Religions of the World, Ancient and Modern

I have studied many religions over the decades. In recent years, due to my writing stories about the beginning of the world, ancient religions have been a research topic. I realize that modern day religions are nothing like the ‘mythologies’ of the ancient world but, what makes modern religion any more right than that of the Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks or Romans? Let’s take a walk down the religion path from ancient Mesopotamia to modern day America.

Religion (from the Latin Religio, meaning 'restraint,' or Relegere, according to Cicero, meaning 'to repeat, to read again,' or, most likely, Religionem, 'to show respect for what is sacred') is an organized system of beliefs and practices revolving around, or leading to, a transcendent spiritual experience. There is no culture recorded in human history which has not practiced some form of religion.

The Greek philosopher Xenophanes of Colophon (c. 570-478 BCE) once wrote:

“Mortals suppose that the gods are born and have clothes and voices and shapes like their own. But if oxen, horses and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and fashion works as men do, horses would paint horse-like images of gods and oxen oxen-like ones, and each would fashion bodies like their own. The Ethiopians consider the gods flat-nosed and black; the Thracians blue-eyed and red-haired.”

Xenophanes idea of one god was not widely accepted. Ancient people believed that there was a different god for different things much like there were different people for different things much like doctor’s specialties. A monotheistic religion really didn’t start until Judaism came around and that wasn’t widely accepted at first. But, that is getting ahead of the timeline.

Ancient Mesopotamia has the earliest known record of religion, dating from somewhere around 3500 BC (I will continue to use the old standard of BC and AD, I do not subscribe to the new BCE and CE that is now used) from Sumer. These people believed that the gods were co-workers alongside humanity, not some distant, invisible deity that just oversaw what went on down on the Earth.

Marduk defeated Tiamat and the forces of chaos to create the world. Unfortunately, those forces of chaos weren’t completely helpless and could possibly regain their strength and take over again so humanity had to work alongside the gods to keep them at bay. That is why humans were created, to work with, and for, the gods toward a mutually beneficial end.

Inanna, the goddess of love, sex, and war later was taken over as Ishtar of the Akkadians (and later the Assyrians), Astarte of the Phoenicians, Sauska of the Hurrians-Hittites, and was associated with Aphrodite of the Greeks, Isis of the Egyptians, and Venus of the Romans.

Egyptian ‘mythology’ was first recorded around 4000 BC and their gods were already well established. The Egyptian creation was much similar to that of the Mesopotamians, starting out as chaos and being formed into the different aspects of the earth and sky. And, as with most mythologies, each god was charged with taking care of a different aspect. Osiris was the ultimate judge of who entered into eternal life by weighing the heart of the soul of the individual in the Hall of Truth, much like the Christian God writes the names of those destined for Heaven in the Book of Life.

Egyptian religion was similar to Mesopotamian belief, however, in that human beings were co-workers with the gods to maintain order. The principle of harmony (known to the Egyptians as ma'at) was of the highest importance in Egyptian life (and in the afterlife), and their religion was fully integrated into every aspect of existence. Egyptian religion was a combination of magic, mythology, science, medicine, psychiatry, spiritualism, herbology, as well as the modern understanding of 'religion' as belief in a higher power and a life after death. The gods were the friends of human beings and sought only the best for them by providing them with the most perfect of all lands to live in and an eternal home to enjoy when their lives on earth were done.

Religion is thought to have developed around 4500 BC in China having been a mix of animism and mythology as designs of animals and dragons have been found on ceramics of the time period; by the time of the Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BC), the Chinese had many anthropomorphic gods that were worshiped with a chief god, Shangti, presiding over all. This belief continued, with modifications, during the period of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) which developed the practice of ancestor worship.

This ancestor worship influenced the two greatest Chinese religions of Confucianism and Taoism in which ancestor worship was the most important tenet. In time, Tian (heaven) replaced Shangti. To get into heaven, one had to cross the Bridge of Forgetfulness and drink from a cup to purge all memories of life. If judged worthy, you crossed the bridge, which spanned an abyss, if not, you fell into the abyss (hell). Another ideology to this is that a soul as reincarnated after drinking from the cup. Either way, the living were expected to remember the dead and honor them.

Hinduism, the oldest religion still practiced today, was first recorded around 700 BC. Hinduism is usually thought of as a polytheistic religion but is actually henotheistic. The one supreme god, Brahma is too immense a concept to comprehend so he presents himself in many different aspects that a human mind can comprehend; Hindu scripture counts these deities at 330 million.

In Hinduism there is an order to the universe and every individual has a specific place in that order. Each person on the planet has a duty (dharma) which only they can perform. If one acts rightly (karma) in the performance of that duty, they are rewarded by moving closer to the supreme being and eventually becoming one with god; if they do not, then they are reincarnated as many times as it takes to finally understand how to live and draw closer to the supreme being. This belief was carried over by Siddhartha Gautama when he became the Buddha and founded Buddhism. In Buddhism, however, one is not seeking union with god but with one's higher nature as one leaves behind the illusions of the world which generate suffering and cloud the mind with the fear of loss and death.

