The human race has generated a lot of creation stories. You can find some of them, the more famous ones, cataloged on wikipedia. Let’s look briefly at a few of them.
Of the ones I would like to look at the newest is the Cherokee account of creation. Before land existed, there was only sea. Water Beetle, who was the grandchild of Beaver, got tired of skating on top of the water and dived down and grabbed some mud off the bottom and brought it to the surface. It grew and grew and soon all the animals in heaven wanted to live on it. So Buzzard kindly flapped his/her wings above it both drying it out and also creating mountains and valleys for all the plants and animals.
The ancient Greeks had a much more elaborate creation story and, of course, it is much older. First there was nothing (chaos). Suddenly and spontaneously Gaia (mother earth) and some other beings spring into existence. Without male help Gaia gives birth to Uranus (father sky). Together they conceive and give birth to some grotesque monsters and twelve titans, the youngest of whom is Cronus. Cronus castrates his father then sires a bunch of his own offspring but promptly eats each one right after it is born. When his son Zeus is born, the mother tricks Cronus into eating a rock instead. Later as an adult, Zeus gives Cronus a potion causing him to vomit up all his now fully-grown siblings and the rock. There’s a lot more, but you get the idea.
Ancient Egypt had no less than four main creation stories that were apparently all taught simultaneously even though they all give different accounts of creation. The one we will look at is called the Memphis account. It begins with nothing in the universe but the god Ptah. Ptah thought up all the things he wanted in the universe. Then as he pronounced each one’s name, it popped into existence.
There is a lot more to each of these stories, but we get their gists. If we had to think of a single word to describe them perhaps ‘phantasmagorical’ would come close.
Let’s look at one more creation story. This one is about 3,500 years old, older than both the Cherokee account and the Greek account. In it creation takes place in stages. The first stage is the introduction of light. Next, comes water, then plant life. Once the ocean is teeming with plant life, it brings forth animal life which becomes abundant and diverse. In the next stage the animals further diversify and venture from water to land and the air. The final stage is the advent of the human race.
Did you notice anything different about the last ancient account? If you are like me, the first word you might think of to describe this account would not be phantasmagorical. On the contrary, it is a stunningly good summary of exactly what scientists think actually happened. If we asked a modern evolutionary scientist to give us a 100 word summary of the history of life on earth, it might sound a lot like the paragraph above.
This ancient creation account, of course, is the biblical account. So how is it that this particular ancient creation account is so uniquely unphantasmagorical? That, dear reader, will be the theme of this blog.