Nicholas+Murray

Creation Myths

1) Question to investigate How do creation myths differ?  **//__Wicca__//**  Wicca is the religious cult of modern witchcraft
 * 2) Larger idea to prove ** Even though creation myths differ from each other, they still are similar.

Here is an except of a Wicca creation myth. Read More Here

1.“In the beginning there was the Goddess. And from her mind and her breath came forth matt  er and its ruler the God. And She looked upon Him and loved him as herself. For they  were t   ruly one flesh, opposite sides of the same coin. Her Love became his Passion. Her smile became his laughter. Her softness, His sharpness. They were the Yin Yang; opposites crossed. Yet as they were different so were they the same for part of Her resides in Him and part of Him in Her.” “Together they made love and dreamt of many things. And from their thoughts sprang forth Existence and all within it. Marveling upon the wonder and beauty of the Earth below them the Gods came down into it and played among its waters and its caverns. Raced among the clouds that soared above the peaks and heights of the mountains. The Lady then decided to make her home the Earth and the depths within it and also the waters that lied upon the bosom of the Earth. For as life came from her so the does life come from the Earth and the waters that abound upon it. She chose the moon as her symbol since it affected the waters so deeply. The God chose the Sky and its boundless freedom for his abode. He also taughtto man fire and on occasion still can be seen dancing in those golden fiery flames. And he chose the Sun as his symbol since it warms the waters and bring his Love, the Goddess, closer to him.”

In this creation myth, there are two Gods instead of one or 3 or more. Duo theism is something you don’t hear. Plus, one is a woman. This myth contradicts with many other religions, like the Muslim religion where there can only be one God. Also, you never really hear about religions that believe in female Gods. Actually, in some parts of the world, you can get in a lot of trouble for having idea like that. Also, instead of the Gods being everything, they only take the form of the Sun and the Moon. This myth has a lot of differences compared to other myths.

2. “I believe in the big bang” A Wiccan made this comment. Just because you may be part of a certain religion, doesn’t mean you believe in that religions creation myth. **//__Atheism__//**

What is atheism? Atheism is the belief that God does not exist. Because they don’t believe in a God, how they imagine creation is different from other cultures. Here are some quotes from atheists on the topic of creation. [|Read More Here] 1. “Evolution is both fact and theory. Creationism is neither.” An anonymous person made this quote, but what they say reigns true. Basically, what he is trying to say is that can and has been proven. Creationism, which is the belief that everything was made by some divine deity, is something that cannot be proven. For many atheists this is the reason they refuse to believe in a deity, or that one created everything.

2. " Creationism was created. Evolution evolves". -John Nicholson Another reason people can’t believe in creationism is because they say creation myth are just that, myths. They are just stories people made up. Evolution is something made with facts and those facts and theories built up over time.

3. “ atheists only believe that there is no higher deity, or god” “that's it” “any atheist can believe anything besides that, but still identify as atheist”

This is a statement made by Ryan Shaw (atheist) word for word. Basically, to consider yourself to be atheist, you don’t have  to believe in the big bang theory, or that the earth was created by a meteorite, you just don’t believe in a higher being. When you first look at religions they don’t look like they are similar. But for all their differences, they have similarities. For starters, in Wicca, there are Wiccans that believe in the big bang, a theory that many atheists believe in. also, in this link, it is said that the big bang theory could be viewed as proof that God exists. No matter how you view it, all of our beliefs can connect in some way.

CITATION Cline, Austin. "Evolution & Creationism." //About.com //. about.com, 03-Jun-2011. Web. 9 Nov 2011. .

Patrick, McCleary. "Wicca for Kids - Creation Story." //pagandad.com //. PaganDad, February 10, 2010. Web. .

Keohane, Jonathan. " Ask an Astrophysicist." //Nasa //. (1997): n. page. Web. 9 Nov. 2011. .
 * Overall summary of your learning from religion unit (focus on 2-3 general understandings).
 * Why did you choose this topic? What different things did you learn while researching and creating the project?
 * How do you feel about the final product? What are its strengths and what are its weaknesses?

This religion unit has taught me so much. I had so many negative views on other religions just because i never actually knew the details of them. I have learned to be more tolerant of other religions because of this religion unit. Actually, some of these religions and beliefs are kind of cool. I guess you could say I've come to learned how to enjoy other religions. I chose this topic because after doing the role plays, i felt that some of my personal beliefs touched on the beliefs of other religions so I want to see how much the connected. I feel good about the final project although I think their could have been more quotes, or more religions involved, but the I feel strong about my connections.