt for anyone who was not beautiful. And of course they were not immortal, as the Olympian gods were, and they complained about the lack of good food and the everlasting cold nights. Zeus ignored their complaints, while he and the other gods feasted endlessly on steaming hot game from the surrounding forests, and had great crackling fires in every room of their palaces where they lived in the cold winter.

Enter Prometheus, one of the Titans not vanquished in the war between Zeus and the giants. It is said in many myths that Prometheus had created d a race of people from clay, or that he had combined specks of every living creature, molded them together, and produced a new race, The Common Man. At the very least he was their champion before Zeus.

Fire for cooking and heating was reserved only for the gods to enjoy. Prometheus stole some of the sparks of a glowing fire from the Olympians, so that the people below Olympus could have fire for cooking and warmth in the winter, thus greatly improving their lot in life.

Zeus was furious at this insult to his absolute power, and had Prometheus bound and chained to a mountain, sending an eagle to attack him daily.

Adding insult to injury, Zeus had his fellow Olympian, Hephaestus, fashion a wicked but beautiful creature to torment Prometheus. It was a woman, whom they named Pandora, which means "all gifts". She was given a precious and beautiful box, which she was told not to open, but curiosity got the better of her, and out flew "all the evils that plague men." The only "gift" that stayed in the box was "Hope".

So, from "far-ruling" Eurynome to the creation of the Common Man, Greek creation myths are inextricably filled with difficulties, though often ameliorated by the gift of Hope. A myriad of other myths tell of the joys and adventures of great heroes and heroines, other gods and goddesses, as well as fantastic creatures from all parts of ancient Greece.

Celtic Mythology - Creation

Passed on through spoken language, the Celts do not have a specific creation myth; rather, they begin their history with the settling of Ireland. Ireland was invaded by five successive waves of people.

The first wave was the Partholonians. Partholon, his wife Dealgnaid, and their companions landed in the western province of Munster on Beltaine. Ireland was already inhabited by the Fomorians, thought to represent the ancient, evil Irish gods. The Fomorians were driven out to the north, where they returned periodically to plague the successive invaders. The Partholonians did a great deal to develop Ireland, building the first building as well as clearing four plains and forming seven lakes in addition to the one plain and three lakes Ireland possessed at the time. Unfortunately, all the Partholonians except one, Tuan mac Cairill, were killed in an outbreak of the plague.

The next wave was the Nemedians. They also landed in the west and fought the Fomorians, winning three battles with them. After these battles, they too were struck with the plague, and the Fomorians took advantage of the weakness of the Nemedians to demand heavy tribute. Eventually the Nemedians rose against the Fomorians and demanded freedom or battle; in the ensuing battle, they defeated the Fomorians. It is not clear whether they were all killed as well or whether they left the island, but after that battle the Nemedians no longer lived in Ireland.

Two hundred years after the Nemedians' battle, the Fir Bolg arrived in Ireland from Greece. The Fir Bolg divided Ireland into five provinces, Connacht, Ulster, Leinster, and two Munsters, and were the first Irish people to establish a kingship and administration of justice.

The Tuatha de Danaan arrived next, on Samhain, and fought a great battle against the Fomorians. The Fomorian king, Balor, was killed, and the Fomorians were driven out of Ireland for the last time.

The Milesians lived in Spain until one of their princes sighted Ireland from a watchtower. He sailed to find it and there met the three Tuatha de kings, who became afraid that he would try to invade Ireland and killed him. His companions returned to Spain with his body, and the Milesians set sail to exact revenge. When they arrived, the three Tuatha de kings requested that they be left in peace for three days. Amergin, poet and Druid of the Milesians, agreed, and the Milesians withdrew their ships for three days while the Tuatha de prepared for battle. After the battle, the Tuatha de were defeated, and Amergin was given the task of dividing the land, and he gave the Tuatha de Danaan the land below the ground and the Milesians the land above. After this, the Tuatha de lived below the hills, and it is they who were turned into the legendary faerie folk of Ireland.