Creation Myths vs. Origin of Species
Darwin’s theory of evolution has been an answer to the question about origin of life on Earth for many years. As opposed to different creation stories found in early scripts and books, Darwin suggested that every species on the planet originated from some earlier and simpler form by means of natural selection. Creation stories, on the other hand, offer completely opposite variation of origin of life, humans in particular. And even through the creation stories that I have taken for comparison are written in different continents and slightly differ from one another, they all state that humanity did not evolve from a more primitive species, but appeared in the world in exactly the same form as we are now. Therefore, I believe Darwin’s theory of the origin of species is completely incompatible with Bible creation stories or Mayan creation myth.
The idea of monkeys converting to more developed, and more intelligent creatures is found in Mayan creation myth. However, instead of evolving from clumsy apes to smart beings, apes were destroyed by their cattle and pottery, and replaced by humans. In this version of creation, apes represented the first version of humans - “woodcarvings,” - so-called beta version, which means a version made for testing and monitoring mistakes. Because of these details, this conversion of apes to people cannot be called a similarity to Darwin’s origin of species by means of natural selection. However, the idea of the great flood wiping out the first experiment resembles much the first chapters of Torah, where Noah and his family were saved from the great flood. Just like in the Bible, Mayan version destroyed everyone. But the books of Torah that tell about the flood have nothing to do with the creation stories. 
In order to compare Mayan creation myth and the biblical version, we have to first analyze the first two chapters of Genesis. A witty redactor has linked the two chapters so that it looked a if there is single creation story, while actually there are two of them. In the first creation story, the world is created in seven days. This first version ends with the seventh day of rest, and on the sixth day God created “male and female.” And in the preceding days God created light and dark, skies and land, plants and trees, day and night, fish and birds, animals and humans respectively. But if we read attentively the second chapter (starting verse 4), we can see a significant difference, and actually another creation story being written. In it, God first created the Earth and the sky, then plants and “he put the man he had formed,” trees (including the tree of life), rivers. Then the Lord thought of Adams solitude and “formed out of the ground all beasts of the field and all the birds of the air.” And only when Adam was again dissatisfied with these helpers, God created a woman (from Adam’s rib). Therefore, unlike the first story, the second one ends with the creation of Eve. 
I like the second story better, because it reads like a wonderful tale, and there are no such big gaps between the periods of creation. This second story is very beautiful in my opinion. In addition it does not tell that God has created light and dark. This absence is important because it is very had for a human to understand how dark or light can be created. The second version, on the other hand tells that Eve was made from a rib, which I also very hard to understand. But since the second story reads like a tale, such questions do not arise, “how could a woman be made from a rib?” 
Getting back to Mayan creation myth, it does resemble one of the creation stories of the Bible, namely the first one. Mayan myth tells us that two gods thought, and whatever they though came into being. With their thoughts they created earth, mountains, sky, tree, animals, and more advanced creatures, which they eventually wiped out with the flood. This part of the myth reminds the first Biblical story, in which God created skies, land, plants, and creatures. 
The three creation stories discussed above claim that a Supreme Being (in Mayan case Beings) has willfully created the world in which we all live. Skeptics would likely argue about this and offer more rational and scientific explanation to the origin of life on Earth, and would not believe “stories,” but try to prove something. The most prominent of such skeptics was Charles Darwin, who offered a new view of animals and plants. His attitude to myths and creation stories was absolutely scornful, and he assumed that all species have been evolving during thousands of years before they became what they are now. For example, he thought that whales were descendants of bears that hunted in rivers. Unfortunately, his theory ha been generally accepted, and even taught in educational establishments. But Darwin himself has written that his theory would collapse if no remains of interim species were found; a shaggy whale for example. Of course, no such species has been found, which makes Darwin’s theory of origin of species false.
The question about the origin of life is such that humans cannot answer with hundred percent certainty. Obviously, the answer is somewhere beyond our understanding. Thus, seeking answer within this world is barely useless. Darwin’s theory collapsed, although it never had any chance to give complete answers. The only option is to seek it in the Holy Writings. What is surprising is that people from different cultures, and even living on the opposite parts of the world write stories, in which some scenes are very similar. Is it a coincidence? Or is it inevitability? Are those the texts where we should seek answers? 
Bibliography
1.	God’s Word. Genesis. New International Version. International Bible Society. 1984. Chapters 1-2. 
2.	The Popul Vuh. (Excerpt.) Writing About the World. 2nd ed. by Susan McLeod et al. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace and Co., 1995. 491-494.