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Creation 43(4):56, December 2021

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‘Seven Sisters’ similarities point to Babel, not evolution

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CC BY-SA 4.0 Juan lacruz | fotovika © 123RF.com | ravenestling © 123RF.com | PD – B.E. Minnsseven-sisters

A Winston Churchill Fellow, Australian Aboriginal woman Susie Betts, studied indigenous creation stories involving the Seven Sisters star constellation, or the Pleiades.1 Her research took her to North and South America.

She anticipated similarities with her own Wirangu people’s creation story. In this, the ‘Orion the hunter’ constellation (the hunter ‘Tgilby’ in their language) falls in love with and chases the Seven Sisters (‘Yugarilya’).

And so it proved. “Her research found Indigenous people from across the globe shared creation links to the Seven Sisters constellation.”

But why should cultures as geographically diverse as these and others (e.g., ancient Greece, Ukraine) similarly regard the stars in the Pleiades as seven women? And most often sisters? And chased by a hunter? The oldest known Greek mythologist Hesiod (8th century BC) had a line “Pleiades flee mighty Orion”. The book of Job, probably the oldest completed book of the Bible, records God asking Job, “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?” (Job 38:31).

It would be very difficult to explain from an evolutionary/long-age perspective! Nothing about the stars’ appearance suggests sisters—or even women. Also, why would the same star pattern suggest a hunter to both the ancient Greeks and to the Wirangu people? So, it would be a remarkable coincidence if the stars-to-sisters connection had occurred more than once by chance—let alone in cultures across the globe!

Rather, this points to the truth of the Bible’s account of the dispersal from Babel, just a few thousand years ago.

Posted on homepage: 29 December 2022

References and notes

  1. Hamilton, J., Seven Sisters stars creation story reconnecting people to their country after clifftop massacre taboo lifted; abc.net.au, 8 Oct 2020 Return to text.

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