Religion has been prevalent in society since the establishment of human civilization; not only does it provide ideals and beliefs for people, but religion impacts the behavior and mindset of individuals. Evidence of the effect of religion on the lives of today’s ancestors is documented through writings that were translated and passed down to modern day society. These writings contain values and principles to live by, such as treating others with respect and being truthful, that continue to persist today. The belief of there being a higher being, such as a god(s), is also mentioned in the readings to portray how groups of people revolved their lives around the rule of whom they viewed as their superior. Varieties of texts exist to demonstrate the influences of religion on society, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Holy Bible, and Laozi’s Daodejing. …show more content…
In the text, the gods possess authority and powers that are used to their advantage to cause society to behave under their rule. Utnapishtim mentions, “When the gods assemble, they decide you fate, they establish both life and death for you” (Mitchell, 179). This conveys how the belief of gods having control over humans causes people to obey them; if the gods are disobeyed, they are able to unleash their wrath and humans suffer the consequences for their actions. This belief still exists in modern society through the idea of there being a heaven and a hell. Christianity revolves around the impression that one will go to hell after death if he is a sinner. Actions such as stealing, killing, and being deceitful are recognized as sins. Since these behaviors are associated with hell, people will stray away from them in efforts to ensure that they go to heaven after death. The story of Gilagamesh illustrates how faith has always caused society to behave a certain way out of
Behind every religion there is a story. These stories open the eyes of their listeners to form them into better people, usually promising them afterlife. No matter the time period or culture, these lessons all have something in common: people should be good. Stories such as “Epic of Gilgamesh”, “Genesis”, “Mandate of Heaven”, “The Justice of God”, and “Siddhartha’s Enlightenment” are from different religions yet they share a common theme.
To many individuals, morality and religion are two related but distinct ideas. To be specific, morality consists of principles set by societal norms concerning the distinction between right and wrong and good and bad behaviour among persons. Alternatively, religion involves the relationship between human beings and a transcendent reality or a superhuman controlling power, God. In many societies in the past and present, the idea of God is used to help reinforce moral codes as valuable and vital through rituals and methods of presenting the teachings of God. By many, religion is used to instil fear
Through the treasures left behind by the ancient Mesopotamian people, such as the first story written down or the board game found buried alongside the dead, and other remnants as well, it can be shown these people had rich religious beliefs. One aspect of their religion is polytheism, meaning they worshiped multiple gods and goddesses. A few of these deities are Ninkilim, the Goddess of Mice; Damkina, the Earth Mother Goddess; Ishatar, the Goddess of Love and War; Nintu, a creator god; and Tiamat, a goddess representing chaos. Because the ancient Mesopotamians did not have the technology of more recent times, they witnessed and experienced innumerable phenomena they had trouble explaining, so it is likely they believed it came from a ‘higher power’, and developed the concept of multiple deities which were responsible for certain occurrences, in an attempt to explain what they were witnessing and feeling.
A theme is the underlying message or overall meaning of a story. Authors use this literary device in stories to convey a critical belief about life. A theme of a book is usually seen as a universal in nature because when a theme is universal, it touches on human experience. Sometimes there are multiple themes to a story and they may or may not be stated directly. Religion is a theme found throughout the stories of Gilgamesh, Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, and Hamlet.
The Epic of Gilgamesh has many events in it that reflect the values and culture of acient mesopotamian life. the people of mesopotamia valued the gods and the relationship between mortals and imortals, the value of life and living to the fullest, And the value of firendship and love. the gods role in the Epic of Gilgamesh is very large through out the epic they are seen as a helpful and guiding force. one example of the gods lending a hand is when gilgamesh and enkidu go to the cedar forest to fight the demon humbaba. they call on the great god shamash to assist them in entering the cedar forest, slaying humbaba, and cutting down the cedar trees to bring back to the great walled city of uruk.
