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gravity or black holes or quantum uncertainty play roles versality and openness to testing of modern scientific ac-
similar to those of gods or other mythic creatures in tra- counts of the past explain a final, crucial difference: their
ditional creation stories. Finally, to an educated person unwillingness to invoke anthropomorphic or spiritual
today, modern origin stories have the same feeling of explanations for origins. Such explanations are ruled out
truth that traditional creation myths had for those by modern science because they are too flexible to pro-
brought up within them. Because of these many similar- vide rigorous, refutable explanations, and therefore can-
ities, it seems reasonable to suggest that modern “scien- not be subjected to the strict rules of testing that under-
tific” historiography, particularly in the form of world pin modern science.
history, can play many of the roles that creation myths As this discussion suggests, world history is perhaps
played in the past. not so different from traditional creation myths. It, too,
Yet there are also important differences. It is tempting represents an attempt to tell the story of origins. But its
to claim that modern scientific accounts of the past are audience is global, and to generate the feeling of “truth-
truer than those of traditional creation stories. Such fulness” that all creation myths aspire to from a world-
claims may be true, but they need to be made with care. wide audience it must try to tell its origin stories without
Even modern origin stories are anchored in time and any taint of cultural bias, and with careful testing for rigor
place, so in the future they will undoubtedly seem naive and objectivity.
and primitive in some respects, as traditional creation sto-
David Christian
ries do today. Furthermore, all creation stories have some-
thing to teach outsiders insofar as they offer different ways See also Universe, Origins of
of thinking about reality. For example, many environ-
mentalists have argued that modern societies need to
recapture the sense of being a part of the natural world Further Reading
that is so pervasive in the creation stories of foraging soci- Berry,T. (1988). The dream of the earth. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
Brockway, R. W. (1993). Myth from the Ice Age to Mickey Mouse.New
eties. A clearer difference is that scientific origin stories York: State University of New York Press.
(like modern science in general) aim at universality.They Christian, D. (2004). Maps of time: An introduction to big history. Berke-
ley: University of California Press.
expect to be believed not just by a single culture, but by
Griaule, M. (1975). Conversations with Ogotemmeli. Oxford, UK: Oxford
all educated people on earth. To earn such universal University Press.
respect, they require a flexibility and openness that was McNeill,W. H. (1985). Mythistory and other essays. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
lacking in many creation stories, for they have to appeal O’Flaherty,W. D. (1981). The Rig Veda. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.
to intelligent people from many different cultural back- Samuel, R., & Thompson, P. (Eds.). (1990). The myths we live by. Lon-
don: Routledge.
grounds, and they have to be able to incorporate new
Sproul, B. (1991). Primal myths: Creation myths around the world. San
information.This requires a constant testing of hypothe- Francisco: Harper Collins.
ses and details to avoid the parochialism of most tra- von Franz, M.-L. (1972). Creation myths. Dallas,TX: Spring Publications.
ditional creation myths. Because modern scientific his-
toriography (like science in general) appeals to a global
audience, the tests to which it is subjected are numerous
and thorough. (Unlike Ogotemmeli, we now know from Crusades, The
direct experience what the moon is made of and how
large it is.) Modern creation stories can claim to be truer he word “crusade,” derived from the Old Spanish
than traditional creation myths insofar as the information Tcruzada, is best translated as “an undertaking
they contain has been more carefully tested, and as a marked by a cross” and most commonly means a Chris-
result they feel true to a much wider audience. The uni- tian holy war.The original goal of the Crusades was the