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 Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2006 1:28 pm
Last semester (before I found Gaia) I did a project, where I compared a book on ancient Egypt to modern day life. I was surprised to find many similarities between the Egyptian religion and Christianity (of all things). Here is what I found:
Osiris: God of the afterlife
Jesus: God of the afterlife (heaven)
Osiris was killed, and brought back to life
Jesus was killed and brought back to life
The Egyptians had many tales about how the world began. According to one legend, it started with an ocean in darkness. Then a mound of dry land rose up and the sun god Re appeared. He created light and all things. Sound a bit like Genesis?
Temples were considered dwelling places for the gods.
Church is considered the house of god
The priests had many duties such as funeral rites, teaching school, supervising the artists and works, and advising people on problems.
Has anything really changed there?
Osiris has been credited with many different titles, god of fertility, king of the dead, god of agriculture, and god of the underworld, controller of the Nile floods, and the rising and setting of the sun. All of these titles have one thing in common: life, death, and rebirth because the myth of Osiris is attributed to his life, murder, and eternal life after death. Sound like a certain savior we know?
I'm sure that there are more similarities, but these were the big ones. The point of this thread is to find similarities between the cultures of totally different civilizations. (simply because it interests me)
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 4:54 am
There are so many similarities between most ancient religions that I just can't understand why more people don't realize it. People "fight for religion" all the time, but if they took the time to sit down and study each religion, they would discover that most of them are almost identical. There are just different names for god, but they all basically follow the same principles AND stick to the same stories.
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 2:37 pm
ringwraith10 There are so many similarities between most ancient religions that I just can't understand why more people don't realize it. People "fight for religion" all the time, but if they took the time to sit down and study each religion, they would discover that most of them are almost identical. There are just different names for god, but they all basically follow the same principles AND stick to the same stories. Yeah, I have to agree with this. Most religions are fundamentally the same, differing only in details or ways to show faith, and stuff like that. If you think about it, the real 'point' of religion is a) to say what happens after death and b) to say why/how we are here, and I guess humans mostly came up with the same answers for these things.
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 3:17 pm
blue_icicle ringwraith10 There are so many similarities between most ancient religions that I just can't understand why more people don't realize it. People "fight for religion" all the time, but if they took the time to sit down and study each religion, they would discover that most of them are almost identical. There are just different names for god, but they all basically follow the same principles AND stick to the same stories. Yeah, I have to agree with this. Most religions are fundamentally the same, differing only in details or ways to show faith, and stuff like that. If you think about it, the real 'point' of religion is a) to say what happens after death and b) to say why/how we are here, and I guess humans mostly came up with the same answers for these things.
I think religions were developped to explain things we don't understand too. For instance; Adam and Eve were probably created because there was no explanation for how we got here. Another possibility is that religions were meant to keep us in line. If people thought that they would have to suffer for eternity if they misbehaved, they were a lot more willing to be good. In most religions, they teach kindness and respect. Being good gets you into heaven (or whatever the equivilant of heaven is in that religion) So even if there is no higher power, Religion is a very usefull pack of lies. How many times did I say religion there? biggrin
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Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 5:19 pm
There are a ton of similarities between ancient religions and today's religions (i.e: Christianity). For those of scientific belief and following, much of what Christianity is based on and such is derived from many of the ancient religions. In actuality Christianity is just a melding pot of a plethora of ancient/semi-modern religions. To those who are of religious belief and following, I'm sorry but that is what I had to work with.
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Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 2:45 pm
Drake Dragonwing There are a ton of similarities between ancient religions and today's religions (i.e: Christianity). For those of scientific belief and following, much of what Christianity is based on and such is derived from many of the ancient religions. In actuality Christianity is just a melding pot of a plethora of ancient/semi-modern religions. To those who are of religious belief and following, I'm sorry but that is what I had to work with. I agree. Christianity changed it's self so much to make it easier for the others to convert, that it's original foundations have been incredibly warped.
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Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 12:14 pm
Seeing as the Jewish faith grew not far from ancient egypt, and the Jewish people are supposed to have been in Egypt for quite a while (Moses), they probably influenced each other. Then the Jewish religion also flowed into Christianity.
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Posted: Sat May 13, 2006 8:05 pm
Good observation.
Religions were created so that people could have faith in something they hoped watched over them, for example, a type of farm god/goddess for a plentiful crop.
