Creation Stories and Flood Narratives

Purpose:  Practice comparing and contrasting creation and/or flood stories.  This discussion should build your critical reading and analysis skills, as well as help prepare you for your essays later in the course and other analytical tasks in life.  Keep in mind that, as the Creation Stories and Flood Narratives page states, your central concern is to understand what these features reveal about the relationship between the divine creators and their creation, especially human beings. 

Tasks:  Use the steps below to write 1-2 full paragraphs connected to the purpose and overarching themes in the readings for this unit.

1. Start by deciding whether you want to write on either the flood narratives or the creation narratives.  Once you have made that decision, then:
2. Select a relevant passage of your own choosing from one of the creation or flood stories (either Mesopotamian, Ovidian, or Aboriginal, depending on which option you chose above).  Choose carefully, thinking about how this passage might speak to both overarching themes and the bolded text in the Purpose, above.
3. Now, re-read the Genesis reading, and select a passage from it to compare and contrast to your chosen story.  How do the two creation/flood stories differ, and how is that difference significant or important?  How do the passages you have chosen reflect those similarities or differences?  You might want to sketch out your initial thoughts in lists, a concept map, or whatever note format helps you the most.
4. Structure and revise your initial thoughts into 1-2 robust, well-developed paragraphs, using both of the passages you have selected as evidence to support your ideas, and post them in the discussion.
5. Respond substantively to at least two of your classmates’ posts, explaining why you agree or disagree with them (and you may agree with some parts and disagree with others).  Include other thoughts you may have about their topic and ideas.  Include a quotation to support each of your responses.

Criteria on which you will be graded:

• Your selection of passages to support your argument is thoughtful
• Your analysis is specific and original
• Your post speaks to the relationship between the divine creators and their creation, especially human beings
• Your responses to your classmates are respectful and substantive
• Your writing is clear and well-organized