(Hinduism, according to hinduismfacts.org, originated sometime during the Neolithic period between 10000 and 4000 BC. It is difficult to pinpoint a date as Hinduism did not start out as a religion but rather a way of life.)

The above information was gleaned from Ancient History Encyclopedia, Religion in the Ancient World, John J Mark published 02 September, 2009 (www.ancient.eu/religion)

At this juncture, I should probably give definitions to the different forms of religion. The definitions are from Merriam-Webster Dictionary online.

Polytheism: the belief there is more than one god.

Henotheism:  the worship of one god without denying the existence of other gods.

Monotheism: the belief there is only one god.

Let’s go on to a couple of better known religions (mythologies), the Greek and Roman. Greek mythology is believed to first appear about 2000 BC and the Roman around 1000 BC. As with most polytheistic religions, the Greeks and Romans had different gods for different areas of life and the elements. Each of the 21 gods of the Greeks were taken over by the Romans, renamed and given slightly different attributes such as Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades for the heavens, the sea and the underworld in the Greek with Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto being the Roman counterparts were the top three gods each. The creation of the earth, as with most mythologies, begins with a supreme being creating the world and first people out of chaos.

According to Reference.com/world-view, Judaism originated around 4000 years ago in the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean known as Canaan, which today would be Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.  Primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/religion/jewish says Jewish history begins with the covenant established between God and Abraham around 1812 and the Torah, the primary document of Judaism, was given to the Jews by the Prophet Moses about 3,300 years ago.

What do the Jewish people believe? Jewfaq.org, on their Judaism 101 page has this to say:

Judaism has no dogma, no formal set of beliefs that one must hold to be a Jew. In Judaism, actions are far more important than beliefs, although there is certainly a place for belief within Judaism.

The closest that anyone has ever come to creating a widely-accepted list of Jewish beliefs is Rambam's thirteen principles of faith. These principles, which Rambam thought were the minimum requirements of Jewish belief, are:

    God exists

    God is one and unique

    God is incorporeal

    God is eternal

    Prayer is to be directed to God alone and to no other

    The words of the prophets are true

    Moses' prophecies are true, and Moses was the greatest of the prophets

    The Written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and Oral Torah (teachings now contained in the Talmud and other writings) were given to Moses

    There will be no other Torah

    God knows the thoughts and deeds of men

    God will reward the good and punish the wicked

    The Messiah will come

    The dead will be resurrected

As you can see, these are very basic and general principles. Yet as basic as these principles are, the necessity of believing each one of these has been disputed at one time or another, and the liberal movements of Judaism dispute many of these principles.

Unlike many other religions, Judaism does not focus much on abstract cosmological concepts. Although Jews have certainly considered the nature of God, man, the universe, life and the afterlife at great length, there is no mandated, official, definitive belief on these subjects, outside of the very general concepts discussed above. There is substantial room for personal opinion on all of these matters.

Judaism focuses on relationships: the relationship between God and mankind, between God and the Jewish people, between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, and between human beings. Our scriptures tell the story of the development of these relationships, from the time of creation, through the creation of the relationship between God and Abraham, to the creation of the relationship between God and the Jewish people, and forward. The scriptures also specify the mutual obligations created by these relationships, although various movements of Judaism disagree about the nature of these obligations. Some say they are absolute, unchanging laws from God (Orthodox); some say they are laws from God that change and evolve over time (Conservative); some say that they are guidelines that you can choose whether or not to follow (Reform, Reconstructionist).

So, what are these actions that Judaism is so concerned about? According to Orthodox Judaism, these actions include 613 commandments given by God in the Torah as well as laws instituted by the rabbis and long-standing customs.

Christianity, of course, started a little over 2000 years ago when Jesus was preaching to the Hebrews about God, was crucified and then resurrected to live with the Holy Father in Heaven. The Holy Bible is the history, belief, laws and story of the Christian world.

What are the core beliefs of Christianity? This is what gotquestions.org/Christianity-beliefs has to say:

The term Christianity seems to imply a religious system in the same way that Islam and Buddhism are religious systems. Within religious systems are core beliefs, along with codes, rules, and standards that must be mastered in order to achieve a desired end. Christianity does not fit that definition and therefore the term can be slightly misleading.

Jesus did not come into the world to start another religion. There were already plenty of religions, including Judaism, which had begun as a relationship with Almighty God but had deteriorated into another religious system on par with idol worship. Jesus came to bear witness to the truth, to seek and to save the lost—those separated from God by their sin—and to “give his life as a ransom for many”. With that said, those who follow Christ do share some core beliefs.

Biblically speaking, Christians are those who are forgiven of their sins and who have entered a personal relationship with Almighty God through faith in Jesus Christ. In order to become a Christian, a person must fully accept as part of his or her own personal worldview the following core beliefs:

• Jesus is the Son of God and is equal with God

• Jesus was born of a virgin

• Jesus lived a perfect, sinless life

• Jesus was crucified to pay the penalty for our sins

• Jesus rose from the dead

• We are saved by the grace of God; that is, we cannot add to or take away from Christ’s finished work on the cross as full payment for our sin

It could be argued that belief in the inerrancy of God’s Word is also a core belief of Christianity because, if the Bible’s veracity is suspect, then all we know about God is in doubt. Saving faith is inextricably linked to the Word of God: “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Romans 10:17).

