Since the dawn of man, people have had their own forms of religion. Be it simple
ceremonial burial or complex blessing rituals, each person had their own way to explain
the
wonders of nature like, how did we come here and what our purpose here was. Another
thing
that each individual person had was their own morals. Morals are what define a
civilization.
Labels like peaceful or barbaric are put on different civilizations because of their
morals. The
morality of each civilization defined their religious beliefs.
The lives of people who lived in the early ancient history time period were tough.
They had to roam the land always looking for new game to hunt and plants and berries to
gather. The people weren't united because of all this traveling, and therefore contact
with
other people was minimal. Morals are hard to develop without much contact with other
people
and so the religion of these early people was minimal. Then came the development of
farming
into this time period. Farming brought the people together. Small cities began to
develop
because the people didn't have to move around as much. With all this closeness, the
people
developed moral views on what to think about thieves or murderers. If certain
civilizations
didn't mind violence and killing, then they developed into a Brutal civilization.
Consequently,
the religions of these civilizations were evolved around sacrificial rituals and
allegiance to
brutal gods. The Assyrian civilization worked around this principle. They used scare
tactics to
overcome their enemies and treated their captives badly. They also believed in powerful
gods
who they feared. If certain civilizations became peaceful, then their religion reflected
their
peaceful nature and didn't have things like sacrifices. The people in peaceful
civilizations
believed in their religion because they wanted to not because they were afraid to. A
good
example of this is the Hebrews. The Hebrews were a peaceful people who disliked
violence.
Because of this peaceful nature, their religion taught values like brotherhood, charity,
human
dignity, and universal peace. Violent cultures cause violent religions and peaceful
cultures
create peaceful religion
The Greeks were a peaceful civilization. They believed in the idea of democracy and
they strongly believed in philosophy. This gave them plenty of time to contemplate
about
things like morality and religion. Their morals were always related to individual
freedom,
because they stressed a person's right to criticize, be curious, and be different. Thus,
their
religion of many gods supported their way of life. Each god would represent a different
aspect
of life. Kind of like each person is different and represents good and bad in different
degrees.
The Greeks believed in people being different and their religion involves many different
gods.
The Romans were very much like the Greeks. They were ruled by a senate for most of
their reign, but towards the end were ruled by dictatorship. They were composed of many
different cultures and were very tolerant of the different customs and beliefs. This
acceptance
of many different cultures explains their religious beliefs. First the Romans had a
religion with
a few main gods like Janus and Jupiter and thousands of little gods like the god of fever
and
the god of gold coins. Then, as the Roman power expanded, Greek influence grew. So the
Romans stole many of the Greek myths and legends and applied them to the Roman gods.
This pleased the people for a little while, but they began to become dissatisfied by the
old
religion. Finally, Christianity began to get converts. Because of the accepted
diversity of the
Roman empire, the religious beliefs changed with the changing morality of its people.
The Middle Ages provide the best support for the thesis. It shows how the church
adapted to changing morals. During the Middle Ages, there was a decline in intelligence
as a
chief moral. This era is even sometimes referred to as the 'Dark Ages'. People became
more
superstitious. The control of land and money became a big part of everybody's life.
This was
reflected in the changes that occurred in the Catholic church. The church evolved to
become
the learning center for the people. The church also started collecting taxes and serving
as a
hospital for the sick. These changes in the church were brought about by a change in
morals.
The word Renaissance means rebirth. The Renaissance period in Europe was a
rebirth of ideas. Europe mainly had customs and institutions before the Renaissance, but
after
the Renaissance period got started, it sparked a revolution. This revolution also
created a
change in religious beliefs. The morals of many people had started to change. Many
people
started to feel that the church wasn't for them. These people broke off from the church
and
formed their own religions. One such person is Martin Luther. Luther openly stated
ninety-
five reasons why he didn't like the church. He went off and formed Luthernism. During
the
Renaissance, because of the changing morals, religion had to change.
The morality of each civilization created their religious beliefs. It is obvious with
all of these civilizations, that this holds true. The people from the Ancient Historical
time
period formed many little colonies. The religion of these colonies changed with the
views of
the people in them. If the people liked violence, then their gods became powerful to
scare
them into believing. If the people like peace, then their gods became peaceful and used
good
ideas to get them to follow. The morals of the Greeks were believing in independence
and
being different. It isn't a coincidence that their religion contains many different gods
each with
its own personality and skills, like humans. The Roman culture dealt with so many
different
cultures, that its morals were frequently changing. The Romans changed their religion
three
times. During the Middle Ages, there was a decline of intelligence, cleanliness, and
overall
morals. The church became the tax collection agency, the hospital, and the school, which
is a
direct correlation between the decline in morals. So the increase in power of the church
in the
Middle Ages was because of a change in morals. The Renaissance was a rebirth of ideas
and
morality. These changes had the greatest effect on the church, which had grown strong in
the
Middle Ages. The peoples changing morals forced them to adopt new religions like
Luthernism and Protestantism. Morals are what define a human being. They become
present
in every part of life, especially religion. Because civilization is moving so fast
forward,
peoples morals are changing rapidly too. When peoples morals change, it changes their
whole
life. That is why there have been so many different religions in the past.
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