Origin Stories and Destiny in Theology and Religious Studies

Running head: ORIGIN STORIES AND DESTINY
THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Name of the Student:
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Author’s Note:

1ORIGIN STORIES AND DESTINY
Origin stories refer to the origin myth. This describes the way through which some new
reality came into existence. Origin stories are present in every culture and it has a great
contribution to person’s understanding. Such stories reveal the meaning of life and the reasons of
human existence (Bosch and Miller 2016). This study deals with the role of origin stories in
human understanding of freedom and destiny.
Stimulus:- 1. Existentialism
2. Diverse Religious Beliefs / Religious Debates
H0:- Rise of Existentialism and religious debates does not affect origin stories and
man’s understanding of the ultimate questions in life, especially regarding
freedom and destiny.
H1:- Rise of Existentialism and religious debates questions the validity and purpose of
origin stories, thereby affecting man’s understanding of the ultimate questions in
life, especially those related to freedom and destiny.
Origin stories are the back stories, which reveal the features or characters of the people,
what makes the person an good or bad in a particular society (Finnegan and Wallace 2014). The
origin stories highlight how the human characters evolve over the time, based on their
continuous search to find the cause of our existence. They negate the presence of any other
realities. On the other hand, there has been a growing debate regarding the freedom of human
being and the existence of destiny. From which aspects the human beings are free is a big
question. Some people believe in destiny while some do not. People search the meaning of life
while existentialism does not believe in any destiny and considers life to be essentially
meaningless. (Bosch and Miller 2016).