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The creation myths of indigenous ancient cultures give us a window into the cultures view of the universe, i.e. their cosmology. The nature of the universe is always one of the first questions that every culture tries to answer. Mankind has a sense of eternity but can not comprehend it. It is quite impossible for someone with the least inquisitiveness to not wonder about where the world around them came into being and why it did in the first place. Every culture has asked the fundamental questions of why are people here, where did we come from and where did the world come from, and therefore every culture has its own creation myth. These stories project and infuse their values into every aspect of life as they explain the origin of humans, the nature and the supernatural.
The first creation myth this essay will examine is the Chinese myth of Pan Gu. The myth of Pan Gu states that the universe began as a giant cosmic egg. Pan Gu was trapped inside this egg, but after eighteen thousand years of sleep he awoke and broke the egg. Fearing another imprisonment in the egg, Pan Gu made the half of the egg into the earth, the other half into the heavens. After Pan Gu’s death, his body became the earth and various celestial bodies (eyes the moon and sun, blood the seas, etc.), the lice on his skin become man.
The second creation myth is an Apache myth. There is a creator who creates by wiping the sweat off of some part of his body and rubbing his hands together, then throwing the sweat outward to produce what he desires. This creator makes several minor deities as helpers and makes three primordial humans, two girls and a boy. The boy is made chief, the two women are named Earth Daughter and Pollen Girl. These are women are obvious symbols of fertility. Interestingly, there is also a reference to a world wide flood in this myth, which the three humans are saved from by being bound up in a tight ball of wood and resin.
These stories compare and contrast on some key points. The first point of comparison is origin. Both myths speak of some sort of first cause. Both cultures saw correctly that the universe had to begin with some supernatural cause. However, the Apache disagree with the Chinese on the nature of the beginning of the earth. The Chinese answer is that the origin comes from the death of this first being, his corpse essentially becoming the world. This shows a belief in a cyclic nature, when something dies, it becomes something else, as the lice became humans, who then die and return to the ground to be reincarnated again. It also attempts to answer the cosmological question of unity in difference, postulating that everything is connected in essence, all part of Pan Gu.
The Apache however, show a belief in a creating deity, someone who bothered to create. Though why he bothered to create is mere caprice and when he had finished his work, he left. This shows a portrait of the universe which, though divinely ordered, is left to its own devices, and man is left to work things out on his own. The “helpers” of the creator are left on earth, but these are of a mainly elemental and representational nature as well as showing a polytheistic portrait of the supernatural. The supreme being is absent and apparently uninterested. Man gets worse treatment at the hands of Pan Gu, this myth leaves man as the product of supernatural lice. Small and insignificant to the creator. Hardly a favored place, and of little dignity in the scope of nature. It is no wonder that the Chinese were able to believe in the impersonal Nirvanha of Buddism, and then the godless state of communism. Afterall, Pan Gu is dead and recycled.
Ecclesiastis 3:11 declares, "He has put eternity in their hearts, except
that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."
Nearly all creation myths agree that the universe had a beginning, but gives
man no direct purpose, no divine assistance and no place of dignity in the hierarchy
of nature. The creator is dead or absent form his creation, abandoned to its
own devices in the hands of minor deities (as in the Apache myth). Yet the Bible
shows a beginning and a purpose, the universe is made for man and a testimony
to God’s greatness. Man's purpose is to give glory to God and have fellowship
with God. Man has a favored place over the rest of nature, because man is made
in God’s image. The Creator is interested in the affairs of man and does
not leave His creation to its own devices. He continually intervines with nations
and individuals as recorded in the history of the Old Testament. The Father
sent his son Jesus, not as a minor deity, but as God made flesh, to pay the
penalty for broken fellowship with his creation.
Creation stories provide a fascinating window into various cultural worldviews.
Whether from a cosmic egg, apache sweat, or even a big bang that results in
evolution soup, man still has eternity in his heart and cannot fathom the beginning
from the end. Only the Bible tells of a loving Creator who is actively involved
with the discipline and salvation of his children. Only the Bible claims historical
accuracy and sets moral absolutes in the heart of every man. To compare and
contrast cultural conceptions derived from creation accounts, against the truth
of the Bible, gives insight into how beliefs of origins can affect the outcome
of culture and personal destiny.
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