Creation stories are an essential aspect to not only religion but certain cultures. Coming from a Catholic family, my upbringing was primarily based around religious practices, beliefs, and of course, stories. The story of Genesis is an integral part of the Catholic religion, and my parents and grandparents, even my teachers, made sure I knew about the creation of the world and how humans came to be (but in a very diluted version). I also learnt about other creation stories, for instance, the story King tells about the world created on a turtle’s back but a more basic rendition of his. However, I was taught to believe it was purely a story versus the creation story of Adam and Eve, which carries far more importance and relevance for many religions. This is the reason why King gives us the analysis that depends on comparing two stories to show their differences. People often fall into the trap of “follow the leader,” or to be more specific, tend to believe what others define as real. By telling the two creation stories in a different narration, King emphasizes the typical reaction and perception that each story receives. “Genesis” is considered the actual story of creation while “The Earth Diver” is understood, for a majority of people, as a myth, a story that has no real substance behind it. 

I remember being told the story of the earth being created on a turtle’s back when I was around eight years old. Now in my twenties, the story of Adam and Eve is a subject that is constantly brought up or discussed in my literature classes and I find it has more significance for an older demographic. Why is this the case? Why are we meant to consider one story as sacred and anything else to be just stories? It’s difficult to define since I consider myself Catholic and unfortunately grew up with this mindset. Yet, looking at it from a different perspective or questioning this aspect of my religion somewhat challenges my pre-determined beliefs. I think especially as I grow out of the restriction of my views based on my parents, I see things differently that make me question things I hadn’t given much thought to before. I then started thinking about the concept of creation stories and why we even have them in the first place, which brought me to two interesting articles. Julian Baggini discusses the reasoning behind creation stories which she explains:  

Without an idea of cause and effect, we would be utterly incapable of making sense of the world around us. The problem, however, is that all we observe is one darn thing after another: we never actually see one thing causing something else. Nor do we have sound rational reasons for leaping from observations of regularity to the conclusion that two things are linked by some necessary connection. 

The notion of our lack of rationale for using stories to make sense of the world is a prominent aspect of what King is trying to show us. We tend to understand things through other explanations, but how do we know that explanation is correct or the right one to believe? King emphasizes the believability of one story over the other because he is demonstrating how people dictate things, which is primarily based on others’ interpretations. 

Works Cited

Baggini, Julian. “Why do we have creation myths?” The Guardian, 28 March 2006, https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2006/mar/28/features11.g21

Hansen, Liane and David Leeming. “Exploring the World’s Creation Myths”. NPR, 13 November 2005, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5010951