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This is www.acurioustraveler.com/origin_of_religion_p_1 ORIGINS OF SOME JEWISH and CHRISTIAN BELIEFS by Wesley M. Wilson, BS, MBA, JD CONTENTS This Website P. 1: Magic versus Religion; Dreams; Ancient Egyptian, Jewish & Other Middle East Beliefs; Early Jewish Beliefs; The Soul; Heaven or Paradise Website P. 2: Reincarnation; Evil Spirits, Death & Hell; Sacrifices; Birth of Jesus; Early Christian Beliefs; Evolution of Christian Beliefs Website P. 3 History of the Popes; Numbers; Miracles; Christianity In the Past and Today; the Significance of Virgins; Conclusions ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wesley M. Wilson, has been a student of history and religions for many years. He was a curious observer of cultures and note-taker during travels in more than 215 countries (listed by Travelers Century Club), including Israel, Egypt, throughout the Middle East, Greece, and Rome. His background--farm boy, merchant seaman during the latter part of W.W.II, soldier, pilot, electrical engineer, personnel director, labor relations attorney, and part-time university lecturer, has helped him to have broad interests. He speaks five languages, has degrees from three universities, and has published eight books. MAGIC VERSUS RELIGION Sir James George Fraser, the great Twentieth Century British anthropologist, said religion differs from magic and primitive rituals by having priests who perform the rites, temples where the ceremonies are performed, by recognizing gods, not spirits, and the desired results are obtained by sacrifice and prayer in religion, by ceremonies in primitive rituals. As man emerges from primitive beliefs, his divinities tend to become more like humans. Gods are created in the image of humans. The more human his gods and goddesses are, the more man has advanced from earlier beliefs that natural objects were spirits or souls. There is little difference between some religions that derive their power from nature, and magic. In West Africa, my local guides, university graduates, believe that voodoo is a religion, like Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, or Islam. Believers in Voodoo have developed a complicated pantheistic system of gods and beliefs, much like that of other religions in the developed countries. The gods and goddesses of the Middle East and Ancient Greece were like humans, with many human-like weaknesses. Ancient Romans copied many of the Greek gods and goddesses, changing the names of most of them. DREAMS Dreams were very important to primitive man, he often believed that what he saw in dreams actually happened or would soon happen. A dream can seem very realistic, and uneducated man may not distinguish between reality and a dream. Many North American Indians believed that if a person dreamed about blood or the color red, the evil spirits are aroused. The dreamer should immediately tell others about the dream, to weaken the power of evil. Ancient Hawaiians believed to dream of someone nude meant that a sickness was coming; to dream that your private parts are exposed in public shows contempt for the dreamer; he/she will not be successful in some undertaking. In the past, and even today, shaman and other men take actions to produce a vivid dream, such as the use of hallucinogenic drugs, fasting for a period of many days, living alone in the wilderness or desert for some weeks, or a form of self-hypnotism. They dream, then interpret what they saw in a dream as reality or an omen. A shaman in Papua New Guinea told me that villagers often bring him a pig and ask him to tell them what caused the death of a relative or friend. The shaman tells them that he will dream that night and have the answer the next day. If the shaman names a particular person as the cause of the death, that person will have a short life; he will be the subject of a payback killing. The Old Testament has many reports of the interpretation of dreams as reality. Daniel could interpret dreams. [Daniel 5:12] Joseph was a diviner, he interpreted a dream of Egypt’s pharaoh as meaning that there would be seven bad years. [Gen.41:25-32] Jonah, inside the whale, dreamed that he would be saved. [Jonah 2] Jacob dreamed that he saw a stairway to heaven. [Gen. 28:10] Although only a shepherd, Jacob also dreamed that he would be king. [Gen. 37:5] Isaiah dreamed of many problems for the Jewish people if they did not change their ways. [Isaiah 1:1-10] The New Testament also shows the belief in dreams. Joseph dreamed that he should marry Mary, even though she was pregnant and he was not the father. [Matthew 1:20] Today, educated people realize that a dream has little relation to reality. However, superstitious beliefs are still strong, among religious believers and other people. For example, the belief that if you tell another person your dream before breakfast, it may come true.
