What types of spiritual/religious beliefs were held by people prior to the advent of some of the major spiritual/religious teachers such as Jesus Christ/The Buddha/etc.?

PUL,
Cosmic_Ambitions

we used to worship the sun :D  lol. I still do.

Hi Cosmic I read this book a while ago,and it was about the caveman times,and the men amd the women all lived in caves together.

Anyway one day this caveman started to see spirit,and he did not understand what it was,as the only words him and the others could speak was things like urr urr.

One night the people sat there watching him going urr urr and they were getting agitated and concerned,wondering why he kept saying urr urrr and pointing to the wall of the cave,little did they know that he was seeing spirit.

So the next night he was saying urr urr and pointed to the wall,so the others got hold of him and said ahh ahh and he said urr urr so they killed him because he scared them.

It was so hard to be a medium in those days.

Thats the only different worship i know of in the cavemen days.

Love and God bless you Cosmic  Juditha

wrote on Oct 24^th, 2006 at 3:53pm:

Hi Cosmic I read this book a while ago,and it was about the caveman times,and the men amd the women all lived in caves together. Anyway one day this caveman started to see spirit,and he did not understand what it was,as the only words him and the others could speak was things like urr urr. One night the people sat there watching him going urr urr and they were getting agitated and concerned,wondering why he kept saying urr urrr and pointing to the wall of the cave,little did they know that he was seeing spirit. So the next night he was saying urr urr and pointed to the wall,so the others got hold of him and said ahh ahh and he said urr urr so they killed him because he scared them. It was so hard to be a medium in those days. Thats the only different worship i know of in the cavemen days. Love and God bless you Cosmic  Juditha

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:-?


BWAHAHAHA!!!!  ;D

Looking at the international scene, I am reminded of Moloch. This was a god of the early Middle East whose primary act was to devour children. They got tossed into his fiery belly. (This is not intended to be a political statement - just a sociological observation that things don't seem to have changed much.)

There was once the idea that each house had a spirit, all of whom worked for the spirit of the tribe. They'd make an image of the tribal god and worship it. Many early peoples associated the house spirit with fire, so they had to keep the fire going all the time - probably a carry over from days when fire was hard to acquire if you didn't have a glowing coal saved. The little gods and the bigger tribal gods, were later conquered by some other tribe, making their gods higher. Romans conquered everyone so their pantheon of gods and goddesses (essentially a  set of 12 personality factors) were top gods, justifying Roman control over their conquered nations.

Sacrifices were the common way to appease the gods. Cain and Abel had opposite ideas, evidently Abel used herbals for sacrifice, while Cain killed chickens or some such. Since Abel had more successes he killed him too.

The Aztecs and Mayas sacrificed in blood - either the heart of the victim, or sometimes the skin could be worn by the priests. Mayan sacrifice also included self mutilation, especially by the rulers, like drawing the spine of a sting ray and a barbed thread through the tip of his pen!s. For the Incas, there were also sacrificial children left in the mountains where they mummified.

Early Hindus sacrified by holding an arm aloft until it withered, or the equivalent. Or starving thmselves into numbness. Buddha specifically objected to these methods because after trying them out he found that they didn't work. Other Hindus simply used mind altering methods, sex or drugs seem to have been popular, but they were a bit short on rock and roll.

Shinto beliefs began with the "Two Divine Children", Itsa Nami and Itsa Nagi, brother and sister, from whom descended the Japanese people. Their mythology tells us that Amaterasu, god (goddess?) of spring, was angry at the nastiness of people and locked himself in a cave and wouldn't come out. Finally O-Susanna Wo Omikami put a mirror at the entrance of the cave, and Amaterasu saw his reflection and came out, so good weather and nice seasons returned. (This may be a recollection of the "flood".) This must have amused and perplexed the Japansese when GIs were singing "O Susana, O don't you cry for me. For I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee." The term "banjo" is a slight mispronounciation of "benjo", the rather crude Japansese word for "out house" or "latrine".

The Egyptians ultimately believed in a collection of gods who descended (if we follow Budge's rendering) from an initial pair of creator gods, and seemed to focus on a single highest god Osiris, who was evolved out of the gods of the spring. The layout of pyramids throughout Egypt reflects the pattern of stars around Orion at roughly 5600 years ago. Osiris may have later been associated with Bel. Bel was a typical springtime god who died each winter and was resurrected in the spring.  Akhenaten tried to equate the highest god with the sun, but it didn't last. But the idea went away with Moses when his tribe escaped.

In the Middle East, all the families and their little gods, with the bigger tribal gods, and then the still higher Roman gods fell afoul of the Hebrew notion, developed through Moses and onwards, that ultimately there was only a single god.  Roman philosophers of the period were also busily trying to make sense out of the manner in which all the 12 Roman gods seemed to have something in common. The entire ideological nature of the Roman state was thus slowly being brought into question. The issue was how to reconcile all the diversities into a single concept. The Hebrews provided the answer, one God. This upset the Roman state, so they had to suppress the idea. Jesus was one of the more vocal supporters of monpotheism, so He got targeted. The biggest threat that the Romans observed was that monotheism was an idea that would literally overthrow the government.

