The similarities in the creation stories of several cultures can be attributed to the fact that the Judeo-Christian and Islamic versions of the creation are one in the same. The Qur'an does not retell the creation story; rather it makes comments and corrections on the previous Jude

Islamic and Judeo-Christian traditions show a superiority of the male species. Their creation myths are typical of patriarchal societies. The three religions place a hierarchy of creation with animals on the bottom then woman and then men. The history of these religious cultures reinforces such stereotypes of male dominance. The Iroquois tradition places a different emphasis on the role of women and of animals. The world was already full of animals and it was these animals that allowed the sky woman to land safely, for the animals found the continent of North America and placed it upon the back of a turtle. The giver of life to man was a woman, a Goddess, who physically birthed the man into the world. While man remains important and she gives birth to sons, there is the immediate notion of the mother and the importance of the feminine womb. A woman contains, holds, births, she is enveloped in light in the Iroquois myth. When her sons are born she dies but she continues to give to the people of the Earth. Her body becomes the Earth, her face are the moon, the stars, and the sun. She rids the dark sea world of the night and brings the day. The messenger here is a woman, not a man as in the Easter and Western traditions. This respect of women is seen further in the Iroquois culture. The women are the entire households; they raise the children, cook the food and take care of the tribe. Man's job is that of hunter and warrior; man provides defense and food. Animals are also respected. They are seen as a part of the God's and seen as a part of the beauty of creation, to hurt or injure a part of that nature for anything other than food is seen as a crime that would anger the Gods. (Murtageh 12)

The story of Genesis and that of the Iroquois nation seem to pivot around another similarity, a tree, yet the symbolic meaning of the tree in the creation myth varies with each story. In the tradition of the Eastern and Western cultures the tree has become an archetype for knowledge because of the creation story. Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit from tree of knowledge of good and evil that God placed in the center of the Garden of Eden. The fruit of the tree made the couple realize their situation in a human context of sin and run to cover themselves with fig leaves because the beauty of their nakedness became ugly in the light of the tree's wisdom. (Murtageh 15) In the Iroquois myth there is a large tree in the center of the upper cloud world and the tree is removed at the request of the Great Ruler. A large hole is left in the place of the tree and the Great Ruler beckons Ata-en-sic to peer into the hole and then pushes her down to the dark new world in an envelope of light. (Murtageh 12) The tree of knowledge represents wisdom, but it erases naivete and innocence, the Iroquois tree represents the Tree of Peace, the tree that represents the confederacy of the five Iroquois nations. The roots of the tree represent stability and peace, while the branches and leaves give shade and shelter and therefore represent comfort. The tree is the center of the Iroquois nation and it's solidarity, should anyone attack the Iroquois confederacy the tree is thought to be removed and the Iroquois will remove their weapons from under the tree and break the peace to defend themselves. The partaking of such a tree in the Iroquois creation is encouraged and the tree is a positive symbol in the culture of the confederacy. The Tree of knowledge that is found in Genesis is the weapon Satan uses against Adam and Eve. It is the representation of too much knowledge, of the human use of this knowledge to surpass God. The human use of the tree is the symbol of wisdom when that wisdom is abused while the Iroquois use of the tree represents goodness, peace and unity in the Iroquois tale and culture. (Iroquois Official Symbolism)

In the Islamic tradition the creation of woman and the animals is the same as the of the Judeo-Christian religions, the differences a

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