1st Century AD bas relief from Temple of Bal, Palmyra, Syria, shows that local women (behind a camel) wore a veil long before Islam arrived ANCIENT EGYPTIAN, JEWISH, & OTHER MIDDLE EAST BELIEFS The Jewish religion began as a tribal religion, like many others in the Middle East. Their god was said to protect the tribe, against all others. Most of the Jewish leaders apparently lived in Egypt for hundreds of years, from about the 18th until the 13th Century BCE (Before Christian Era). Jews, apparently led by Moses, left Egypt in the Exodus, in the 13th Century BCE. Egyptian experts say that Jews made two exoduses from Egypt, not one. They crossed the Reed Sea (or Papyrus Sea, then a swampy area), not the Red Sea. The Jewish people naturally adopted many practices of the Egyptians and included in their beliefs many of the Egyptian beliefs. Ancient Egyptians, with rich soil that was renewed with the regular flooding of the Nile, and with a population not too crowded or too sparse, could lead a comfortable life without extreme hardship. They developed a leisure class of priests. The priests, wearing robes of leopard skin, developed elaborate theories of birth, life, death, and the afterlife. Ancient Egyptians believed that the god Osiris was killed by his brother, Seth (like the later Old Testament story of Cain and Abel), and cut into 15 pieces. The clever jackal god, Anubis, helped Isis (Osiris’ wife), by putting the body back together. However, the penis was swallowed by a catfish, so Osiris lacked a penis. Isis was made pregnant by the breath of Osiris, she had a baby, Horus. Another popular Egyptian story is that Osiris was tricked by Seth into lying down in a wooden box. Seth immediately nailed the lid shut and threw the box into the Nile. Sometime later Osiris was rescued when the box washed up on the shores of Byblos. In addition to the story about baby Moses, there are many stories in the Middle East about a baby being saved by being put into a basket, and floating to safety. They include the Egyptian god Horus. His wicked uncle, Set (Seth) wanted to kill the baby Horus. Isis hid him in swamps, where Moses was said to have been hidden much later. A popular Egyptian folk tale, The Promises of the Three Sisters, tells how jealous persons in the royal palace put two infants into a box, nailed the lid shut, and threw it into the river. A poor man found the box, saved the infants, and took care of them. The tale is believed to be much older than the story of Moses. Sargon of Akkad (Sargon I), born before 2300 BCE, was said, as an infant, to be found floating in a basket on a river among the bulrushes, He conquered much of the Middle East, and his story was well-known at the time of Moses, who lived 1,000 years later. The great Hindu book, The Mahabharata, older than most of the stories in the Old Testament, also tells of a great flood, and how the child Karna was saved while floating away in the bulrushes, like Moses, many years later. The ancient Jews who developed the story of Moses probably copied these popular earlier beliefs. The many statues of Isis feeding the baby Horus at her breast are much like statues of Mary and baby Jesus. The later Jewish and Christian religions apparently adopted this subject during the Jews’ long stay in Egypt. When Horus grew up, he fought his wicked uncle, Seth. Horus lost an eye, which he got back later. The popular Osiris, like Jesus much later, died and was resurrected. Many scholars believe that the Old Testament’s Book of Proverbs, and a Book of Advice to an Egyptian son, 1,000 years earlier, had the same source, Akhenaton, the "heretic pharaoh." He worshipped only one god, like some of the Jews, and he eliminated an entire set of gods. The priests did not want to lose their power, so when Akhenaton died, they quickly re-established the old religion and its gods and goddesses. Ancient Egyptians believed that when the divine spirit leaves the body, that person dies. After death, the Ka stayed near the tomb. The Ba, a bird representing the soul, flew away. The "Ceremony of the opening of the mouth" was done to a mummy before burial. The ankh is a symbol of long life. It is shaped something like the later Christian cross. The lotus flower opens with the sun, it "is in love with the sun god, Re (Ra)," therefore it was considered to be sacred. [Buddhists also consider the lotus flower to be sacred; Buddha is often shown sitting on a lotus flower.] Egyptians noticed that the scarab beetle pushes its eggs up each morning to get sunlight, "therefore it pushes up the sun each day." After death, the god Anubis was believed to guide the soul, Ba, on the treacherous route to where the soul was weighed, the place of divine judgment. Ancient Egyptians believed the heart, not the brain, was the home of the soul and that it controlled the body. Anubis placed the jar containing the heart of the deceased on the scales. On the other side was a feather, Maat, the goddess of Truth. The deceased was cross-examined about his activities during life, good or bad? If the heart is lighter than the feather, the soul