About 500 years after Jesus and the Jews brought monotheism to the Mediterranean and the Christian believers prospered in the northerm Mediterranean regions, Mohammed brought the message of monotheism to the desert tribes in Arabia and the rest of the Middle East. He specifically targeted the household and tribal gods - just as Moses targeted the Golden Calf of his followers. That's why Muslims are forbidden to make images or representations of people, and especially forbidden to worship them. (However, they are allowed to conjur the djinns and spirits of the desert to put them to work.)

Nowadays it's the problem of the dyslexic philosopher who worries whether there is a Dog.
;-)
dave

Yep..natural things.  Thunder and lightening, rain, sun, moon, stars..trees, etc.

I think, perhaps the "Mother Earth" concept?

Of course, early man was more concerned with physical survival..rather than spiritual.

It is often thought that the early burials of man is an indication that they believed in an afterlife, but perhaps..it was more a matter of necessity.  Decaying bodies smell and bring disease and bugs and rats.  Placing of flowers?  To help with the odor.

Early man needed an explanation for things yet unexplainable, such as the rain, thunder, lightening and of course, death.  With no scientific expertise, it was just easier to say "God didit".

If someone had bad fortune, they must therefore BE bad.  God punished them for "sins".

If someone had good fortune, they must BE good, and they were venerated.

Of course, if someone had what seemed to be special power or knowledge, they must be a shaman and really close to God.  Therefore, the rest would follow.  Often, it was just they learned techniques for varying things, such as which herb would help one to feel better.

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful input.

Ahh yes! The dyslexic philosopher who worries whether there is a *Dog*!... I believe I've met him before. Wasn't he the one who wrote the all inspiring children's novel, "All *(God)s* Go to Heaven!?"  ;)

PUL,
Cosmic_Ambitions

Ah well the Romans early mythology was inspired by the ancients Greeks they somehow added a bit of dogma into the later versions but I do not want to offend anyone by saying this.  These people did the best they knew how.

The Aztec and Mayans were very blood thirsty people in their sacrifices weren't they.

That is very interesting about Japanese lore; I only have a tiny bit of their writings.  Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami is the Japanese Sun Goddess.  From the Song Dynasty period also called the Southern Song.  The Goddess was/is also known as the Rider of the White Horse and the Sun Bird.  I did not know about the Two Divine children in this literature.  Stunning; similar to Pollux and Castor.

Osiris, murdered by his brother Set and cut into a thousand pieces.  Isis his beloved found all his pieces (except one; his phallus - although it was found later) and restored him.  Osiris the Guardian of the Underworld and his Queen Isis.  Brother and sister to Jesus Arbal and Arbel.

Yes, and the Hebrew people very firm in their purpose of ushering in Christ.  And Christ was manifested as One light so people could not be cut up into a thousand pieces travelling back home.

And Mohammed with his divine purpose.  Interesting the djin, wonder what happened to .. oh gosh what was her name .. a lovely girl, it'll come to me .. that was an interesting discussion.

And the diverse and divine paths of Hinduism.

What a celebration of life!

Thanks Dave; always a pleasure to read.

Hi Number X11 I am so pleased i made you laugh,its nice to spread some laughter in the world,we all need to laugh sometimes.  :D

Love and God bless you Juditha

Hi Cosmic The Aztecs sacrificed children to there God, as they were so primitive,its terrible what they did,and thats why i dont like the A ztecs,i am glad they ceased to exist.

Love and god bless you Cosmic    Juditha

Most early religions had sacrifices to their "god" of choice.  The Hebrews killed entire towns, including men, women and children in the name of "god".

The Mezoamerican populace would have outgrown the need for human sacrifice, just as others did, had they been allowed to survive and not been slaughtered by greedy Spaniards on a quest for gold.

I do believe, however, that there are some tribes and peoples who do still practice human sacrifice in this day and age.  Most are isolated.  Of course, then there are the self sacrificing humans, the suicide bombers..

And the crusades of the dark ages..that was sacrifice of the worst kind.  All for religious beliefs.. ;)

Painting with a broad stroke here: let's not forget shamanism in its various cultural contexts. Shamans, interestingly enough, dealt with those on the other side directly, unlike most religious practitioners.

Rob

Rob_Roy wrote on Oct 27^th, 2006 at 9:03am:

Painting with a broad stroke here: let's not forget shamanism in its various cultural contexts. Shamans, interestingly enough, dealt with those on the other side directly, unlike most religious practitioners. Rob

I'm confused, Rob..could you explain further? :)

Thanks to everyone for sharing the interesting knowledge/stories.

It's thought provoking to see how free we truly are to believe in what we believe.

We've come a long way from some of the more barbaric/violent forms of expressing spirituality; for that I am thankful.

PUL,
Cosmic_Ambitions

Shirley,

Shamans did, and still do, soul retrievals and communicate with those on the other side to, for example, find out why the person they are dealing with is sick. In other words, instead of relying on ritual or theology, they dealt with the other side directly, for various purposes, usually for healing, exorcism, or the more mondane things like crop abundance.

BTW, the whole TMI thing, Reiki and so on are more modern forms of Shamanism.

Love,
Rob

Hi Cosmic The indians always beleived in the great spirit,they were and still are a very wise and spiritual race,they are at one with the land and the sky,moon and the stars,very mystical like the wolves which are also mystical.

Love and God bless you Cosmic  Juditha