Creation Stories

Every culture has its creation story, an oral or written explanation of how the world and its inhabitants came into being. Some are whole histories of what has happened since creation.

One of the most widely recognized creation stories is carefully preserved in writing in multiple language translations. This creation story is generally agreed to be The Correct One by adherents of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. But the Creation Story of the Torah, the Pentateuch of the Old Testament, is only one creation story. For as many cultures that exist, there are creation stories with respective histories.

Many of these are not written, but told from generation to generation orally. Spiritual leaders of each generation's culture preserve the accuracy of oral tradition and carefully teach the next generation.

So what makes a creation story codified in written form more valid than those of oral tradition? What makes one written creation story more valid than another written one? I suspect the oral recounting of Navajo creation is just as sacred, just as valid, and just as much an allegory as the creation story of the Israelites. By this, I don't mean that none are valid; I mean all are valid.

For a sampling of cultural creation stories in short form check out Creation Myths in Wikipedia.