is united with the spiritual Ka. If the heart is lighter, they live to eternity in happiness. If the heart is heavier than the feather, Amernuit, a horrible looking crocodile-lion-hippopotamus, is waiting for it Is any human heart lighter than an ordinary feather? Michelangelo’s great painting in Rome’s Vatican of the Bible’s "The Last Judgment" reminded me of scenes that I saw in many tombs of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Jewish and Christian religions adopted many of the Egyptian beliefs. The mythology of ancient Persia had a similar belief, that the god Rashnu acted as the chief judge, in weighing the good and bad deeds of a deceased. During the three days and nights of deliberation, the soul hovered near the body, waiting for the verdict. The soul of a good person went across a bridge into paradise. A beautiful woman helped them cross the bridge. Bad souls found that the bridge was sharp and narrow, they tumbled down, where demons waited to treat them cruelly. The Jews lived under Persian rule for a long time, they naturally adopted many Persian beliefs. Insects, some fish, and other creatures that appear to die in the dry season and return to life in the wet season have been honored in many cultures. They are a symbol of eternal life, of longevity. In Egypt, the scarab beetle lays its eggs in mud, dies, and the eggs are hatched in the wet season. It appears to be resurrected, so the ancient pharaohs used the scarab as a symbol of longevity. I saw the scarab beetle symbol in many tombs of Ancient Egyptians. In ancient Egypt, the body was preserved to provide a home for the soul. When a rich person died the inside organs were removed, the body was covered in natron (salt) and wrapped in cloth, to be preserved. The early Egyptians, up until the Fifth Dynasty, did not know whether the mummy would stay preserved for a long time, so they also had a statue, an ushabti, made of the deceased as a home for the soul. Egypt’s pharaohs, queens, nobles, and other rich people built some 83 pyramids, or elaborate tombs in the cliffs of West Thebes, for homes for the souls. Food and rich offerings were left for the afterlife. The soul was often given a boat to cross the Styx ("River of Death") to go to the other world. Before the 6th Century BCE, a system of mysterious religious beliefs, popular in Greece, Egypt, and much of the middle East, based upon the legend of Orpheus, was well known for hundreds of years. In Greek mythology Orpheus was a great musician and poet. He was said to have been killed by a group of women who were celebrating Dionysus (also called Bacchus) when he refused to join the women. Believers in the cult that honored Orpheus thought that man has a dual nature, the divine and the evil, that man would sin and must atone for those sins, and that the soul was immortal. They believed in a cycle of death and birth. The soul of the good people would go to Elysium (like heaven or paradise of other religions), but later their soul would be incarnated in a new body. The soul of a bad person would go to hell, but would also later be incarnated in a new body. Rites included representations of the death and rebirth of Orpheus. The cult of Orpheus declined when the Roman emperors became Christian and began to punish those who were not Christian. However, Christianity incorporated many of the popular beliefs of the cult of Orpheus.
Temple of Bacchus, Balbak, Lebanon EARLY JEWISH BELIEFS Abraham was probably born in Ur, in modern Iraq, by 1800 BCE. He moved with his father, Terah, to Harran, in what is now eastern Turkey. [Genesis 11:27-12:-5] Abraham married Sarah and probably left eastern Turkey around 1800 BCE. He arrived at Canaan, near the eastern shore of the Mediterranean and apparently stayed there briefly. Abraham’s oldest son was Ishmael, the ancestors of today’s Palestinians and Muslims. Jews believe that Abraham’s second son, Isaac, had a son, Jacob, who became the third patriarch of the Hebrews. Jacob had 12 sons. Each of those sons became the founder of one of the 12 tribes of Israel. The Jewish people migrated to Egypt, probably between 1800 and 1700 BCE. They worked for the Egyptians. Some were only slaves, a few became trusted advisors to important Egyptians. Moses led the Jews out of Egypt. When the Jewish people arrived near the eastern shores of the Mediterranean around 1250 BCE, they wandered for 40 years. They found that the desert area, Canaan, where some of their ancestors had lived briefly, was crowded, with people of other tribes. The Jewish people were warlike and had several good military leaders. They gradually acquired control of a larger area, subduing, killing, or chasing out many of the earlier occupants, stealing their the land. However, the Israelites were always a small minority tribe in the Middle East. When Herodotus, the great Greek historian and traveler , wrote, in the Fifth Century BCE, Canaan and the entire large area near the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, was