Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Creation Stories
This question is a lot more difficult for me to answer than the magic question. It’s not simply about a personal belief but something that must be thought about with the beliefs of many other people in mind. I am not a very religious person so therefore I can’t say I believe in either of the stories which makes me think I would not be the right person to decide which one is more likely to be true. In my opinion neither one of the stories is true so in that sense neither one of them is more likely to be true than the other—but that only takes my personal belief into account. If we think about the beliefs of people all over the world I’m pretty sure the majority would believe in the story of Genesis over the Navajo story so in that sense I guess the story of Genesis is more likely to be true. Either way it’s a really difficult thing to judge so I can give my opinion but I don’t think I am the right person to give an answer to a question that deals with religious beliefs such as this.
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Shayne, I don't think that anyone is truly "qualified" to give their opinion and have others take it as fact, as it is simply a personal idea and I appreciate that you acknowledge this. I agree that neither story is particularly true, but I don't think that just because a lot of people in the world believe in the Genesis story that makes it more likely to be so. One wouldn't say that just because a lot of people believe a rumor (not that this creation story is a rumor) that makes it true? Instead I think that the Genesis story is just an older version of the same story told by the Navajos. Both stories have the same narrative basis and have mythical elements.
ReplyDeleteShayne, Rethink the idea that truth should be determined by a majority. If that were true, the first astronomers who said the earth revolved around the sun would have been wrong from the start. While the helicentric view of our galaxy is now the accepted view, it wasn't always. It became the accepted view because it stood up to scrutiny over time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the stories are the same on some accounts, but their views of the nature and origin of evil and suffering are not. What view seems more truthful to you?