Another reason is to explain workings in the world, such as the Greeks trying to explain why crops can't grow near the shore (the Goddess of the Harvest was forever furious at her brother Posideon) or why echos exist (a nymph Echo was cursed by Hera to only repeat what other speak).
So yes, religions often have many simliaritites.
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Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 4:06 am
Good point about the greeks. They aren't exactly my feild. On another note, since Rome conquered Egypt, isn't it probable that they influenced the culture? I'd be interested to learn in what way, if anyone has any ideas.
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Posted: Wed May 24, 2006 12:21 pm
Wooo! New point between christianity and egypt. If you look at the egyptian character for sun, it looks just like a halo.
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 5:44 pm
Talim Ra Good observation. Religions were created so that people could have faith in something they hoped watched over them, for example, a type of farm god/goddess for a plentiful crop. Another reason is to explain workings in the world, such as the Greeks trying to explain why crops can't grow near the shore (the Goddess of the Harvest was forever furious at her brother Posideon) or why echos exist (a nymph Echo was cursed by Hera to only repeat what other speak). So yes, religions often have many simliaritites. I agree with all that has been said. The purpose of religion is to answer questions we canot. Plus, what do humans fear most...death, the inevitablitiy of it...the unknown. Religion gives a person drive in life. How depressing would it be to know that nothing in this life mattered, because after it was over, there was nothing? Oh yes, much intertwinment going on...a convention if you ask me. Plus, islam, judaism, and christianity are all very similiar, just believing in different prophets, which makes all the difference in the world to the people of each religion. So yeah...I'm religious, but I still wonder about these things.
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 11:37 pm
athair liath Good point about the greeks. They aren't exactly my feild. On another note, since Rome conquered Egypt, isn't it probable that they influenced the culture? I'd be interested to learn in what way, if anyone has any ideas. Didn't Rome come in the last period of the Egyptians?
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:54 pm
Talim Ra athair liath Good point about the greeks. They aren't exactly my feild. On another note, since Rome conquered Egypt, isn't it probable that they influenced the culture? I'd be interested to learn in what way, if anyone has any ideas. Didn't Rome come in the last period of the Egyptians? If I'm not mistaken, the traditional Egyptian dynasties were already faltering when Alexander the Great came to power. He conquered Egypt among other things, and after his death and the civil war that followed, his general Ptolemy took control of Egypt and started the Ptolemaic Dynasty. They were more Greek then anything else, and in fact only Cleopatra (the famous one. Several women in the dynasty had that name) bothered to learn Egyptian. Under her rule Egypt gained some influence, but after her military loss to Augustus Egypt became a Roman province, ruled by a provincial governor type figure. After the split of the Roman Empire into west and Byzantine, i THINK Egypt was breifly under Byzantine rule, but was soon conquered and Islamized by the Arabs and I believe put under the rule of a Caliph.
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Posted: Sun Dec 10, 2006 11:17 pm
1) Check out a map. Egypt and Israel aren't far and they certainly traded a good deal. Not to mention the amount of time Jews spent in Egypt.
2) Both are desert countries with very fertile/valuable areas. It seems logical to assume that a similar environment would make for similar ideologies.
3) Bear in mind that some similar traits are very superficial and require you to squit and turn your head to the side slightly. Being the God of Heaven and being the God of the Dead aren't quite the same.
4) I suggest you read some Joseph Campbell. He talked a lot about the similarities between different religions, even religions so far removed from each other geographically that they could not have had contact.
5) Buy this book: http://www.amazon.com/World-Myth-David-Adams-Leeming/dp/0195074750
If you are interested in this stuff, this book gives you a very good overview.
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Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 6:21 pm
There are tons of links between various religions, one of the most astounding being similarities between the Epic of Gilgamesh and many other religions, likely because the Epic is the oldest known written artifact of linguistic history.
Another thing to consider when contemplating the similarities of multiple religions is the fact that many of these religions are only known about because they were the religions of vast empires, centers of trade, politics, science, military, culture, and religion. It is quite easy to conceive that an old-world superpower could have many of the same societal impacts as modern superpowers, i.e. globalization.
Also, complementing Kukushka, you may want to dig in to Jung's theory of collective unconscious. Both Jung and Campbell discuss the concept of archetypes that pervade everything from social status within a society to religious and literary figures.
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