God created Earth, changing it from darkness to light, bland to beautiful. A Garden was at the centre of it, full of everything that could be considered good in the natural world, including a tree full of knowledge. It was now a place full of life, light, and beauty — but something was missing.
To complete Earth, God took some dust from the ground that was full of plants and fashioned a creature. Then, God named the creature “Humankind”.
God placed the Human in the Garden, but the Human seemed lonely, even amongst all of the life that was around. Seeing this, God created another Human, this time from the dust that rested beneath the first Human.
The two were happy, as they were now each other’s partners. To complete the process, God called upon the two to choose their life-partner’s name.
The first thought of God’s name for the two of them and named the second “Woman”. Woman smiled and was transformed.
Women looked to the other being and decided to also honour God’s name, and so she named the other Human “Man”, watching as he also transformed.
God commanded Woman and Man to live with love and prosperity, but God also warned them not to eat from the large, fruitful Tree in the middle. Woman and Man accepted these rules and lived together, happy in their choice of partner, and spread love to the Earth that surrounded them.
One day, however, a Serpent entered the Garden, wanting to cause God and God’s creations pain. The Serpent found Man and Woman near the centre of the Garden, tending to the flowers of God.
Climbing the forbidden Tree, the Serpent spoke: “This Tree and its fruit hold great knowledge and understanding. Surely you both want what it can give you?”
Woman and Man looked up. “We cannot eat from that tree,” Woman said. “God has forbidden it and we have promised,” continued Man. “If we break our promise we will die,” Woman finished.
“You won’t die, you will become like God and God doesn’t want that to happen,” the Serpent replied, handing the two an apple from the Tree.
Man and Woman took the apple and, splitting it in half, each took a bite.
Woman and Man reached for large leaves, covering themselves as God appeared and spoke: “You have covered yourselves, why?”
“We were naked,” Man said. “The Serpent gave us an apple from the Tree and we suddenly knew we weren’t wearing anything on our bodies,”Woman continued. “We were ashamed,” finished Man.
God’s appearance changed, still full of light, God now seemed different. God turned towards the Serpent and cursed the creature to always be on the ground below Humans and other creatures. The Serpent crawled away, smaller than before.
Turning to Woman and Man, God cast them out of the Garden, towards the desert that — while still bright and beautiful — had less natural life. God punished the two Humans equally, making them roam Earth with the knowledge that they gained from the Tree and the hate and judgement that came with it.
Man and Woman stayed together, still partners in life. They knew they had to try and break free from the hate they now had, in order to return to God’s wonderful Garden. They also knew that they still had to follow God’s original message: to love each other and all other life and grow with the land around them.
8 thoughts on “A Reimagining of God’s Creation of Humankind”
I love the storybook style of this project and the texts that went with it. I could picture being read this book and your own touches to the story made it super interesting. The artwork was storybook like and that is my favorite kind of art to be honest, so I loved looking through it.
I really appreciate your new telling of the creation story. I liked how you portrayed God not as a man in the sky, but as a genderless force. I especially liked that God named Woman first, and Woman named Man. God’s decision to punish Man and Woman the same was also a change I appreciated. I think this was a really creative idea.
I really liked the medium of art you chose, and I love the colors. The representation of God is also fantastic, and I love it as someone who believes in the message of religion and not necessarily the specifics of it. I also think that the illustration of this story can really shed some light on it from a new perspective!
This project brought me so much joy. Not only was your medium extremely creative, but your choice to alter the story of Adam and Eve was brilliant! It truly challenges the sexism that has stemmed in religion all these years giving a quite interesting perspective. Well done!
I love how you are redefining an idea about creation that has brought so much questioning and “hate” on sexuality, in a manner that is both creative and provocative. It uniquely identifies aspects of sexuality, gender and gender binaries and the implications of the either or narrative. Great work!
I really liked this reimagining of the creation story! I thought the use of the purple blob was really cool, as was the sharing of the blame for eating the apple. Great job! 🙂
I love the storybook style of this project and the texts that went with it. I could picture being read this book and your own touches to the story made it super interesting. The artwork was storybook like and that is my favorite kind of art to be honest, so I loved looking through it.
I really appreciate your new telling of the creation story. I liked how you portrayed God not as a man in the sky, but as a genderless force. I especially liked that God named Woman first, and Woman named Man. God’s decision to punish Man and Woman the same was also a change I appreciated. I think this was a really creative idea.
I really liked the medium of art you chose, and I love the colors. The representation of God is also fantastic, and I love it as someone who believes in the message of religion and not necessarily the specifics of it. I also think that the illustration of this story can really shed some light on it from a new perspective!
This project brought me so much joy. Not only was your medium extremely creative, but your choice to alter the story of Adam and Eve was brilliant! It truly challenges the sexism that has stemmed in religion all these years giving a quite interesting perspective. Well done!
I love how you are redefining an idea about creation that has brought so much questioning and “hate” on sexuality, in a manner that is both creative and provocative. It uniquely identifies aspects of sexuality, gender and gender binaries and the implications of the either or narrative. Great work!
What a beautiful and creative to way to apply and combine many different concepts and themes that we have explored over the semester.
I love how original and creative your project is! Very easy to follow, and such a refreshing perspective!
I really liked this reimagining of the creation story! I thought the use of the purple blob was really cool, as was the sharing of the blame for eating the apple. Great job! 🙂