I created a post on this before, and now have an update. 75% of Native Americans, have a Creation "story". They believed in what is called Spiritualism. Here is the premise of that belief: they concluded from observing Nature, that in all of its complexity and interconnectedness, that there had to be a Creator. So, without having knowledge of a Judeo/Christian God or Bible...arrived at the conclusion of a Creator. Thoughts and comments???
To see this working, head to your live site.
Search
Manny Young
Oct 29, 2017
Creation and the Native American
Creation and the Native American
4 comments
0
I just found this post. Wish it would’ve gained some traction for discussion.
The fact is that they're (American Indians) animists. My family are Indians (uggh, Native American, blech) down one side and they're all old school animists. They go by the idea that everything that is in the world that is not created by man, in that system of beliefs, has a spirit which is in some way related to or put there by "the great spirit" which itself is generally amorphous and ill described, even for a deity. Looked at dispassionately you may be struck by how little the Great Spirit is seemingly involved with the spiritual/supernatural world after imbuing bits of it with their own spirits.
What people should avoid is thinking that the analogy goes an inch further than that Indians believe in something supernatural because the similarity really ends there. Creation stories among Indians vary wildly but one thing historically (before Europeans eradicated the old cultures and put their descendants onto reservations) has been fairly common, to near universality, among Indians: We (I have enough blood to include myself as an Indian ethnically and do on many official documents) do not speak of the dead.
Once someone is dead and gone, their history and any history that involves them dies with them. So, there's no way to communicate the kind of lessons that the Abrahamic religions teach because those are all framed in allegory's of people of the past. Also, the system of beliefs doesn't really dictate behavior of the individual the way most other religions do and there's no real "law" handed down from the Creator. He/She just made stuff. They don't decide how the stuff they made should use the other stuff they made. Really, there is absolutely zero in common from any monotheistic or even polytheistic religion of the old world to the animist belief (which is separate from a religion) except for explaining the mundane via the supernatural.
Years ago, most scientists used to be religious, and I think one reason is that nature is so complex that is does make one believe that there might/must have been a creator. On the other hand, I do believe that each major civilization also has saviors and or prophets that impart real spiritual wisdom to those seeking God.
I watched a video explaining the Chinese written language where they reveal the symbols or characters are based on a.) one God, b.) the garden of Eden, 1st man and woman, c.) Noah's ark and other biblical stories like the division at the tower of Babel and more ........... all of which was invented 2500yrs before Christ and well before Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and other historic languages. (see : https://tinyurl.com/y7fkabbn