A creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it .

While in
popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, formally, it does not imply falsehood. Cultures
generally regard their creation myths as true.[4][5] In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded
as conveying profound truths,metaphorically, symbolically and sometimes in a historical or literal sense.[6][7] They are
commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical mythsthat is, they describe the ordering of
the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.
Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in
nearly all known religious traditions.[9] They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, humanlike figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily. They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that
historian of religion Mircea Eliadetermed in illo tempore ("at that time").Creation myths address questions deeply
meaningful to the society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of
the culture and individual in a universal context.[
Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions;[3] found throughout
human culture, they are the most common form of myth
Creation myth definitions from modern references:

A "symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as understood in a particular tradition and community.
Creation myths are of central importance for the valuation of the world, for the orientation of humans in the
universe, and for the basic patterns of life and culture."[14]

"Creation myths tell us how things began. All cultures have creation myths; they are our primary myths, the
first stage in what might be called the psychic life of the species. As cultures, we identify ourselves through the
collective dreams we call creation myths, or cosmogonies. Creation myths explain in metaphorical terms our
sense of who we are in the context of the world, and in so doing they reveal our real priorities, as well as our real
prejudices. Our images of creation say a great deal about who we are."[15]

A "philosophical and theological elaboration of the primal myth of creation within a religious community. The
term myth here refers to the imaginative expression in narrative form of what is experienced or apprehended as
basic reality The term creation refers to the beginning of things, whether by the will and act of a transcendent
being, by emanation from some ultimate source, or in any other way."
Religion professor Mircea Eliade defined the word myth in terms of creation:
SCIENTIFIC THEORY is a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that is acquired
through the scientific method and repeatedly tested and confirmed through observation and experimentation.[1]
[2]
Scientific theories are the most reliable, rigorous, and hronic bronchicomprehensive form of scientific knowledge.[3]
It is important to note that the definition of a "scientific theory" (often ambiguously contracted to "theory" for the sake
of brevity, including in this page) as used in the disciplines of science is significantly different from, and in contrast to,
the common vernacularusage of the word "theory". As used in everyday non-scientific speech, "theory" implies that
something is an unsubstantiated and speculative guess, conjecture, or hypothesis;[4] such a usage is the opposite of
a scientific theory. These different usages are comparable to the differing, and often opposing, usages of the term
"prediction" in science (less ambiguously called a "scientific prediction") versus "prediction" in non-scientific
vernacular speech, the latter of which may even imply a mere hope.
The strength of a scientific theory is related to the diversity of phenomena it can explain, and to its elegance and
simplicity (seeOccam's razor). As additional scientific evidence is gathered, a scientific theory may be rejected or
modified if it does not fit the new empirical findings; in such circumstances, a more accurate theory is then desired. In
certain cases, the less-accurate unmodified scientific theory can still be treated as a theory if it is useful (due to its
sheer simplicity) as an approximation under specific conditions (e.g., Newton's laws of motion as an approximation
to special relativity at velocities that are small relative to the speed of light).
Scientific theories are usually testable and make falsifiable predictions.[5] They describe the causal elements
responsible for a particular natural phenomenon, and are used to explain and predict aspects of the
physical universe or specific areas of inquiry (e.g., electricity, chemistry, astronomy). Scientists use theories as a
foundation to gain further scientific knowledge, as well as to accomplish goals such as inventing technology or
curing disease.
As with most, if not all, forms of scientific knowledge, scientific theories are both deductive and inductive[6][7] in nature
and aim forpredictive power and explanatory capability.