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Religion has always been an important element in many cultures throughout history. From the very first religions to the ones practiced widely today, people as a whole value religion greatly. However, religion itself is not the only thing that humans' beliefs have in common. Many stories from different religions and different places in the world have very similar stories and ideas about how the universe was created and how it works.
First off, both the Mayan story of Popul Vuh and the Hebrew story of Genesis show all powerful beings, or, in the case of Genesis, a single being, creating the human race, but then becoming disappointed or upset with their creation and destroying it to create a better one. In Popul Vuh, the gods attempt to…show more content… The story says, "there was nothing in their hearts and nothing in their minds, no memory of their mason and builder" (Popul Vuh). Because of this, the gods destroy the manikins with a flood and four beings: Gouger of Faces, Sudden Bloodletter, Crunching Jaguar, and Tearing Jaguar. The last and final material used to try make humans is staple foods such as corn. This last try is successful, and both the gods and the humans are happy. In Genesis, God creates the first two humans, Adam and Eve. After Eve eats the fruit from the tree and commits the first sin, it opens up the door for future humans to sin. Much later, when humans have grown and multiplied as a group, God sees that, "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," (Noah and the Flood) and decides to start over. Commanding Noah to collect himself and his family, along with two of every animal, God gives specific instructions on how to build an ark. After the ark is built, God floods the earth and kill all living besides Noah, his family, and the animals on the boat. Even though God does not create a new version of a human like in Popul Vuh, he still…show more content… In Genesis, the reason humans are removed from the Garden of Eden and punished is because Eve, the first woman, eats from the tree of knowledge. Earlier in the story, God says, "...of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat it" (Genesis). However, Eve does not do this out of spite for God; she does it because she is curious and wants to know more. She, Adam, and the serpent are then punished by God for disobeying him. In the story of Popul Vuh, on the third and final attempt of the gods to make a human, the material for the construction being staple foods, the human turns out too perfect, and is essentially a god itself. They say, "We have understood everything, great and small" (Popul Vuh). The gods do not punish the humans, like in the story of Genesis, but they do remove a small piece of them in order to make them less god-like. Many religions have a story telling why humans do not have all knowledge. After all, many stories do states that humans are superior to all other living things, so why would they not know more than the other creatures? Ancient people and religions were likely confused by the world around them and wanted an explanation for why things were not simpler and easier for them. The idea that the gods do not want them to understand completely and that understanding the world around them is something only the gods can do provides a sense of