Creation Myths Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Creation Myths - Essay Example God then created a beautiful garden Eden so that Adam could live in it. God then brought animals into the garden so that Adam can name them. So it was Adam, who was the first human being, responsible for naming the animals. Since Adam was the sole human being on earth he was given the power to dominate the animals. However, seeing his loneliness and lack of company God created the first woman and named him Eve. Adam and Eve were given the power to control everything on earth that was created from dirt. There was a tree in the center of the garden. Adam and Eve were forbidden by God to touch it. One day a snake entered the garden and tempted Eve to eat a fruit from the tree. The tree was known as the knowledge tree and provided knowledge to distinguish between the good and the evil. By eating the fruit Adam and Eve committed the first sin of disobedience. They failed to obey the order of God and this instilled in their minds a sense of guilt. When God asked Adam if he has eaten the fr uit he put the blame on Eve. â€Å"And the man said, The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate†. (Troyer, 2007, p.105) Similarly Eve blamed the snake for her own act of disobedience. â€Å"And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate†. ... The first living creature appeared when Ra who was the Egyptian sun god was born out of an egg. He had many names and they symbolize different positions of the sun. He was â€Å"Aten (sun disk), Khepri (the rising sun), Ra (supreme god of Heliopolis), and Atum (the setting sun)†. (The Egyptian Religion and Creation Myth, n.d., p.35) Egypt is a land of â€Å"eternal sunshine† and so it was natural for them to symbolize the sun god as the creator of the universe. The human beings were created from the eye of Ra. The eye got lost and Ra could not find it. His son Shu and daughter Tefnut went to fetch it but failed. There was a struggle between them which caused the eye to shed tears. Human beings were born from the tears. Therefore the eye of Ra symbolizes life. â€Å"The act of bringing the eye back to the creator was equivalent to healing the earth – the restoration of right and order†. (The Egyptian Religion and Creation Myth, n.d., p.33) Ra’s son S hu represented dry air while daughter Tefnut represented moisture. Together they are symbolized in the Egyptian culture as life and justice. In both the mythologies it was the male who first created. Adam and Ra were both representatives of the male. In both cases there is the event of sibling murder. In Egyptian mythology Set killed his brother Osiris while in the Genesis Cain killed his brother and in both cases the reason was jealousy. What role does sex play? After God created Adam and placed him in the Garden of Eden, God brought all the animals into the garden and authorized Adam to name them. So it was Adam who named the animals and not Eve. This authority was given to man by God and so it is more a man’s duty than a woman to fulfill the command of God. Since Adam was created before Eve and so