Creation Myths
Let us now address a fundamental question: how valuable to us in the 21st century is the book of Genesis?
Only if we correctly understand what the book is can we end up with a positive answer.
For those who begin with the premise that, since it is part of the inerrant 'word of God', we must treat it as pure revelation, the question just posed will seem unnecessary. But I am not addressing such people. I am addressing those who have no a priori position. And included in those who have an a priori position are those who have already dismissed, on supposed scientific grounds, the whole thing as a lot of nonsense. There are those who think that it is not possible that there be a creator; science is finding out so much, and what science cannot examine and measure cannot even exist. Such people have put themselves in the position that there can be nothing to convince them otherwise. There is not much you can say to such people So the folk I am addressing are those somewhere in between these two extreme groups of the absolute believers and the absolute unbelievers.
Let us first think about creation myths. There are very few ethnic groups that do not have a creation myth. The diversity of content is great but there are similarities too. Here are a few examples.
Greek creation mythology can be summarised as follows: in the beginning was Chaos. Then came Earth which produced Sky. Covering Earth each night, Sky fathered children upon her. Earth was personified as Gaia and sky was Ouranos. Their children included the Titan parents of most of the Olympian gods and goddesses. And so on down through various demi- gods to ordinary humans.
In Norse mythology, there was originally a chasm, Ginnungagap, bounded on either side by fire and ice. When fire and ice met, they combined to form a giant, named Ymir, and a cow, named Audhumbla, to nourish Ymir. She survived by licking the salty ice blocks. From her licking emerged Bur, the grandfather of the Aesir. The Norse gods are divided into two major groups, the Aesir and Vanir, in addition to the giants who came first.
The Rig Veda from India has it that before the divine pair of Earth and Sky, who created the gods, was another god, Tvastr, the "first fashioner". He created Earth and Sky, as a dwelling place, and many other things. Tvastr was a universal impregnator who made other things reproduce.
The Egyptians, being very conscious of how important the annual overflow of the river Nile was to them, have Nu as the god who was the source of everything. The sun, Ra, was also a creator god, who created other gods, looking for a mate.
Various Chinese ideas of creation exist, but a common denominator has it that the yin and yang, the dark and the light, are the creative power, which sustains all life and being. Yin and yang are not to be seen as gods or deities in any sense. They are the natural forces behind nature and even the gods, such as P'an Ku, are creations of the yin and yang.
The names of all the creator gods are different across the whole range of creation myths, and nearly all creation myths outside of Genesis end up with lots of lesser gods all being involved in creative acts. What they nearly all have in common also is an explanation (although these differ) of the conflict between good and evil. This is a vast subject and well worthy of detailed study, but too big for us to go beyond this very cursory introduction. The key thing is that creation myths are addressing the same set of questions.
Who or what is the source of everything?
What is the relationship between this prime source and us humans?
Why is there evil in the world?
What about all these lesser non-human powers? It is difficult to find a creation myth which does not have these questions explicitly or implicitly answered. Some answers are very much more elaborate than others, needless to say.
By way of contrast, the belief that only the material - only what can be measured physically – exists is a scientific myth which fails to answer these questions in any useful way. Science can tell us how fast the universe is expanding from its original starting point, it can measure lots of things, it can find traces of previous ice ages, it can map galaxies, and so on. These are the questions it can answer, and the scientific method is the best way to answer such questions. No wise person will look for any other method of resolving them. But there are some valid questions which the scientific method cannot answer. If these questions matter, then the Genesis answers matter too. They may well be the best answers we are ever going to get.