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A creation myth (or creation story) is a cultural, religious or traditional myth which attempts to describe the earliest beginnings of the present world. Creation myths are the most common form of myth, usually developing first in oral traditions, and are found throughout human culture.
Creation ex nihilo in which the creation is through the thought, word, dream, or bodily secretions of a divine being. Earth-diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops into a terrestrial world.
The Genesis creation narrative is the creation myth [a] of both Judaism and Christianity, [1] told in the book of Genesis chapters 1 and 2. While the Jewish and Christian tradition is that the account is one comprehensive story, [2] [3] modern scholars of biblical criticism identify the account as a composite work [4] made up of two different stories drawn from different sources.
The opening chapter of Genesis tells a story of God's creation of the universe and of humankind as taking place over the course of six successive days. Some Christian and Jewish schools of thought (such as Christian fundamentalism ) read these biblical passages literally , assuming each day of creation as 24 hours in duration.
Christian Scientists regard the story of the creation in the Book of Genesis as having symbolic rather than literal meaning. According to Christian Science, both creationism and evolution are false from an absolute or "spiritual" point of view, as they both proceed from a (false) belief in the reality of a material universe.
Creatio ex nihilo is the doctrine that all matter was created out of nothing by God in an initial or a beginning moment where the cosmos came into existence. [13] [14] The third-century founder of Neoplatonism, Plotinus, argued that the cosmos was instead an emanation from God.
The word can also sometimes denote more passing or incidental descriptions or discussions on the six days of creation, [7] such as in the brief occurrences that appear in Quranic cosmology. [ 8 ] The Church Fathers wrote many Hexaemeron and a diversity of opinions existed on a broad range of subjects.
Creation myths are a type of origin myth narrating the formation of the universe. However, numerous cultures have stories that take place after the initial origin. These stories aim to explain the origins of natural phenomena or human institutions within an already existing world.