Forsaken Rational

One misconception that people have about mythology is that it was hailed as a religion. When one is to make a correlation between an established religion like Christianity and a poem like Theogony which was retold through out generations for entertainment value, there are questions that surface. Since religion is a belief that requires faith and entertainment doesn't require the same attributes then little is present to compare. The only way one can successfully relate one point of view to the other is if one removes the religious value of both sides and simply compares the stories each one tells. To my disappointment, I realized that this is more difficult than previously anticipated.

The first, if not only noticeable similarity between the biblical passages of Genesis and Theogony is that the source of the beginning of things is defined with an absolute that there was something that existed before anything in the story happened. When the bible states "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth" (Gen.1:1 NLT) it implies that God was already in existence. When Theogony states "In the beginning there was only Chaos" pg. 64 (Hesiod; Works and Days: Theogony) it implies, depending upon interpretation, that Chaos, if Chaos was a personification of a deity, that Chaos existed before anything else did.

From this point, the two texts become obviously different. The Theogony description includes several entities that create for no apparent reason, while the biblical passage has the same creator throughout the entire process and the purpose is to give mankind a place to dwell.

Another observation is the Theogony account of creation is filled with deceit, betrayal, sexual motivation and selfishness while the book of Genesis seems to be motivated out of pure love of a creation. There seems to be some god getting mad at another god or some father getting angry at their offspring on every other page. When the stories weave themselves around each other, the entertainment qualities present themselves. Use of the imagination is essential.

When reading Genesis, there was a feeling of protection, meekness and humble generosity. Behind every act there was a sense of purpose and a logical explanation to why God would do something. It's like the author of Genesis wanted the reader to understand why things happened and to not only give an account of events. The bible does present its content in a way which might be less fascinating but it is less likely to confuse the reader. The wording is still largely reliant upon translation and presents concepts in such a simple way that might not make sense. For example the verse that says "let there be space between the waters, to separate the waters from the waters" (Gen. 1:9 NLT), tends to leave the reader wondering if "water from the waters" means that there were two kinds of waters, or if the water was split in half, or if only certain elements of water were taken from each other, or if the water was