Creation Myths

By popular demand, here is a list of creation myths. This is not a great labour of love - it took about an hour on the internet - but has generated considerable interest. My intention in compiling these stories was to send them back to creationists posing a simple question: which of these stories should I believe, and more importantly, why? The obvious and predicatable response is number 5 of course, but persistence in the corrolorary question can lead to some more interesting answers, and may even generate a little reflection on their part.

My intention is not to attack anyone else on the basis of their religious belief, but to attack the notion that religious beliefs can be 'proved' by science. Moreover, the strength with which personal beliefs are held is not a measure of their 'rightness'; after all, it takes a very high level of conviction in the 'rightness' of your beliefs to strap explosives to your body and detonate them somewhere where you will kill the enemies of your faith. That does not make the act justifiable, nor make the leaders and teachers who encourage the act any less evil.

I have enormous respect for many of the Christians I have known. Some of them are close personal friends, and it is clear that their faith is a source of great comfort and support to them. In many ways I envy them that comfort, and it is perhaps a failure of courage on my part to make that same leap of commitment. One thing is for certain, though: nobody will convert me to their religious viewpoint by arguing their case on the basis of ignorance of science, or by perpetuating the lies and distortions of some of the leading lights in the field of creation 'science'. To me, creation 'science' is abhorrent combination of bad science and cynical hypocrisy.

All these accounts can be downloaded in plain text format (175k) here, and in Adobe Acrobat format (390k) here

Iroquois Creation Myth (Common Elements in Creation Myths - Lindsey Murtagh )
Australian Aborigine Creation Myth (Common Elements in Creation Myths - Lindsey Murtagh )
Japanese Creation Myth (Common Elements in Creation Myths - Lindsey Murtagh )
Greek Creation Myth (Common Elements in Creation Myths - Lindsey Murtagh )
Hebrew/Christian Creation Myth (Common Elements in Creation Myths - Lindsey Murtagh )
African Bushmen Creation Myth (Common Elements in Creation Myths - Lindsey Murtagh )
Chinese (Morgana's Observatory)
Choctaw (Morgana's Observatory)
Comanche (Morgana's Observatory)
Digueno (Morgana's Observatory)
The Birth of Hawaii (Morgana's Observatory)
Hindu (Morgana's Observatory)
Zulu (Morgana's Observatory)
Boshongo (Morgana's Observatory)
Efikn (Morgana's Observatory)
Ekoi (Morgana's Observatory)
Fans (Morgana's Observatory)
Ainu (Morgana's Observatory)
Apache (Morgana's Observatory)
Australian Aboriginal: The Dreamtime (Morgana's Observatory)
Aztec (Morgana's Observatory)
Chelan (Morgana's Observatory)
Creation Story of Southern California Indians #1 (Wintersteel Homestead)
Creation Story of Southern California Indians #2 (Wintersteel Homestead)
The Babylonian "Epic of Creation-- Enuma Elish" (Morgana's Observatory)
Hungarian (Stav Academy Library)
Cherokee (Stav Academy Library)
Chippewa (Stav Academy Library)
Chukchee (A Eskimo / Mongolian tribe) (Stav Academy Library)
ENUMA ELISH THE EPIC OF CREATION (Stav Academy Library)
An Evenk (Mongolian) Creation Myth (Stav Academy Library)
Blood Creation Myth (Stav Academy Library)
Nahuatl Creation Myth (Stav Academy Library)
Hidatsa Creation Myth (Stav Academy Library)
Hopi (Stav Academy Library)
Inuit (Stav Academy Library)
Kiowa (Stav Academy Library)
Mayan (Stav Academy Library)
Navajo (Stav Academy Library)
The Norse Creation Myth (Stav Academy Library)
Nuu-chal-nuth (Stav Academy Library)
Penobscot (Stav Academy Library)
Salish (Stav Academy Library)
Tewa (Stav Academy Library)
Tiahuanaco (Stav Academy Library)
Slavic (Pan Slavic Traditions and Beliefs )