Creation Story Essay

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Rosemary Radford Ruether, the author of “Gaia and God” presents the three classical creation stories in her book. According the Ruether, creation stories are also “blueprints for society”. (25) Ruether’s main point regarding this statement points to the culture of the society from which they propagate. The three classical creation stories: the Babylonian story, the Hebrew stories, and the Greek stories make up Christianity and the biblical traditions. In Ruether’s first example, she finds evidence of her theory of social blueprints in social messages contained within the ancient Babylonian creation story. One of her messages states that Marduk, a young god, evolved from earlier stages of development controlled by nonhuman existence. The second message states that the earlier world was viewed as matriarchal because Tiamat, a goddess ruled the society. According to Ruether, a final social message states that Marduk, a young god, kills his parents to start creating society and then another god to create humans that will serve gods. This exemplifies the society as hierarchal and ruled by military power. The Hebrew story builds off of the Babylonian story. This story reflects culture and mandates future culture. In this story, Ruether states that humans are servants, however, they should be treated with kindness and not looked down as a slave. The earth belongs to the lord, but humans are responsible taking care of it, not destroying it. Also, the male was created first and the female came from his rib. This can imply that the world was patriarchal. This also illustrates the relationship between a husband and wife. The wife is made to serve her husband, as Ruether states, “Husband to wife as master to servant.” (28) In the third creation story, which is the Greek story, Ruether analyzes that Plato is the main creator. First came men, second came women, and then came

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