But the mental acceptance of the above points of doctrine is only the framework around which salvation occurs. Faith is more than intellectual assent, and mentally agreeing with the core beliefs of Christianity does not equal entrance into God’s kingdom. Even Satan and the demons know certain things about God. We can mentally agree with facts without making those facts the centerpiece of our lives.

Can a person be saved without holding to the core beliefs of Christianity? No. But along with accepting as true those core beliefs must be a spiritual transformation. Jesus said that in order to inherit eternal life one must be “born again”. To be born again is a work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a repentant sinner. Just as a mother in labor does all the work in bringing forth a new life, so the Holy Spirit does the work in transforming a sinner into a new creature. This process begins when God draws a heart through conviction of sin and hope of forgiveness. When we surrender to God and repent of our sin, God applies the blood of His own Son to our account and cancels the debt we owe Him. By this act of transference, God pronounces us “not guilty”; that is, He justifies us. Salvation is a divine exchange: Jesus becomes our sin so that we can become His perfection. This is the gospel at the very core of Christianity.

Lastly, Islam, inarguably the youngest of the world’s religions, can be traced back to 7th century Saudi Arabia. Islam is thus the youngest of the great world religions. Allaboutreligion.org tells us the prophet Muhammad (circa 570-632 A.D.) introduced Islam in 610 A.D. after experiencing what he claimed to be an angelic visitation. Muhammad dictated the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam, which Muslims believe to be the preexistent, perfect words of Allah.

The origin of Islam is generally accredited to the prophet Muhammad but to the devout Muslim, Islam began long before Muhammad ever walked the earth. The Qur'an was dictated by Muhammad but, according to the Qur'an, it did not originate with Muhammad. The Qur'an testifies of itself that it was given by God through the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad. "This is a revelation from the Lord of the universe. The Honest Spirit (Gabriel) came down with it, to reveal it into your heart that you may be one of the warners, in a perfect Arabic tongue" (Sura 26:192-195). "Say, 'Anyone who opposes Gabriel should know that he has brought down this (the Qur'an) into your heart, in accordance with God's will, confirming previous scriptures, and providing guidance and good news for the believers'" (Sura 2:97).

The Origin of Islam: The "Previous Scriptures"

The origin of Islam is controversial. The "previous scriptures" mentioned above are the Hebrew Torah, the Psalms of David, and the Gospels of Jesus Christ. The Qur'an accepts these books as divinely inspired and even encourages us to test its claims by these "previous scriptures." "If you have any doubt regarding what is revealed to you from your Lord, then ask those who read the previous scripture" (Sura 10:94). But this is where we run into a problem. The problem is that the Qur'an thoroughly contradicts the Torah, the Psalms, and the Gospels. For example, the Qur'an explicitly denies Jesus Christ's crucifixion while all four Gospel accounts clearly portray Jesus Christ as crucified and resurrected.

One contradiction in particular has caused a great deal of conflict between Muslims and ethnic Jews and is thought to have been and continues to be the cause of much bloodshed in the Middle East. According to the Hebrew Torah, God made a covenant with a man named Abraham. God promised Abraham a child through whom He would fulfill this covenant ("the child of promise," Genesis 15). Abraham was at that time childless. His wife, Sarah, was barren. This of course made the promise very special to Abraham. But it would require nothing less than a miracle. Sarah, conscious of her condition, decided to help God out. She offered her maidservant Hagar to Abraham with the hope that Hagar might conceive and bear the child of promise. Abraham agreed to take Hagar as his concubine. She conceived and bore Ishmael. God allowed Ishmael to be born but Ishmael was not the child of promise God had in mind. God promised a child through Sarah, not Hagar, and in due time God fulfilled His promise. "And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did for Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him-whom Sarah bore to him-Isaac." Isaac was the child of promise. Isaac later begot Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the Messiah, Jesus Christ, eventually came into the world through the nation of Israel, fulfilling the covenant which God had made with Abraham. God also promised to give the land of Canaan (Palestine) to Isaac's descendants, the land which Israel possesses today.

The problem is that the Qur'an teaches that Ishmael was the child of promise and so Muslims believe that God's covenant promises were meant for Ishmael's descendants, not Isaac's. Muhammad descended from Ishmael and so Muslims seek to lay claim to these covenant promises, namely the land of Palestine.

So, there you have the major and ancient religions. My question to you is this: what makes one religion any better, or worse, than any other? Why is one the ‘right’ one and all the others wrong? Are those ‘mythologies’ just that, mythology, or are they true religions as much as modern day religions that one day may be described as ancient mythology? It is up to the individual. The way a person believes is a personal thing. Some believe in God, some in Mohammad, some in the ancient Celtic, Norse, Greek or Roman gods, and some even believe in witchcraft. All I have done here is give some very basic information on several of the world’s religions, both modern and ancient. I hope you have gleaned some interesting facts from it.