called Palestine, occupied by ancestors of today‘s Palestinians. Assyrians led by Sargon II and other great warriors conquered the area where the Jews lived around 722 BCE. An army from Babylon conquered the area in 587 BCE. Later, Persians under Cyrus then controlled the land where the Jews lived. A large percentage of the Jewish people moved, willingly or unwillingly, to the Baghdad and Persia areas They lived under the Persians for hundreds of years, adopting many of their practices and religious beliefs. Most of the Persians at that time were Zoroasters. It is common for a religion to adopt popular stories from an earlier religion. Ancient Jewish leaders constantly tried to prevent Jews from worshipping the golden calf and other beliefs and practices of their neighbors. When I visited near Birkat al Mouz, Oman, local men showed me a cave where an ancient golden calf and golden serpent were found some 30 years earlier. One of the men who found them was said to have been blinded, the other became sick. Many early religions worshipped the bull, a symbol of power and procreation, from the Middle East to Crete and Spain. Druids, the priests of the Celts, worshipped the bull. They migrated across much of Europe, finally reaching Ireland. Many ancient peoples believed that when a bull was sacrificed, many plants--wheat, barley, and more, grew from its corpse. When Moses returned from Sinai he ordered that the worship of the golden calf cease. [Exodus 32] Baal, represented by an eagle, was then the Canaanite god of rain. In a dry area, Jewish farmers and herders naturally worshipped Baal. Jezebel, the wife of Israel’s King Elijah, worshipped Baal. [Kings 18:18-40] In the Fourth Century BCE, Alexander conquered the areas where the Jewish people lived, bringing more of the Greek culture and beliefs. A few years before the birth of Jesus, Romans conquered the areas where Jews lived. Rome’s Arch of Titus, in the Forum, has a bas relief showing Roman soldiers carrying away symbols of the Jewish religion--the ark and candelabra. Ancient Israelites honored or worshipped other gods and goddesses that were then popular in the Middle East. For example, King Solomon built a temple to honor Ashtoreth, usually called Ishtar or Astarte, goddess of fertility. [1 Kings: 11:33] The Phoenicians honored her as the wife of Baal, their principal god. Many Israelites revered her as the queen of heaven and wife of their god, Yahweh. Tammuz was a popular god in Sumer, Asssyria, and much of the Middle East, long before Abraham was born, and for centuries thereafter. He was the god of fertility and agriculture, very important in a dry area with farmers and herdsmen. A popular annual festival in February or March celebrated his marriage to Inanna (Ishtar). A priestess was selected each year to represent the goddess. The king publicly mated with her, so the crops and herds would be more fertile. The death of Tammuz was usually celebrated in March or April, the time that Jesus is said to have died. Tammuz was resurrected each year, unlike Jesus who is said to have had only one resurrection. Tammuz was such a popular god of Israelites that Jeremiah apparently sent a letter warning Jews not to worship the idols of Tammuz. [Jeremiah 11:1-25] The Jewish religion named its fourth month Tammuz. The story of Noah and the flood [Genesis 8:3-4] probably came from the Gilgamesh Epic. It is a literary work widely read in the Middle East since 1800 BCE or earlier. It describes a powerful tyrant in Erech, Mesopotamia (Babylon, modern Iraq), and a mortal, Utnaphishtim, who is the sole mortal survivor of the Great Flood. Utnaphishtim was a favorite of Ea, the Babylonian god of wisdom, when the Jews lived there. Ea advised Utnaphishtim to build a ship and take on it "the seed of all living things." When floodwaters receded, the ship built by Utnaphishtim rested on Mount Nisir. Noah’s later ship rested on Mount Ararat. Utnaphishtim sent out a raven, Noah sent out a dove, each seeking dry land. There were many other stories in the Middle East of a great flood. Ancient Egyptians believed that Ra (Re), the creator, would finally tire of humanity and destroy it with a great flood, probably from the Nile. In Mesopotamia, the Middle East, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flooded from tine to time, but the local Sumerian, Hittite, Akkadian, and Assyrian empires believed that a greater flood would someday destroy their civilizations. However, they believed that survivors would have an almost eternal life, like Noah in the Jewish Old Testament. Enki, the water god of the ancient Sumerians, was said to cause a great flood to drown the evil people. At the time of Noah, local people believed that the Middle East where they lived was the entire world--they knew nothing of most of Asia, of Africa, the Americas, or the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and Australia. The Torah is the first five books of the Bible, consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. It