The second creation story is found in Genesis 2, this story tells us of what God does with man. It tells us that God created man “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7. Then it goes onto to explain how God had planted a beautiful garden with trees and bushes of every kind, with good food growing on them in bountiful quantities. And there, in the middle of the garden, were the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God told man he could eat from any tree in the garden, except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, as he said that that if man did then they would die because of it. God then created all other living creatures and brought man to them to name them. Then God decided it was right for man to have a companion. So God put man to sleep and took one of mans ribs from him and closed up the hole with flesh. God used the rib taken from the man to make a woman. Man awoke and said “the man said, “This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman’ for she was taken out of man” Genesis 2:23. Christians probably believe either Genesis 1 or Genesis 2 as they are quite different. In Genesis 1, Vegetation and animals were made before man but in Genesis 2 man was made first and then got a say in the other creations –e.g. naming the animals. Some Christians do believe in both genesis 1 and 2 and 3 also; they may believe that as the stories have been passed down through generation to generation and re-written and re-written again they may have changed from each other slightly- like a game of ancient Chinese Whispers. Usually you call these Christians who believe in the whole of Genesis, Creationists.
The third creation story is found in Genesis 3, it leads on from genesis 2, where Adam and eve are in the Garden of Eden. It tells us how the snake tempts Eve to eat from the tree of Knowledge “The woman said to the serpent, “we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die.”
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ” Genesis 3:2-4. So Eve is intrigued and eats, passing some to Adam who also eats an apple from the tree. Then their eyes open and they realise they are naked, so make clothes to cover their bodies. Then God found them and discovered what had happened. So he cursed the snake with having to crawl on its belly and eat dust the rest of its life. Then woman was cursed as she will have pain in child birth and her desire will be to please her husband, who rules over her. Then man is cursed with working hard labour the whole of his life- “To Adam he said, “because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, “You must not eat of it”, cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all of the days of your life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3:17-19. After this God banishes Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden to live on the ground they were made from. Then, as if man was to eat from the tree of life would become immortal, God places a cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. Usually if you are going to believe this story you believe Genesis 2 aswell, as it could be argued that they go together in a ‘pair’. However, if you were a female Christian you might just believe in Genesis 2 alone, as God is basically saying women live to serve men and reproduce (“To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you” Genesis 3:16) and to this most women might find quite offensive and demoralising- as nowadays women can do whatever they like, and are not tied down to just being at home cooking and looking after the kids. So, maybe, a more non-literal Christian may not take this story seriously (and think of it as nothing more than “a story”) because of the unfairness to women. Also, women are breaking free of this mould. Women are working now and are very high up in important jobs- so does this show that this Genesis isn’t believed in as much- or that people think that that aspect doesn’t appeal to our life now.
You can see that Christian beliefs about creation vary greatly; there are creationists that believe 100% in what is written in Genesis, ignoring the faults by saying they were altered over time, and probably all connected one day. There are those who just believe in the second and third parts of Genesis, the parts where Adam and Eve are created then are deceived by the devil in the form of a snake, so God banishes them. And those who believe in none of the Creation stories, who believe they are just that; stories. Or some Christians might not believe in the bible at all, and have their own independent view on how God created the world. Or even, that science has a part to play, that there was a Big Bang but God was behind that, thus supporting the Cosmological theory of the first cause. Deists believe that God created the world, then sat back and let it run on it’s own. So they might believe in how Adam and Eve were thrown out of Eden, so God could no longer be a part of our physical lives. But, Deists do not believe in miracles and the answering of prayers, because they think that God is not active in this world anymore. Theists would believe that God’s creation must be true, seeing as He is omnipotent. They believe in miracles because they think that God is immanent and transcendent. Creatio ex Nihilo is when Christians believe God created everything out of nothing, so they would believe in Genesis 1, because it suggests there how God created the world and everything in it out of nothing. There are non-literal Christians who believe that the bible should be re-interpreted into modern day life, because some of the Creation stories don’t relate to the 21st Century…or are now proved to be inaccurate.
However, all these views mainly began to develop due to Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution. He stated that we were descended from apes and smaller mammals, and evolved through a theory called natural selection—when the stronger, more able and better adapted survived and went on to reproduce. But, when Christians first heard this, the majority were absolutely horrified. They were revolted by the thought that they were descended from a monkey! They must have found it unsettling and a lack of comfort in comparison to their religion. They preferred thinking about how they were created by an all powerful God, being carefully planned out and made with affection, rather than just evolving from a species less “intelligent” than us. So, initially, most of the Christian views were the same before Science came along and started to challenge it with new ideas and theories.
But, even before Charles Darwin came along with the Scientific view. Christians had diverse ideas to each other. Protestants and Catholics are both Christian but believe in different things in the bible and interpret in different ways. The way they pray to God is unlike each other (Catholics believe that you cant have direct communication through to God, the prayer has to be done through the priest, or the various Saints or the Madonna. They thought that by having many beautiful paintings or statues and various amounts of finery it would please God. However, but when Henry VIII created Protestantism all the beautiful things were got rid of, and that you could talk directly to God, making him more personal.) So why shouldn’t the way they see creation be also different. So, maybe even before, there was never a “fixed” way of thinking about creation, because there is always going to be someone who disagrees, even if they keep their opinions to themselves.
Subsequently, no-matter how Christians believe the Earth was created, it must have been a gruelling task for whomever or whatever was doing it. Just look at all the plants and animals, so beautiful and complex. Even our bodies, a miracle in their own right, how everything works so well and how everyone is different. Also how we come to understand how everything works, but perhaps that is the problem. How we must find a complete and total “end all” answer to everything. But the lovely thing is that religion doesn’t have to do that, it allows you to have faith in what you believe, without needing proof or answers. So yes, Christians believe different things about creation, but isn’t that what God supposedly gave us the freedom to do? To believe what you want.
