Why is the creation story so similar in different religions?

Answer 1

While there are some similarities among all creation stories, the differences between those from one region and a different region are quite remarkable. The closer two creation stories are in geographic origin, the more similarities you will find.

Many early Near Eastern creation stories tell of the world and its people coming into existence through battles between the creator god and the chaos monsters. We see fragments of this genre in Psalms and the Book of Job.

The second creation story in Genesis (Genesis 2:4b-20) can be typical of some creation stories from inland, arid regions - there is no mention of the ocean, and plants grew because God had yet to make it rain. This story contains moral themes, a frequent theme of some early creation stories.

The first creation story in Genesis (Genesis 1:1-2:4a) is very different from the story in chapter 2. Perhaps the most obvious thing in common between these two stories is the absence of chaos monsters in the narrative. The first creation story is much less like a folk story than is the second one, understandable as it was written in the form we know today by the Priestly Source, who was concerned with theology and the role of the priestly class in Jewish society. The differences are considerable, both in sequence and style. The creation story in Genesis chapter 1 is typical of cultures familiar with the oceans and great rivers. In this first story, God has almost unlimited power and causes things to exist merely by speaking them into existence. In the second story, God needs dirt to model and create Adam, then a rib to create Eve - examples of his more limited powers.

Both creation stories in Genesis came from earlier creation stories in Mesopotamia, and reflect similarities to the earlier stories. The imagery of the chaos monsters found in Pslams and the Book of Job, although fragmentary, can also be found in earlier creation stories in the Near East.

Answer:

Because Creation is a worldwide tradition shared by all ancient societies. Because it actually took place.

Answer 2

There are few similarities between the creation story of the Australian aborigines and, for example, that of The Bible, or again between the creation story of the Australian aborigines and those of the ancient Greeks. This is because there was no cross-cultural contact between the aborigines and outside cultures for 50,000 years.

On the other hand, there are many similarities between the biblical creation stories and Babylonian or Akkadian and Sumerian creation stories, in this case because the ancient Near Eastern cultures influenced each other. The name of the Garden of Eden has been connected with Akkadian edinu, which means "provider of abundance," which would be a transparent etymology for the name of a divine garden. The Sumerian myth talks of a forbidden fruit and of a curse for eating it, and even has a woman created to heal the man's rib, from which the Genesis story of Eve is a reversal. When the first tablets containing a copy of the Epic of Gilgamesh were discovered, this created controversy in scholarly circles, because it was realised that this could have been the precursor to the biblical account.

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Answer 3

The similarities are there because these narratives, which occur all over the world, hark back to the beginning of human history and attempt to describe actual events that took place (God's creation). However, many nations allowed their stories to be corrupted by idolatry.