The gods and goddesses played a pivotal role in the decisions made by the mortals they watched over in the Iliad and the Aeneid, but many of the questionable moral choices were made by the characters’ own free will. During these stories, the characters were manipulated in different ways depending on how it would benefit each god or their deaths were sealed by “fate” and unchangeable. Even though the gods interfered with the lives of mortals, they had choices about honor and integrity and chose to act on them accordingly. Today, people are held accountable for their actions and everyone is given a choice and moral compass about what is right or wrong. Free will allows people to live happily and unrestricted, but in terms of social
For the most part, when there is a decision made such as multiple human lives or wrong deaths, the gods take that into consideration and come up with a decision together. Although, when it involves protection over a person of just allowing a person to see something in a dream, the gods do not speak with other gods. That one god that is making the decision makes it alone. Therefore, the big decisions such as life, death, and the eradication of a species seems to go through multiple gods. Though, the small decisions such as helping or favor seems to go through only the god that is involved. All in all, the gods play a significant role in the fate of the people. They determine life and death, health and strength. The gods can make really good things happen to people or really awful things happen to
The Epic of Gilgamesh: the Religion of All Religions Sumer was one of the earliest known civilization that began around 4000 B.C.E. and was located in an area called the Fertile Crescent in Southern Mesopotamia. As the name suggests, the land was extremely lush due to is position between the Euphrates river and the Tigris. One of the most important achievements of the Sumerians was the creation of he world’s first written language, which was used to record their most important documents. This form of writing used pictograms, which were symbols used to represent objects and ideas. Among these documents was “The Epic of Gilgamesh”, which was a tale of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk, and his companion Enkidu, along with their legendary travels and heroic ventures (Spodek 54).
The historic document of The Epic of Gilgamesh, a truly historic piece to human history, locks in and greatly explains how ancient civilizations would have worked. In deeper context, it would truly show how Religion and the overpowering idea of a God, have been in human history since writing has begun. Gods, Pharaohs, deities, Kings of Kings, holy father, creators, the lords, whatever term is chosen to be used represents one individual or in other cultures many powerful individuals in charge. These over watching Gods are believed to have been guiding the path for humanity and we’ve believed in them since human civilization has begun. Early civilizations like Egypt and Mesopotamia have strong beliefs in these figures.
Religion is a fundamental element of human society. It is what binds a country, society or group of individuals together. However, in some instances it destroys unity amoungst these. Religion is a belief in a superhuman entity(s) which control(s) the universe. Every religion has its differences but most strive for a just life and the right morals. The three major groups are the primal regions which consist of African, Aboriginal and Native American religions, Asian which consist of South Eastern Asian religions and Abrahamic religions which consist of Middle Eastern religions. The foci of this essay are the differences between the Abrahamic religion, Christianity, and the Asian region Buddhism as well as making reference to the Islamic
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, there are many different character types. We see king and queens, subjects and Gods. In this epic, the Gods come off as very powerful and interfere with the lives of humans as they chose. In the text, there are many examples of the Gods trying to control human lives in specific ways. The Gods see the courage and strength in Gilgamesh so Anu, the Sky God, summons Aruru to create a perfect partner for Gilgamesh.
Religion has been a dominant cultural, ethical, and political force throughout human history, both recent and ancient. Religion has been science and asylum for many generations of very many people, uniting them in their common faith. Temples were built for people to pray and perform sacrifice in, giving the people a common cause to live for and thereby creating personal relations between people even before you got to know them. The unique features of ancient religions were that they were all polytheistic, meaning that they recognized many gods, instead of one main one. And the problem with this was that in the ancient history, before the invention of writing, nothing was written down: stories were told verbally, laws were passed on verbally, and writing things down was an incredible task for the ancient people, and gave incredible glory to the people that did it, because if it’s written down, it’s much easier to spread your beliefs and it’s harder to forget specifics of your religion or law. Writing down religious and political texts has greatly facilitated the religions’ diffusion and spread throughout the globe, and consequently, brought together and apart many more religious people and governments.
Religion has existed for countless centuries. Christianity is one of the major religions in this world, which had people be criticized, battle in wars, and killed for, but it still survived to this day. The purpose of this paper is to study the source of the religion, recognize the teachings, observe its spread throughout the world, and to identify how it stands among people today. Approaching this paper by a factual report I will explain these major points and why we need to know about this religion and other religions that existed before our generation.
In ancient times, gods were a holy image in people’s mind. Each god had its own role in the universe. Such as the role of creation, the controller of the nature, and the role of the destiny control. The gods had extreme powers, and controlled everything in the world. Worshiped gods became a daily routine for ancient people. In the minds of people in ancient times, worshiped their gods were to prevent these gods became furious, and punished them with their extreme power. Even though the gods were extremely powerful, in many epic texts we could see they also had emotions and characteristics that were just like humans. However, there were still some major differences between the gods and humans.
As a student of religion I have learnt that religion is an indispensable part of human life. History shows that every religion, it may be revealed or not, has risen in the crucial moment of the human history. According to the Semitic tradition human history has began with Adam and Eve, first prophet in Abrahamic tradition. In Indian tradition, though God is omnipresent but he directly intervened into this world, what we called Avatara, to make a clear distinction between right and wrong. In primitive society also people’s lives were highly motivated with religious affiliation.