OOH CANADA!

Hello again everyone! Very sorry for the late post, this has been a troubling past few weeks for all of us I am sure, but despite that, I still am very excited for this blog post!

The question I chose is something that really caught my eye when I was first looking at the list of questions for assignment 3:5: What are the major differences or similarities between the ethos of the creation story or stories you are familiar with and the story King tells in The Truth About Stories? 

To begin dissecting this question I will first point out that I was never taught of a specific story of the creation of ethos, but being around my peers had a large influence on different stories I was exposed to. One of my friends told me about a meteor hitting earth and killing the dinosaurs, and that meteor carried a human being! Crazy right? Well, she did not seem to think so. Another story I was exposed to a lot in my youth was the Big Bang Theory. The most common story I heard growing up in a Western world was the biblical story of genesis creation. Whether you have heard of this story of creation or not, I did find some comparisons between the story of Genesis, the Big Bang Theory, and the story King tells in The Truth About Stories.

A brief summarized story of Genesis is that it is founded on the principles that humans were created by God, and before God created the universe the earth was ‘formless and desolate’. The creation of the earth by God happened over seven days. The first daylight was created, the second day the sky and the third day consisted of land seas, plants, and trees being created. The fourth day was the creation of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The fifth day was the creation of creatures and the sixth day was animals. By the seventh day, God had completed the creation and this marked a ‘holy’ day.

Now I will provide you all with a brief explanation of the Big Bang Theory. The Big Bang Theory differs greatly from Genesis because it is based on principles of science, and in easy terms, it posits that our universe began with a singularity that has evolved and expanded over 13.7 billion years into what we see today. Scientists have found a thermal imprint of the ‘Big Bang’ which further proves that it happened. This inflation from the ‘Big Bang’ provided dark energy that made the universe smooth out and accelerate, then convert into ordinary matter and evolve. The Big Bang Theory argues that the universe is constantly expanding still to this day.
King’s Truth About Stories where he discusses the story of The Woman Who Fell From the Sky is much more similar to the biblical story of Genesis than it is to the Big Bang in many ways. The main similarity would be the idea of a ‘creator’ that created earth, land, people, animals, etc. in comparison to a scientific atom expanding. God created everything in seven days, and Charm and her Twins created the landmasses, mountains, forests, and human beings on Earth (18-20).

Another comparison is the role that gender plays in both the Genesis and King’s stories. In the story of Genesis, Eve is primarily the one to blame for Original Sin even though both Adam and Eve could have been equally to blame. This posits a misogynistic view and negation towards female roles placing the blame on the woman and taking it away from the man. In contrast, the story of Charm describes a woman who is the reason that Earth is what it is today, placing her in a superior role contrasting the inferior role Eve is placed in. 

Upon reflecting on the story of Charm, the Big Bang Theory, and the Biblical Story of Genesis, I found many similarities and differences, but the main characteristic of each of them is what they are based on. The Big Bang is based on factual science, Genesis is based on excerpts from the bible and Christianity, and the story of Charm has similarities but is told in a different era and emphasis is placed on the woman.

I really enjoyed this blog post and it allowed me to look back into my past experiences and my childhood! I felt like this was a great outlet amidst all of the chaos that has been happening recently. I hope everyone remains happy and healthy throughout the COVID-19 outbreak and I wish everyone peace.

Thank you,

Maya 🙂

Works Cited

Howell, Elizabeth. “What Is the Big Bang Theory?” Space.com, Space, 7 Nov. 2017, www.space.com/25126-big-bang-theory.html.

“BibleGateway.” Genesis 1 GNT – – Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1&version=GNT.

King, Thomas, “The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative.” CBC Massey Lectures. CBC Ideas. Web. April 04/2013. . http://www.cbc.ca/ideas