A Reflection on the Creation Story with Different Point of Views from Different Religions

By: Anthony Le Duc Tho, CMF

Talking about the Creation Story is an interesting topic for us. In any culture, we come to
know about different myths of the creation of the heaven and earth. However, these myths show
to us that we, as human beings from different religions, never cease to think or to question about
the original source of heaven, earth and all living creatures. Then, it depends on time, space, and
people; we will find a way to explain the meaning of the Creation Story. As a Catholic student,
in this reflection the writer would like to see the notion of God and the process of creating all
things from different perspectives of other religions as a great help for me to deepen my
understanding about the Creation Story from the book of Genesis in the Bible when we do
compare to others and last is some implications.
According to the Myth of Prajapati, Prajāpati is called “God,” the Supreme Principle
because Prajāpati is the God par excellence, the Father of creatures, hailed as Creator of heaven
and earth, of the waters and of all lives; the Father of Gods, the unique on here from the
beginning, and the first to sacrifice. In the process of creating, three Moments are considered:
solitude, sacrifice and integration. Solitude, in the beginning, there was absolute nothingness;
there was no being or non-being, air or sky, death or deathlessness, night or day; there was only
darkness. Then, radical solitude is the primary symbol of the unity of transcendence of the
Indescribable, its perfection as well as its simplicity, its original, primordial character. Sacrifice,
Prajāpati’s second desire is to have a partner and then Prajāpati cuts himself into as many parts
as are necessary to complete creation. The desire for progeny, the need to multiply himself then
Prajāpati created. There are also two mysterious “power”, Tapas and Kāma, that go together.
Integration, Prajāpati is both mortal and immortal. As the consummation of the same sacrifice,
Prajāpati is redeemed from death; he lives. It is by sacrifice that Prajāpati has existence and
immortality. Prajāpati resolves to commit the incest, to descend again, to render fertile and
thereby incorporate it into his own life.
A Hindu Creation Story, Hinduism believes the in-between times are known as the days
and nights of Brahma, who is the Hindu god of creation. The process of creation is in the
beginning there was no heaven, no earth, and no space between. Everything was so peaceful and
silent that Vishnu slept undisturbed by dreams and motion. Then, the night ended, Vishnu
awoke. Vishnu spoke to his servant Brahma: ‘It is time to begin.’ Then Vishnu commanded:
‘Create the World.’ The world was soon bristling with life and the air was filled with the sounds
of Brahma’s creation.
According to Chinese Creation Myth of Pan-gu, in the beginning the heavens and earth
were still one and all was chaos. The universe was like a big black egg, carrying Pan Gu inside
itself, the first living thing. Pan Gu, a God was born by the vitality of heavens and earth and he
evolved inside a gigantic cosmic egg. In the process of creating, Pan Gu woke from a long sleep
after 18,000 years. He felt suffocated, so he took up a broad-ax and wielded it with all his might
to crack open the egg. The light, clear part of it floated up and formed the heavens, the cold,
turbid matter stayed below to form earth.
Tungkung Langit and Alunsina, a Panay-Visayan Myth on Creation, from the depth of
formless void, there appeared two gods, Tungkung Langit and Alunsina. Tungkung Langit was
an industrious, loving, and kind god whose chief concern was how to impose order over the
whole confused set-up of things and he assumed responsibility for the regular cosmic movement.
Alunsina was a lazy, jealous, and selfish goddess whose only work was to sit by the window of
their heavenly home and amuse herself with her pointless thoughts. In the process of creating,
Tungkung Langit felt very lonely after Alunsina left and he realized what he had done. One day,
Tungkung Langit thought of an idea, he made the sea, the earth, and filled the ground with trees
and flowers. He made the earth and sea beautiful. Hofully, when Alunsina would see it, she
would come home but she didn’t. Tungkung Langit still lives alone in his palace in the sky.
When it rains, it is said to be Tungkung Langit’s tears, still longing for the return of Alunsina.
According to Enuma Elish, this myth conceptualized that the world originated from
Apsu, the god of fresh water and thus male fertility, and Tiamat, wife of Apsu-the goddess of the
sea and thus chaos and threat, and then, from the combination of all sources of original water
procreated male and female gods. In the process of creating, the Enuma Elish was similar with
the chapter 1 of the book of Genesis and the myth showed that all gods and all creatures were co-
exist and co-infinite and then original chaos; all gods fought against Tiamat, the goddess of the
sea. The first day, the lights created from gods. The second day, the sky. The third day, the earth.
The fourth day, stars. The fifth day, creatures. The sixth day, human. And the last day, resting
and celebrating.
Reading the five Creation Stories helped me to realize that somehow the gods took the
ready material things to create. Moreover, they directly tried their best to create the world and the
Creation work somehow was a tough process in the gods’ world to fight in order to exist and to
govern. However, comparison to the Creation story in the book of Genesis, the five Creation
Stories were a great help for me to understand deeply our standpoint to protect our doctrine about
Creation story in the Bible. I would like to present three points here. First, God created out of
nothing (creatio ex nihilo). It means God doesn’t need any material thing. Then it is different
from the five Creation Stories. The heavens and earth didn’t create out of existed material things
but God made them exist by His absolute freedom. He created the heavens and earth not by a
need but by His love. Through the creation, God wants to reveal His love for us. Second, God
created out of His Word. The 1st chapter of the Genesis tells us that God is the Almighty who
used His Word to create all things. God said, “Let there be light;” and there was light (Gen.1: 3).
In six days of the creation, God used His Word to command. Then, the heavens and earth, man
and all creatures were created through the command of the Almighty. Through the history of
salvation, we as Catholics know that the Word is Jesus Christ, the Word of God incarnated to
save us all. Third, the Word became flesh. God didn’t create heavens and earth by a need. As the
Almighty, He created out of His love because He wants to share the love from the heart of the
Trinity for all creatures. Then the purpose of the creation is not only a mean for us to praise God
but also through the creation God wants His glory and love to overwhelm in man and all
creatures. We can see this purpose clearly when He created man as God said, “Let us make man
in our image, to our likeness” (Gen.1: 26).
To sum up, through the comparison with the five stories helped me to realize that the
Creation work in the Genesis is a continuous work of God and that is a work of love. In this
work, God is the Almighty who created all creatures and put them nicely in order. He created all
good things and created in order. Man will be the top of the creation work of God because man is
the image and likeness of God and man is put to rule over all creatures.