Has Creativity Been the Most Common Tool to Explain Human Origin?

Bryan Perez 

Abstract

The creative process is directly involved in the development of theories that explain the man’s origin. In like manner, the religion and the science are connected by their provenance. The contemporaneous beliefs and the cultural stories from ancient civilizations are also influenced by creativity, equally, evolution shows a creative development located in some stages that shows morphological and psychological changes. This paper evaluates the creative influence in the development of theories which explain the man’s origin. Web sources and also relevant books were used to identify and link different points of view about the topic. The most remarkable results locate the creativity as the process that humans develop all along, with attention to chronological interpretations such as the evolution’ stages and also common points in different religious and cultural beliefs. Finally, the conclusion stablishes how creativity may influence the theories’ postulation, issue where it should be as objective as possible to attempt to explain facts instead of thoughts.

“It is said that God has created man in his own image. But it may be that humankind has created God in the image of humankind” (Hanh, 1999). Sometimes, people ask themselves how everything around them was created. What or Who is the creator of everything?

Answers to these questions are generated by the same common people, children, teachers, youths and scientists, who constantly ask for explanations about their origin. This origin is usually related to some theories (creationism and evolutionism), which come from a process of investigation and a little part of imagination.

Even when these “theories explain facts” (National Center for Science Education, n.d., para. 3), scientists do not have enough evidence about the first yoctosecond of the Universe’s existence. They may be obligated to complete “the missing piece of the puzzle” with some ideas elaborated by their creative minds.

The evolution theory has undergone some changes throughout history. It is a consequence of the creative influence on the development of new theories. For interesting topics, creativity is really useful. Scientists should be conscious of the information they provide with their theories.

Man’s creativity has been an important part of the explanation of his origin, this statement is sustained in three relevant aspects: man’s creation theories with a common theme about a creator, human evolutive process and its refutations, and lastly, the creative development that leads to reason beyond simple ideas.

Common theme in creation theories

Have been heard about “humans out of yellow and white corn” (Batz, 2012)? Or maybe Lake Titicaca Story? Those are theories that explain man’s origin on the Mayas’ and the Incas’ creation. In another part, the Creationist theory is really linked with these, concluding that there are different theories about man’s origin, but all of them have a common point of a unique Creator.

Human’s origin theories

To understand the influence of creativity on these human’s origin theories, it is necessary to explain three common examples. As the Bible says: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27 English Standard Version). For Christianism, like a monotheistic religion, God is the only explanation for all questions about how man has come into existence until now.

In another place the Maya’s theory tells that “the Creators (…) wanted to create human beings with hearts and minds who could “keep the days”” (Batz, 2012). This last phrase complicated the situation for the Mayas gods, because they had to create three different types of humans. The first group was made of mud, but rain destroyed them and moreover they could not speak. Gods tried again, and created mans of wood, but these did not revere them. “When these deities finally created humans out of yellow and white corn who could talk, they were satisfied” (Batz, 2012), because these had intelligence and respect for their creators.

In a last comparative theory, Incas converge in a general idea. God Viracocha created Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo[1], who emerged from the Lake Titicaca and walked guided by a wooden bar directly to El Cuzco, place where they found the Inca Empire (Cobo, 1979).

Creativity on this common point

As it is remarkable, the theories have showed a common theme in the idea of an only Creator or Creators. For Christianism, the human being was created from mud, while for the Mayas, mud’s man was a failure. The Incas, for their part, create a couple similar to Adam and Eve in Christianism but one more time, their God was who create everything around.

Except for Christianity, the others are polytheistic, but this does not change that in “almost every culture around the world, the religion of a particular culture began with a concept of a masculine, creator God who lives in the heavens” (Zukeran, 2007).

In the same line, creativity is therefore, responsible for this common point. Human beings develop creative ideas from “6 resources- intellectual processes, knowledge, intellectual style, personality, motivation, and environmental context” (Sternberg & Lubart, 1991). In consequence, it is thinkable that “Individuals may be driven to try to create a sense of coherent self-identity through time, in particular in self-narratives of their development” (Feinsten, 2006, p.26); in other words, past civilizations have developed the necessity to create a God in who believed and whom they can worship.

To sum up, the similarities founded reflect that there is a common point that prevails between the theories analyzed, this point reflects the creative influence that man uses to explain his own origin in a religious context.

