fist fury
21-02-2009, 09:42 PM
All of knowledge starts with a hypothesis, but many millenia ago the ability of the community in general to undertand concepts was different. They had to rely not only on experienced and intelligent people but also those who could better communicate knowledge to the average Joe.
In today's kindergartens children learn by looking at pictures, watching simple demonstrations, using a lot of visual effects and stories.
This is how our ancestors first started to learn, and it is also how religion came to be.
Religions appear in every part of the world, but lets look at our most 'distant' religious relatives in the east to get a perspective of how it developed into modern Christianity/Judaism, etc.
The earliest beliefs of mankind were simple and imaginative, they looked at the most obvious and impressive aspects of nature.
After shamanism, traditional Turkic belief is the one that seems to have been frozen in time. They worship a great sky father called Tengri/Tenri, otherwise known as the blue sky. The connection between him and mankind is a large mountain. At this point there is no dark primordial ocean where everything came from because these tribes lived far away from the large seas.
Next came the evolution of heirs to the blue sky. These posessed human physical appearence and were in charge of more specific commands and powers. The Sumerians had Enki and Enlil, who were born from the Sky. When town and cities multiplied a vast number of interconnected dieties were created. There was also a need to explain more complex facts, so the gods were used to represented physical forces insteads of using science.
The "great man" was the king, and he had his army, but the priest controlled the flow of practical knowledge needed for a civilization to emerge.
When the populations in the cities and sorrounding areas grew large, there was a need to educate the people in politics to produce unity. The sons of the sky had sons themselves; Ninurta, Teshub Marduk, Hadad, Zeus. They overthrew the old order and consolidated both religious and political power.
But this was not enough apparently. There still existed other gods, and some who were too popular for kings who had no connection to the ancient religions. It was time now to "unlearn".
Major dieties Ishtar and Ea had to go, they promoted too many forms of liberty and knowledge. So they were turned to minor gods, monsters, angels, demons, or simply forgotten. From emperors to cult leaders, they all adopted the belief of a single GOD. Monotheism (or as close as it can be) has finally arrived.
It was only a matter of nitpicking parts of the old beliefs that were convinient, or inventing new ones. The product is Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.
In today's kindergartens children learn by looking at pictures, watching simple demonstrations, using a lot of visual effects and stories.
This is how our ancestors first started to learn, and it is also how religion came to be.
Religions appear in every part of the world, but lets look at our most 'distant' religious relatives in the east to get a perspective of how it developed into modern Christianity/Judaism, etc.
The earliest beliefs of mankind were simple and imaginative, they looked at the most obvious and impressive aspects of nature.
After shamanism, traditional Turkic belief is the one that seems to have been frozen in time. They worship a great sky father called Tengri/Tenri, otherwise known as the blue sky. The connection between him and mankind is a large mountain. At this point there is no dark primordial ocean where everything came from because these tribes lived far away from the large seas.
Next came the evolution of heirs to the blue sky. These posessed human physical appearence and were in charge of more specific commands and powers. The Sumerians had Enki and Enlil, who were born from the Sky. When town and cities multiplied a vast number of interconnected dieties were created. There was also a need to explain more complex facts, so the gods were used to represented physical forces insteads of using science.
The "great man" was the king, and he had his army, but the priest controlled the flow of practical knowledge needed for a civilization to emerge.
When the populations in the cities and sorrounding areas grew large, there was a need to educate the people in politics to produce unity. The sons of the sky had sons themselves; Ninurta, Teshub Marduk, Hadad, Zeus. They overthrew the old order and consolidated both religious and political power.
But this was not enough apparently. There still existed other gods, and some who were too popular for kings who had no connection to the ancient religions. It was time now to "unlearn".
Major dieties Ishtar and Ea had to go, they promoted too many forms of liberty and knowledge. So they were turned to minor gods, monsters, angels, demons, or simply forgotten. From emperors to cult leaders, they all adopted the belief of a single GOD. Monotheism (or as close as it can be) has finally arrived.
It was only a matter of nitpicking parts of the old beliefs that were convinient, or inventing new ones. The product is Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.