201321581 (Lee Yerang)

Two Different Creation Myths

Different people believe in different creation myths according to their culture,
religion, and tribe and so on. The Iroquois creation story is telling us how their nation,
North America was created. Iroquois is a league of several nations or tribes of
indigenous people of North America. They were based in what is now the
northeastern United States, primarily in what is referred to today as upstate New
York west of the Hudson River and through the Finger Lakes region. The people
have passed the Iroquois creation story on mouth to mouth so that it became a
collective work. Therefore, it includes many cultures, values and ideas of the North
Americans at that time. Particularly, since Christianity is the prime religion in that
nation, the story has a similar process of creation of the world to Christian creation
story. However, the two stories have differences in the aspect of the creator and
creatures.
Firstly, there is a difference between the two stories in the aspect of creator.
While God is one and only with one mind, the twins in the Iroquois creation story,
who are described as creators, have two different minds which compete with each
other. As a creator, God had no conflict with others until the snake, shown as a bad
creature, seduced Adam and Eve. However, the twins fought against each other
since they were in the womb. The Good and Bad values appeared clear even
before human being is created.
Also, the situations before-and-after the creators in the two stories are
different. While there was nothing at the first time in Christian creation story, there
were upper and lower lands, and creatures such as mother, monsters and turtle
already in the Iroquois creation story. For this reason, we can know that Bible

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illustrates God as the only and real creator of the whole world because he made
everything with his words. On the other hand, the twins do not seem to be the real
creators of the world since there were already existing lands and creatures in the
Iroquois creation story. Also, when they created natural things such as sun, moon
and stars, they used their mothers part of body. It does not mean that they made
something out of nothing.
Thirdly, the two stories have a difference in the aspect of creatures. In the
Iroquois creation story, it seems that there is a connection between the material and
physical things. For example, the turtle grew larger and finally became a land, and
the nature is made by maternal body. By contrast, according to Bible, God just said
and the things existed. The creation was progressed with orders and sequences.
God made the creatures for six days and blessed them on the seventh day.
In addition, there is a difference of seeing the evil between the two stories.
While God also created evil, it is appeared as a creator in the Iroquois creation story.
In Bible, the evil, shown as a snake, disobeyed God and seduced the couple. Finally,
they were tempted into it and punished by God forever. Contrastively, the evil is one
of the twins and also a creator in the Iroquois creation story. He created apes and
dangerous things for human countering with his brother.
The Iroquois creation story and Bible are both myths of foundation, which
represent the values, rules, orders of society or the culture. The two creation myths
have different viewpoints about the creator and creatures, since they were affected
by different civilization and customs. Although there are various dissimilarities
between Bible and the Iroquois Creation Story, both stories are creation myths and
they are important for showing the way each people, who believe in each myth, see

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themselves in relation to nature, the world, and the universe.