Human evolutive process and its refutations

It has been thought that evolution is the most acceptable theory to explain the man’s origin. The theory bases its main argument on the most evidence that has been discovered through time, nonetheless, this theory has its own refutations, too. On this way, scientists are creative people who beyond postulate a theory, postulate a creative bond that establish the evolution as the explanation for the man’s origin.

The process of the evolution

A Belgian priest, astronomer and professor of physics, Georges Lemaître proposed the Big Bang theory in 1933. For Catholicism, it was declared as a scientific validation, however, Lemaître resented this proclamation, stating that the theory was neutral and there was neither a connection nor a contradiction between his religion and his theory (Landsberg, 1999).

As it is seen, this theory has a religious origin; but at the same time, it is considered like a valuable explanation for the current science. Lemaître’s thought gave birth the Evolution theory by explaining the Earth origin, place where human beings evolved from apes. “It was only late in the Tertiary period (about 3-4 million years ago) that one of the branches of the Primates evolved into humans (…) Human fossils as well as molecular genetic and biochemical evidence demonstrate the existence of early life forms, which developed before and prepared the present living beings” (Facchini, 2002).

Do the refutations show a creative intervention of scientists?

“A 2010 study found no net fruit fly evolution after 600 generations” (Thomas, 2012). This fact demonstrates that scientists do not concordat in a common explanation for the evolution process. In addition, another evidence tells that the “transition from an amphibian’s three-chambered heart to a mammal’s four-chambered heart would require either a new internal heart wall that would block vital blood flow” (Thomas, 2012).

On the other hand, fossils are the main evidence to support the evolution theory; but as Ph.D. John D. Morris says, “fossils appear abruptly in the record, fully formed and fully functional without less adapted ancestors in lower levels that would have preceded them in time” (2003). This shows that fossils do not explain evolution as such, so it may be considered that scientists created the bonds between “missing links” of the evolution theory.

The article Scientists are more creative than you might imagine, shows that “the improvising brains (…) let the ideas bubble to the surface” (Ossola, 2014). Some lines after, the article explain that it’s going to be the same phenomenon on scientists. Thus, it is reasonable to identify that scientists may develop an involuntary process of creativity when they try to explain unlinked ages of the evolution theory.

The reason of all

Creativity is “the process of having original ideas that have value” (Robinson, 2006), thus, it is possible to ask, how may the people create their own origin story by using their creativity? The creative development leads to establish questions or answers about this topic. Scientific postulations and also religious theories have a little influence of subjective thoughts.

Indeed, the creativity is much more than an innate quality, it is a state where it is possible to create something. It is exemplified in the students who may demonstrated this by developing their skills into the schools. So, teachers have the big duty of drive “the way students learn and what they need to learn” (Segan, 2016), because it is changing rapidly. The reason of all comes from this fact, even with “the scarcity of modern (…) supplies in poor parts of the world” (Childress, 2007), creativity may be developed in every sense; including the development of new theories applicable to the subject of evolution or the man’s origin.

The reason of all also involves a great link between actual teachers and future scientists, something similar to the educational development of Finland (Faust, 2011), where the creativity is one of the pillars of the education. Therefore, the creative process shows that creativity is the question and the answer for this topic, it is involved in developing or repairing ideas to connect everything related in a theory postulation.

In conclusion, the explanation for the man’s origin is due to the creative process. This idea is based on three relevant aspects: theories of man’s creation, human evolutive process, and lastly the creative development that leads to establish questionable answers about our origin.

For the etymology of the Incas and also the Mayas, their existence comes from a gods’ creation. Historically, the Christianity changed these thoughts into a conventional belief in an only almighty God, who answers every question about human existence. On the contrary, the evolution theory postulates a continuous process of development during several generations in past ages of life.

The creative intervention is located in every theory. “Humans have a psychological need for a transcendent being that provides meaning and hope to their existence in this vast impersonal universe” (Zukeran, 2007). This phrase clears the idea about how the man may include his own thoughts in objective statements like theories. Sometimes, creativity is underestimated in several ways, especially for science works, but it is an inherent quality of the human existence; so, the creativity influences our thoughts.

The human being and his origin is a questionable topic. There are some theories of how he could exist from the first period of time. Creator or creators, evolution or not, the creativity was shown as the question and the answer for this topic because it is involved in developing or repairing ideas to connect everything related in a theory postulation.

[1] The first couple of human beings in the Incas theory.