Quotessence
Home / Topics / Creation Myths Quotes

Creation Myths Quotes

Browse 24 quotes about Creation Myths.

Creation Myths Quotes

“Creationists have also changed their name ... to intelligent design theorists who study 'irreducible complexity' and the 'abrupt appearance' of life—yet more jargon for 'God did it.' ... Notice that they have no interest in replacing evolution with native American creation myths or including the Code of Hammurabi alongside the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.”

SchoolScienceEvolutionNative AmericanFirst AmendmentSuperstitionSeparation Of Church And StateTen CommandmentsMythsJargonPseudoscienceIntelligent DesignOrigin Of LifeSophistryCreation MythsCreationistsGod Did ItIrreducible ComplexityHammurabiCode Of HammurabiGoddidit
Author:Michael Shermer
Create image

“A creation myth lays the foundation for how you got here, where you came from, and what your role is now that you’re here. Depending on the civilization and myth, it can tell you who’s in charge and what they value. There’s something interesting about the power of narrative. How can a story from so long ago influence so many people for so long?”

StoriesPowerMythNarrativePower Of WordsAnthropologyNote To SelfCreation MythsIdeas And StoriesMyth As Narrative
Author:Eric Overby
Create image

“The image of the Serpent, because of its association with life, rejuvenation, fertility, and regeneration, was a symbol of immortality. The coiled Serpent with its tail in its mouth was a circle of infinitude indicating omnipotence and omniscience. The Serpent, depicted in several successive rings, represented cyclical evolution and reincarnation. In ancient philosophy or mythological systems, creation and wisdom were closely bound together, and the Serpent was a potent symbol of both. It is in this capacity that the Serpent appears in the Babylonian and Sumerian mythologies, which contain elements akin to the Genesis story. The Serpent has the power to bestow immortality but also has the power to cheat humankind. In many of the ancient Near Eastern stories—for instance, the Gilgamesh Epic and myth of Adapa—the Serpent holds out the promise of immortality but then cheats man at the last minute.”

MythologyGenesisSymbolismSerpentCreation MythsAncient PhilosophyGilgameshFeminist TheologySumerianBabylonian
Book:The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion, and Power in Celtic Ireland
Create image

“If the students were taught about shuttle flights, plate tectonics and submarine volcanoes, they were also immersed in the traditional myths of their culture—the ancient story, for example, of how the island of Pohnpei had been built under the direction of a mystical octopus, Lidakika. (I was fascinated by this, for it was the only cephalopod creation myth I had ever heard.”

MythologyCreation MythsCephalopodsPohnpei
Book:The Island of the Colorblind
Create image

“Just as Prometheus delivered stolen fire to man, so Eve, and the serpent, delivered man into self-consciousness, setting him up, were it not for his short lifespan, as rival to God. At the same time, man’s self-consciousness removed him from nature into a life of toil, doubt, fear, guilt, shame, blame, enmity, loneliness, and frailty—and the product of this separation, the fruit and flower of this exile, is, of course, culture. ‘God,’ said the writer Victor Hugo, ‘made only water, but man made wine.”

ReligionCultureConsciousnessWineGreek MythologyBible StudyCreation Myths
Book:For Better For Worse: Should I Get Married?
Create image

“Apropos of Eskimo, I once heard a missionary describe the extraordinary difficulty he had found in translating the Bible into Eskimo. It was useless to talk of corn or wine to a people who did not know even what they meant, so he had to use equivalents within their powers of comprehension. Thus in the Eskimo version of the Scriptures the miracle of Cana of Galilee is described as turning the water into blubber; the 8th verse of the 5th chapter of the First Epistle of St. Peter ran: ‘Your adversary the devil, as a roaring Polar bear walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.’ In the same way ‘A land flowing with milk and honey’ became ‘A land flowing with whale’s blubber,’ and throughout the New Testament the words ‘Lamb of God’ had to be translated ‘little Seal of God,’ as the nearest possible equivalent. The missionary added that his converts had the lowest opinion of Jonah for not having utilised his exceptional opportunities by killing and eating the whale.”

HumorFunnyCultureWhalesCreation MythsPolar BearEskimo
Book:The Days Before Yesterday
Create image

“Myths, as compared with folk tales, are usually in a special category of seriousness: they are believed to have "really happened,"or to have some exceptional significance in explaining certain features of life, such as ritual. Again, whereas folk tales simply interchange motifs and develop variants, myths show an odd tendency to stick together and build up bigger structures. We have creation myths, fall and flood myths, metamorphose and dying-god myths.”

ShowsTogetherCertainFallHappenedSpecialDyingCreationBiggerStructureSticksFolksMythTalesTendenciesOddFeaturesSignificanceRitualCategoriesFloodExceptionalExplainingSeriousnessMotifsInterchangeCreation Myths
Book:Educated Imagination and Other Writings on Critical Theory, 1933-1962
Create image

“We are not perfect. What god is Examine yours. According to your mythos he was so disappointed with his initial efforts creating your race that he tried again. At least we imprisoned our mistakes. Your god permits his to roam free. At a mere few thousand years old your creation myths are far more absurd than ours.”

YearsPerfectEffortRaceMistakeCreationThousandCreatingMereMythAbsurdDisappointedPermitThousand YearsInitialsNot PerfectCreation Myths
Book:Shadowfever: Fever Series
Create image

“Creationists have also changed their name ... to intelligent design theorists who study 'irreducible complexity' and the 'abrupt appearance' of life-yet more jargon for 'God did it.' ... Notice that they have no interest in replacing evolution with native American creation myths or including the Code of Hammarabi alongside the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools.”

SchoolScienceNamesInterestStudyDesignCreationChangedEvolutionTenIntelligentIncludingAppearanceMythCodeComplexityNativeNative AmericanCommandmentsScience And ReligionPublic SchoolTen CommandmentsTheoristsJargonIntelligent DesignCreation Myths
Author:Michael Shermer
Create image

“Today our duty is to destroy the myth of evolution, considered as a simple, understood, and explained phenomenon which keeps rapidly unfolding before us. Biologists must be encouraged to think about the weaknesses and extrapolations that theoreticians put forward or lay down as established truths. The deceit is sometimes unconscious, but not always, since some people, owing to their sectarianism, purposely overlook reality and refuse to acknowledge the inadequacies and falsity of their beliefs.”

PeopleThinkingSometimesRealityTodayBeliefSimpleDutyEvolutionUnderstoodWeaknessLaysRefuseMythAcknowledgeUnconsciousDeceitPhenomenonUnfoldingInadequacyOwingBiologistSectarianismBe EncouragedFalsityCreation Myths
Author:Louis Agassiz
Create image