Corvidius
Ad Honorem
- Jul 2017
- 3,047
- Crows nest
The Egyptians never had a word for religion, everything was as it was. What we see looks unorganized due to their being many gods and different creation myths, but they had this knack of joining all of this together into a whole, hence the continuous practice of syncretism. Behind the many gods, whatever animal head they may or may not have, a unity can be discerned. On the esoteric level this can be said to be Ptah, and expressed in a more understandable form, for ancient Egyptians, as the Apis bull. On a level that all Egyptians could understand, and all believed in above any regional gods, was Osiris. I guess it is ironic that it was the Greek Ptolemies who combined the two into Serapis, though with a classical Greek god form to appeal to Greeks in Egypt. Ancient Egypt was a theocracy as pharaoh was the only priest, with all those who we call priests being essentially bureaucrats either deputizing for pharaoh in caring for the images of the gods in their temples, or administering the state. So it can be said that even without a name for religion, their state was the same as an organized religion, with the entire country being analogous to the Vatican with pharaoh as the Pope and all the temples simply being like side chapels in St Peter's, and the many minor gods being saints in regards the way they fitted into the ordinary Egyptians world. It isn't really like that, but it's a useful way of describing it.
About the oldest religion, well, we can never know as Man would have had thoughts we can call religious long before we invented writing or making any form of image, and religion cannot be described as an invention belonging to any group of people. However, Zoroastrianism cannot be shown to have existed before what we find in the historical record in Egypt, and some of those elements that are said to have influenced the creation of Judaism and Christianity were already pre existing in Egyptian religious thought. Judaism and it's heresy Christianity are, IMO, influenced by all the Hebrew's neighbors, though I think with Christianity more influenced by the Egyptians. All very contentious and debatable of course.
About the oldest religion, well, we can never know as Man would have had thoughts we can call religious long before we invented writing or making any form of image, and religion cannot be described as an invention belonging to any group of people. However, Zoroastrianism cannot be shown to have existed before what we find in the historical record in Egypt, and some of those elements that are said to have influenced the creation of Judaism and Christianity were already pre existing in Egyptian religious thought. Judaism and it's heresy Christianity are, IMO, influenced by all the Hebrew's neighbors, though I think with Christianity more influenced by the Egyptians. All very contentious and debatable of course.
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