What does the creation story mean?

Answer 1

There are two creation stories in Genesis, the first at Genesis 1:1-2:4a and the second at Genesis 2:4b-25, written by two different authors and at widely different times. People have always wanted to know how we came to be here, and these are two early attempts to provide the answer.

The first creation story portrays God as all-powerful, able to create the sun, moon and stars, and all living things merely by speaking them into existence. This was written during or shortly after the Babylonian Exile by an anonymous source now known as the Priestly Source. The preferred name for God used by this source was El Shaddai, meaning 'God Almighty'.

In the second creation story, God's powers are more limited, and he can not make living things out of nothing. He models Adam and the animals out of wet dirt, then Eve out of a rib from Adam. He places them in a garden paradise, where they commit the first sin. This story is much earlier in Judaism and is attributed to an anonymous source now known as the Yahwist. Leon R. Kass (The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis) says we can learn most from the story of Adam and Eve by regarding it as a mythical yet realistic portrait of permanent truths about our humanity, rather than as a historical yet idealised portrait of a blissful existence we once enjoyed but lost.

For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/the-story-of-creation

Answer 2

The account of Creation, which is contained in Genesis ch.1 and 2, means that the creator of the universe is God. This teaches us that God exists, that our lives and the world are meaningful, and that the created things may be assumed to contain vast wisdom in their beautiful and purposeful design. (In recent decades, this wisdom has indeed been partially revealed, through increasingly powerful microscopes.)Evolution through random mutations, on the other hand, may be understood as implying that life is an accident, that perceived beauty and wisdom are ultimately purposeless, and that our instinctive yearning for the Eternal is just an electrical impulse in our brain.

See also:

http://religion.answers.com/controversy/is-there-evidence-against-evolution

http://judaism.answers.com/jewish-philosophy/can-you-prove-that-god-exists

According to tradition, there is only one Genesis creation-narrative, with ch.2 serving as an expansion of the brevity of ch.1, not a separate set of events (Rashi commentary, Gen.2:8). In ch.1, God created the universe from nothing (Exodus 20:11, Isaiah 40:28; Maimonides' "Guide," 2:30; Targum and Nachmanides on Gen. 1:1; Rashi commentary, Gen.1:14), and in ch.2, God performed specific acts within the broader picture.While Judaism has always seen the Torah as an intricate tapestry that nonetheless had one Divine source, some modern authors such as Wellhausen (the father of modern Biblical-criticism, 1844-1918) have suggested artificially chopping up the narrative and attributing it to various authors, despite the Torah's explicit statement as to its provenance (Exodus 24:12, Deuteronomy 31:24). This need not concern believers, since his claims have been debunked one by one, as Archaeology and other disciplines have demonstrated the integrity of the Torah. No fragments have ever been found that would support his Documentary Hypothesis, which remains nothing more than an arbitrary claim:

http://religion.answers.com/theory/debunking-the-jepd-documentary-hypothesis

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=6&article=1131(a Christian author)