Steven Kemmerling 9/28/98 C.F. 2320 -
Honors Two-Worlds Model of Reality "In the beginning God created the
heavens and the Earth" (Gen
1:1). These words, along with the rest
in Genesis, and for that matter, the rest of the bible, seem to give a very
definite image of our Christian God
as an entity clearly different from the
humans he creates. Although He may walk and talk with Adam and Eve through the
Garden of Eden at the
beginning of Genesis, He soon exits the
human world to a more ethereal place far off in the heavens. Similarly, the
creation stories from the tribal
people in the Indian state Orissa seem
to hold the same concept that their gods too had at one time or another taken a
physical part in the creation
of their world, but they also went to
"live in the sky." The traditional two-worlds model of reality states
that some regions of reality, or "worlds",
are qualitatively different from others.
Often times, humans equate this model of reality of God (or gods) with
perfection and paradise, while the
reality of humans is devoted to the
attainment of this "other world." These ten creation stories support
the long held belief in a two-worlds model of
reality and that, although humans cannot
remove themselves from one reality to another, they can be conscious of it and
have interactions with it (or
those in it may interact with them).
According to these creation stories, as well as Genesis and Gilgamesh, in the
very beginning, there was but one
reality, that of the gods. The stories
then usually go that the gods either wanted somebody to keep them company or
worship to them (or both),
so, in their infinite wisdom, the gods
created humanity. This very creation of man is very interesting in that many of
the stories employ very similar
methods for the actual creation process.
In the first of these ten creation stories, the gods all take a little of their
blood and a little of the dirt on their
bodies and, after a few incantations,
fabricate man. The creation of Enkidu by Aruru in Gilgamesh is very similar as
she creates him "out of earth
and divine spittle the double"
(Gilgamesh 5). Even the Christian story of the creation of Adam entails similar
characteristics when God "formed man
of dust from the ground, and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life" (Gen 2:7). This reoccurring theme of
man being formed from the ground
seems to strengthen the thought that his
(i.e. man's) only reality can be the one he spends on earth, in tangible,
physical space, and that the gods are
only physically present during the
creation of man. The latter two of my previous examples also support the
thought of gods living in different,
separate realities. In Gilgamesh, the
gods obviously live in a different, supposedly "unreachable" reality
that none but Gilgamesh (who is part god)
may reach. And in the bible, God also
eventually removes himself from the world of the living man to Heaven, where
only the spirits of men may
go. The part of the two-worlds model of
reality that is perhaps most surprising is the amazing likeness of the gods to
the humans (or should it be
humans to gods?). Not only do the gods
shape man in their likeness as clearly stated in the bible or is implied in
some of these creation stories, but
they also act much in the same ways. In
the third creation story, Kittung Mahaprabhu (a supreme being) eats fruit, just
like man, something I would
never really expect a god to do (i.e.
eat). In the fourth creation story Kuraitsum, another god, has body hair which
he ends up using to raise up
trees and grass (who would ever expect a
god to be hairy anyway?). Perhaps the reason for such likeness between god and
man, as portrayed in
these stories, can best be explained by,
if the gods did not have such similar human characteristics, humans could never
fully comprehend or
quantify the concept of a being greater
than themselves. A good example of this is that people can much more easily
relate to Jesus Christ, who
was at both times man and God, than they
can with the Holy Spirit, a non-physical, ghostly apparition which is also God.
It may even be argued
that these likenesses between gods and
humans are necessary for the concept of a two-world model of reality to even be
possible. The amazing
likeness of man to gods may also help to
explain the seemingly good disposition gods have towards man in these stories.
One can reason that gods
would have a positive feeling towards
their creations just from common sense. I know that if were a great god and I
created the entire human race
in my likeness, I would want them to do
as well as possible. And, being their creator, I would have an almost
obligatory sense of kindness towards
them. The Christian concept of God
clearly reveals Him as a completely loving and caring god, one with the utmost
regard and concern for his
creations. The creator gods in the
second (Nirantali) and the third (Kittung Mahaprabhu) Orissa creation stories
show care and love towards man
when they provide the hunters with
stones to sharpen their axes with and seeds which bring about the creation of
mountains for hill-side farming.
However, one may argue that if the gods
are so well disposed towards man, why did they in many instances wipe out
almost the entire human race
with great flood? The best answer to
this is that, as with any invention, sometimes the creator messes up the first
time and wants to try again. In the
cases of the flood, if the gods did not
like humans, they would not have bothered to save any who would one day revamp
the entire human race.
Human life is not the easiest thing to
decipher, break down, and understand. The two-world model of reality helps
tremendously in attempting to
explain many of the motives and notions
which surround the human life and why humans do what they do. These ten
creation stories, which have
ancient roots in the tribes of India,
are just more examples of human attempts to understand and make tangible human
life and its purpose and
beginnings. By creating a two-world
model of reality to separate the gods (the non-understandable and intangible)
from man (the understandable
and tangible), much is helped to be
deciphered, broken down and explained.
Word Count: 1095
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