tells of the Jewish view of creation and later events. It describes rituals that should be followed, moral standards for common Jews and priests, and the names and alleged life spans of early Jewish leaders. Many educated people, until the last century, believed that Adam and Eve were the first humans, created in 4004 BCE. The wonderful Deacon’s Synchronological Chart of Universal History was first published in 1890. It was later published as The Wall Chart of World History, quoting the Genesis version of creation. In the ancient mythology of Persia, the first man and woman, Mashya and Mashgoi, were like the Jewish Adam and Eve, but they became victims of Ahriman, something like the Devil. Their suffering was somewhat like the suffering of Adam and Eve after they ate the forbidden fruit. There are many versions of creation around the world. I summarize many of them in my book Curious Customs and Bizarre Beliefs Around the World. Today, scientists and other educated people agree that the first creatures called human lived more than three million years ago. In America and some other countries many intelligent but ignorant people still believe that the Genesis version of history is correct. The Torah has many sacred stories, it describes various types of offerings and sacrifices to be made, and rituals to be followed, like those of many primitive religions or beliefs. It also prescribes many feasts. The Jewish Feast of the Tabernacles or Succoth is a week-long harvest festival honoring the huts used by Moses and other Jews during 40 years in the wilderness. Hanukkah, usually in December, is celebrated with a candelabrum with eight candles. Gifts are often exchanged. One of my visits to Israel was during Hanukkah; it was a pleasure to see many children carrying a candelabra. The Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur is the 10th day of the seventh month. Passover or Peseta is a week-long festival in the spring celebrating the exodus from Egypt. The Jewish religion, like other religions, developed an elaborate system of rituals and standards for moral behavior. Most traditional cultures have standards of moral behavior, such as to prevent incest, and to prohibit marriage among particular close relatives. Some of the rituals were designed to preserve the health of a desert people. For example, Jews were admonished not to eat pork. Muslims are also told not to eat pork. Before sanitation and refrigeration, it was unhealthy to eat pork. The Jews worshipped only one god, Yahweh (Jehovah)), a "jealous god," unlike the other tribes, who had several gods and goddesses. He was believed to be a personal god, to see everything. Ancient Babylonians, before and during the "captivity" of the Jews in Babylon, also had a god who saw everything, Shamash, the sun god. Every morning Shamash climbed to the high point of the sky, where he could see everything. The father of Shamash was Sin, the moon god--he watched the wicked at night as he sailed across the sky in a boat. One of my favorite scenes in tombs at West Thebes, Egypt, the tomb of Ramses VI, shows Nut, the goddess of night, stretching across the sky to swallow stars and bring on the day. The Jewish tribal god was cruel, powerful, and jealous of all other gods. A typical example is where the Jewish God, Jehovah, tells the Israelites that they must kill or drive out the hundreds of thousands of Hittites, Gilgasites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and steal their land, showing no mercy. Why must the Jews become such thieves and murderers of innocent men, women, and children ? Because the owners of the land worship "pagan" gods. A pagan god is any god except the Jewish god. [Deut. 7:1-5] Jehovah told the Jews he would help them drive out the owners of the land by sending an angel ahead of them, but, since not all Jews were loyal to Jehovah, they might have to do the fighting themselves. [Exodus 33:1] Today, many warlike Israelites believe they have the right to drive out, kill and harass the Palestinians (who usually do not believe in the Jewish god) and steal their land. Some other peoples also had a cruel god who told them to kill innocent "enemies," usually called a "god of war." However, they also had other gods who were more loving and peaceful. The Jews did not have a loving god.. People around the world who believe in a particular god have killed millions of believers in another religion. Religions have caused more horrible deaths than greed for more property or women . Jesus, a loving God, was considered by many, but not the established religious leaders, to be the "son of God." Each new religion is suspect by established religious leaders, who see it as a threat to their existence. When Christianity became the official religion in the Roman Empire, Christians tried to destroy all remnants of the preceding most popular religion, Mithraism. When the Spanish and their priests invaded Latin America they tried to destroy gods