|
So this is basically going to be about some of the similarities and differences that I find between religion in different time periods.
Ancient Egyptian Religion
Egyptians believed in a system of many gods, they were not unlike the Greeks and Romans in this way.
Their system was fairly complex, as their were gods for most of the important things in their lives such as, agriculture, sun, ocean and so on.
However we now look upon their religion as something completely fabricated. Historians document their system, but no people actually believe in it.
Greeks and Romans
Greeks and Romans were very similar in terms of worship. They also believed in a system where multiple gods were worshipped. They had gods for almost everything, and they created mythology unlike any other. At the time they believed in it as strongly as we believe in our current systems of religion. But, just as with Egyptian religion we now come to think of them as stories, and myths. They may be entertaining but they are in no way correct.
Overall Thoughts
As time goes by, we end up thinking of our ancestors as either uninformed, wrong or technologically deprived. With religion, it seems that as we advance as a race, religion constantly changes with us.
You see people who are so deeply affected by religion, that they will love or hate someone depending on how their views differ or are similar to their own.
In a few hundred years, could we be looking back at the way we lived now and be thinking that we used to live in a time period where our religious views were false.
Will we go back to a system of believing in multiple gods?
Will we go to a system where we don't believe in any gods?
Who knows...
|
lol.
You forgot a bit of a chunk of religion there. The protestant reformation, catholic and protestant religous wars in europe, islam, confuscionism, taoism, buddhism, the list of stuff goes on.
I think a better description might be thoughts about polytheism in Ancient egypt, rome, and greece instead of similarities and differences between different time periods
|
yeah, I only wanted to mention a few.
The main point still stands though, the more advanced we get, the more we change our belief system. Who knows whether or not we will look back on what we believe in now a few hundred years from now and few it as fiction as well.
|
On October 08 2012 09:44 ILuMiNaTe wrote:
yeah, I only wanted to mention a few.
The main point still stands though, the more advanced we get, the more we change our belief system. Who knows whether or not we will look back on what we believe in now a few hundred years from now and few it as fiction as well.
well uh, my whole point was that your main point is sort of weakened by only mentioning a few religions and not even comparing lets say an ancient religion vs a modern religion or how a religion has changed from an ancient time towards a modern age
|
Two thousand years and not a single new god. (excluding joke religions and scientology)
I think these things are going to be around for a while. The world is becoming more secular but I don't think we'll ever really get rid of religion. No matter how much science progresses, very little is done in the realm of metaphysics and religion. If it did, the problems would shift (as they have before).
In a few hundred years I'd say things will be about the same as they have been for the last 2000. Advances will be made in science but the things we cannot know will remain the same, and metaphysical claims will fill in the gaps.
|
2 religions isn't really enough to have a discussion. The Greek and Roman religions are a good foundation because they are near the origin of religion, but in order to really uncover answers to your questions you have to consider all the religions and how the thought process behind each one has progressed.
Personally, I think that atheism will be on the rise in the near future, if it isn't already. It's hard to tell with so many factors, though.
|
Egyptian religion shares more similarities with Christianity than Greek, surprisingly. Christianity is described as a monotheistic religion but in Christianity the entirety of god is made up by three separate entities; the father, the son, and the holy spirit.
Horus/Osiris, especially, is very similar to Jesus in many aspects.
|
On October 08 2012 11:11 JohnAdams wrote:
2 religions isn't really enough to have a discussion. The Greek and Roman religions are a good foundation because they are near the origin of religion, but in order to really uncover answers to your questions you have to consider all the religions and how the thought process behind each one has progressed.
There's also a lot more social context necessary to discuss Roman religion. It's an interesting case study. Religion in the Roman Republic was a very practical affair -- it was about prayer and the public good, not about actual theology and dogma. Religion was a rock upon which to build social order. As Rome expanded, the Roman pantheon absorbed the cults of the lands it occupied as a way of bringing foreign peoples into the fold yet allowing them to retain some of their cultural identity. With the exception of Judaism (and perhaps other unwaveringly monotheistic religions I can't think of), this was an easy road to stable assimilation. After the Republic dissolved, Roman religion became increasingly centered on the Imperial cult, and praying to a handful of minor household deities was partially or completely replaced with paying insincere lip service to the emperor. Rejecting religion under the Republic would have been to question the principles of an orderly society; rejecting religion under the Empire was political treason. Traditional morality gave way to a giant propaganda machine. Fast forward a handful of centuries, and Christianity became the official religion of the Empire, with government-mandated intolerance for other faiths.
Rome isn't a quite story of abandoning complex mythology for more secular matters, it's a story of transitioning from using religion as a bottom-up social glue to using religion as a top-down social control.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT
