Why We Are Obsessed with Origin Stories: From Myth to Science

Follow the journey of humanity’s fundamental narrative exploration through world creation myths and modern science.

• Types and commonalities of world creation myths across diverse cultures
• The origin story of the universe told by science, from the Big Bang to the emergence of life
• The powerful influence of origin stories on social order and individual psyche

Storytelling Beings: Exploring Human Origin Stories

Humans are storytelling beings, or ‘Homo Narrans’. In the vast cosmos, the impulse to find one’s place and weave chaotic experiences into meaningful order is one of humanity’s deepest instincts. The engine driving this instinct is the ability to create ‘origin stories.’

According to cognitive science, our brains are designed to organize information into causal narrative structures. Stories are efficient survival tools that compress complex information and foster empathy for others’ experiences. On a deeper level, origin stories also serve as psychological defenses against the fear of death. ‘Terror Management Theory’ explains that humans build cultural worldviews explaining the universe’s origin and life’s purpose to overcome their finitude. Thus, the creation of origin stories is an essential ’narrative inevitability’ for human survival and mental well-being.

Origin Stories in Myth: How Did the World Begin?

Creation myths worldwide share remarkably similar structures and archetypes. This shows that regardless of location, humanity has pondered the grand question of the universe’s origin in similar ways.

Comparative Analysis of World Creation Myth Archetypes

A World Born from Chaos and the Abyss

The most universal type tells of the world originating from a primordial state of disorder. In Greek myth, Chaos is an empty space from which everything naturally arises. Egyptian myth begins creation from the primordial waters Nun, symbolizing the eternal cycle of order and chaos. In contrast, the Abrahamic religions’ ‘creation from nothing (ex nihilo)’ depicts a linear time view with a clear creator-creation distinction, where a monotheistic God creates the world by will and word.

Cosmic Egg and the Sacrificed Creator

Another powerful archetype is the world created through the sacrifice of a primordial being. In Norse myth, gods kill the giant Ymir and fashion the world from his body. Similarly, the Chinese Pangu dies and his body becomes all things.

Hindu mythology’s Purusha goes further: through the sacrifice of the primordial man Purusha, not only is the universe created, but the four social classes (Varna) emerge from his body parts. This equates social order with cosmic order and served as a powerful ideology justifying the caste system’s sacred origin. The ‘sacrifice’ motif reflects a profound worldview where creation requires destruction or sacrifice, contrasting with the ‘creation from nothing’ and illustrating a cyclical, organic cosmos.

Scientific Origin Story: From the Big Bang to the Birth of Life

The dominant origin story in modern society is scientific cosmology, based on empirical evidence and mathematical logic. This narrative explains the universe’s evolution through universal physical laws and chance interactions, without divine will or purpose.

Science’s genesis begins about 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang. The decisive evidence is the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the afterglow of the early universe’s explosive expansion of space and time.

Hydrogen and helium formed by the Big Bang coalesced into the first stars. Through stellar nuclear fusion, carbon and oxygen were created, and heavy elements like gold and uranium were forged in supernova explosions marking massive stars’ deaths. The phrase ‘we are made of star dust’ is not poetic but scientific fact.

How did life begin? Science explains this through chemical evolution. Recently, hypotheses favoring energy- and chemical-rich deep-sea hydrothermal vents as life’s cradle have gained traction. The dilemma of genetic information (DNA) and biochemical reactions (proteins) is explained by the ‘RNA world hypothesis’, proposing RNA first fulfilled both roles.

Unlike myths, the scientific origin story presents a narrative of chance and emergence, not purpose. Our existence is an astonishing outcome of countless coincidences, not a predetermined plan.

The Power of Origin Stories: Blueprints for Society and Psyche

Origin stories serve beyond explaining the past; they act as powerful ‘social blueprints’ and ‘mental maps’ shaping present societies and individual psyches.

Hindu Purusha myth justified the caste system, and Chinese Mandate of Heaven legitimized dynastic rule. The Bible’s Genesis command to “fill and subdue the earth” influenced Western environmental ethics, while Adam and Eve’s disobedience story underpins the concept of original sin, foundational to Western social structures.

Psychoanalyst Carl Jung viewed myths as expressions of the shared collective unconscious. Comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell argued that global myths follow a common narrative structure—‘separation-initiation-return’—known as the ‘Hero’s Journey’, reflecting human growth projected on a cosmic scale.

Modern Origin Stories: Where Is Humanity Headed?

The human desire for mythic narratives evolves into new forms today.

Digital folklore like the SCP Foundation and the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with its ’new gods’ of superheroes, serve as modern myths exploring contemporary dilemmas. I personally saw echoes of ancient myths of destruction and creation in MCU’s Thanos, who sought cosmic balance by wiping out half the population.

Moreover, gene editing technology CRISPR shifts humanity from being mere ‘products’ of origin stories to their ‘authors.’ The potential emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Mars colonization, and the Multiverse hypothesis—where our universe is just one among many—transform the ‘absolute origin story’ into ‘one story among many possibilities,’ fundamentally shaking our worldview.

Conclusion

Human origin stories are the product of an ongoing effort to understand ourselves across times and cultures. From this long journey, we can draw several key insights:

• Narrative Inevitability: Humans instinctively create stories to find meaning and impose order on chaos.
• From Myth to Science: While explanations shifted from divine will to universal physical laws, the fundamental desire to understand the world remains unchanged.
• Evolving Stories: Genetic engineering, AI, and space exploration pose new questions about ‘what it means to be human,’ writing new origin stories.

Ultimately, humanity’s future depends on which stories we choose to tell and create. What origin story do you find most compelling in explaining our existence? Please share your thoughts in the comments.