Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 237
THE CONCEPT OF GOD AMONG. THE ABORIGINES OF AUSTRALIA created around the figure of their High Gods. For only a few tribes to entertain such myths is in itself a proof that their existence is not indicative of a universal belief among the Aboriginal tribes. No creative power is ever attributed to them nor are they believed to share eternity with Him. . They are all creations none of which has ever created anything. They have to be created themselves because they are not eternal. It is likely that these myths were conceived haphazardly by some religious elders of later ages. . Speaking of the same, Eliade, while paraphrasing. T. G. H Strehlow, takes up the case of another tribe of the. Western Aranda and shows that according to them: ‘. . . the earth and the sky had always existed and had always been the home of Supernatural Beings. The western Aranda believe that the sky is inhabited by an emu-footed Great Father (Knaritja), who is also the Eternal Youth (altjira nditja). He has dog-footed wives and many sons and daughters. "They lived on fruits and vegetable foods in an eternally green land, unaffected by droughts, through which the Milky. Way flowed like a broad river. . . ". "8. They have an Eden-like place where only trees, fruits and flowers flourish. All these sky-dwellers are seen as ageless and beyond death. . Despite the fact that these sky-beings display two essential characteristics of supremacy, that of immortality and chronological precedence (i. e. they came before the totemic heroes), Strehlow rightly refuses to acknowledge their significance in the development of Australian religion. . He cannot accept these sky-beings as supreme because they did not shape or create life themselves. '. Strehlow's argument is irrefutable because the mythical forms referred to are described as immortal but not eternal in their relation to the past, while the High 231