worshipped by Mayans, Incas, and others. When Christian missionaries invaded the Pacific islands, they tried to destroy all vestiges of the prior religions. Today, in Tonga, no one knows what their "pagan" gods looked like,. the people had followed , like sheep, directives of missionaries to destroy all vestiges of old gods. A new religion is often called a "cult" and it is suppressed. But if it become popular, it then tries to suppress all other religions. Gods and goddesses of an earlier religion are often called demons. Jesus, 11 of his 12 disciples, then his mother, were worshipped, in addition to the Jewish God. Over the centuries, hundreds of saints, plus angels and martyrs, were added by the church hierarchy, to be honored or worshipped. Many saints acquired their title by killing thousands of innocent people who were not believers in that religion. THE SOUL Early Greek philosophers believed the soul (sometimes called the spirit) was much like the person, but Socrates and Plato believed in the non-material soul. Plato believed it preexisted the body and was immortal. Aristotle believed the soul turned the body into a human being and survived it through the mind. Many Greeks in the Sixth Century BCE believed that the "life force" of a human is an infusion of the "cosmic breath" which he receives at birth and is destined to be introduced into another body at his death. Early Jews and Christians believed that souls are stored in a celestial storehouse and fitted to persons at birth. The Roman Catholic Church in 1513, adopted the view that the soul is immortal. [Ency. Americana V.14-810] Thomas Aquinas, a Thirteenth Century theologian and philosopher, believed that the soul was spiritual and intellectual, in the form of the body; it was created at a definite moment, probably when the fetus began to "quicken" or stir, in the development of the human body. He believed the soul would survive death and be reunited with the body at the Last Judgment. In 1854 the Roman Catholic Church adopted the theory that the soul is infused by God at the moment of conception, therefore any abortion is wrong. Prior to 1854 most Roman Catholics believed that the fetus received the soul when it had developed enough to live outside of the mother’s body. In 1854 the pope’s army had recently lost the last battle against Italians who wanted freedom from the Church’s tyranny, and the pope, then largely ignored, wanted to restore some of his power. During the Middle Ages, many Europeans believed that when a person died, his soul came out of the mouth, and was taken by either the devil or heaven. Some criminals were buried alive. If buried on the back, a tube was put into the mouth, not to help the dying breathe, but to permit the soul to escape. I have studied beliefs in the soul when I traveled among traditional peoples in the Amazon, Africa, Asia, Siberia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Australia, among North American Indians, and elsewhere. There are many similarities of beliefs. A common belief is that the soul leaves temporarily when we sleep or are sick, and permanently when a person breathes his/her last breath. When a person sneezes, some people believe that the soul temporarily leaves the body with the sneeze. The soul can be brought back by saying "bless you" or its equivalent in the local language. Many people believe that during a long yawn the soul escapes; the fingers must be snapped to prevent it from leaving. Others advise us to cover the mouth with a hand when we yawn. If the mouth is open for a long time evil spirits may enter it. Traditional peoples developed elaborate hooks, nets, or mirrors to prevent the soul from leaving, especially to protect a baby’s soul. Shamans used many methods of retrieving a wandering soul, often a big wooden spoon or a net. Some shamans, for a price, will store a person’s soul for period when that person will be exposed to danger--believers say that person cannot then be killed, because a killer does not have access to the soul. Shaman will also store the soul of a sick person, so he/she cannot die. People who claim to safely store their soul include Yakuts of Siberia and a former king of Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Many traditional people believe that their shadow represents their soul, so do not step on their shadow and do not let the shadow fall on an empty coffin. Some people believe that a mirror or a reflecting pool may trap a soul, and that a photograph may steal the soul. Among those who do not want their photograph to be taken are older Chinese men and women, and the Masai of Kenya and Tanzania. Some ancient Greeks, including Plato, believed that a person has several souls. I report many more views about the soul in my book Curious Customs and Bizarre Beliefs Around the World. Europeans have long feared the souls of deceased evil people. They believed that if dark- colored birds fly around trees without landing they are the reincarnated souls of evil people. