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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
CREATION
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According to Stephen Jay Gould -- scientist, science historian, and
writer -- Abner Doubleday "didn’t know a baseball from a
kumquat" (51). Baseball evolved slowly out of English stickball
games and "no one invented baseball at any moment or in any
spot" (46). But, says Gould, "we seem to prefer the alternative
model of origin by a moment of creation -- for then we can have heroes
and sacred places" (48). For some reason ... we are powerfully drawn to the subject of
beginnings. We yearn to know about origins, and we readily construct
myths when we do not have data (or we suppress data in favor of legend
when a truth strikes us as too commonplace). The hankering after an
origin myth has always been especially strong for the closest subject of
all -- the human race. But we extend the same psychic need to our
accomplishments and institutions -- and we have origin myths and stories
for the beginning of hunting, of language, of art, of kindness, of war,
of boxing, bow ties, and brassieres. Most of us know that the Great Seal
of the United States pictures an eagle holding a ribbon reading e
pluribus unum. Fewer would recognize the motto on the other side
(check it out on the back of a dollar bill): annuit coeptis --
"he smiles on our beginnings." (45) Scientists often lament that so few people understand Darwin and the
principles of biological evolution. But the problem goes deeper. Too few
people are comfortable with evolutionary modes of explanation in any
form. I do not know why we tend to think so fuzzily in theis area, but
one reason must reside in our social and psychic attraction to creation
myths in preference to evolutionary stories -- for creation myths ...
identify heroes and sacred places, while evolutionary stories provide no
palpable, particular object as a symbol of reverence, worship, or
patriotism. (57) Indeed, creation myths seem partly to function as
"etiologies" -- that is, stories that serve to explain to a
culture the origins of itself, its customs and practices, or of natural
phenomena.
Creation themes among cultures worldwide include the creation of the
world as a deliberate act by a divine being or beings, sometimes animals.
Early mythologies tend to view the earth as emerging from a vast cosmic
ocean, sometimes held up on a great turtle's back. Cultures with
dualistic tendencies in their outlooks often trace good and evil back to
these mythological beginnings, with twins representing the two sides, or,
in the case of the ancient Persians, eternal twin spirits Ahura Mazda
(who created the physical world and humankind) and Ahriman, the evil
counterpart.
Some interesting points of comparison and considerations when
reading various creation myths cross-culturally include the
following:
Work Cited Gould, Stephen Jay. "The Creation Myths of Cooperstown."
Rpt. in Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History.
NY: W.W. Norton and Co., 1991. 42-58.