Different mythical accounts of creation were dreamed up by different people from all over the world. It was the only possible way for them to be able to explain the unknown. There was no other way to satisfy the people's curiosity. Myths are not facts.

A good number of the following creation myths have been gathered from an excellent illustrated book 'World Mythology', general editor Roy Willis, Duncan Bah-d Publishers.

The first recorded myth of creation is found in "The Epic of Gilgamesh". Published by Penguin Press. We now have a recent translation by Andrew George from clay tablets dated about 2400 B.C. It tells us that there was the Mother Goddess Ninsun, the lady of the gods who first created men with the help of another resourceful god Ea. "The clay that Ea gave the Mother Goddess as the raw material from which she bore mankind, was animated (given spirit) by mixing it with the blood of a god."

A Chinese creation story tells us, Nu-Gua came down from heaven. One day she saw her own reflection in some water. She was feeling lonely so she gathered some clay and made a copy of herself. When she put the model down, it sprang to life and danced about. Nu-Gua then made a host of copies of herself, they all sprang to life, made quite a noise and danced about having fun together. Finally she taught those people how to produce children. Her husband Fu Xi became the first emperor of them all.

For the Egyptians the event that marked the beginning of time was the rising of the first dry land from the primeval waters and the lotus which rose out of the water and opened to reveal an infant god. The Sun worshipping Egyptians had many gods. In another creation myth from Egypt the god Khnum shaped animals, humans and gods out of clay on a potters wheel and breathed into them the breath of life.

The Dayak people of Borneo say that the world began with two spirits. One formed the sky and the other formed the earth. The spirits then decided to make human beings. They tried to make mankind from the sap of trees but they could not give it life. They then shaped humans from soil and brought them to life with bird-spirit cries.

In one of the creation stories of Malaysia two divinities decided to make human beings. Their first attempt using stone failed because stone was too rigid. Then they tried wood but that also failed because it rotted. For the third attempt they fashioned humankind from the earth of a termite mound which was successful.

The Tibetan and Mongolian gods created the first man and woman out of clay and breathed into them the breath of life. So did the South American god Viracocho model humans from clay and breathed into them the breath of life. The gods of several other societies did the same. I found fifteen creation stories, including the Hebrew creation myth found in Gen. 2:7. where the gods used clay or earth to make a human model and a god breathed into it the breath of life. There are many other creation myths.

The Polynesian creation myth has Rangi the male sky mating with Papa the female earth to produce two sons, each of whom personified a division of nature. The sons needed more space to

live an active life, so they succeeded in pushing the sky up and away from the earth. They then made the first female, Hine-hau-one from earth. Tane the god of forests and birds was the first-born of the sons of heaven. He fertilised Hine who bore a daughter Hine-titama. Tane took his daughter to be his wife. Hine-titama's horror on learning that her father and her husband were the same person provided the first taboo on incest.

Another popular idea is the primal egg. The Vedic hymns of India refer to a primal egg from which the first deity arose. The purpose of the deity was to make order out of disorder. Brahma of India is said to have created a young woman from his own body. They then together, started to build the human race.

There are many creation myths which start with the idea of a primal or cosmic egg. Sometimes the egg explodes to reveal a single deity or two deities in opposition to each other, one to create order and the other chaos, m another story, the egg produces both white light and blackness. White tight produced joy, vitality, prosperity and many beneficent gods. The blackness brought misery, disease, misfortune, drought, pain and all kinds of demons. In Africa the idea of a cosmic egg is widespread. Egypt uses a cosmic egg in relation to snakes. China has at least two stories of the primal egg from which creation started. Creation stories are myths started by the imagination of early humans to solve questions of where did we come from, how did the human race start? There are literally dozens of creation myths. With few exceptions all nations invented stories from their own imagination which seemed to give reasonable answers to their questions.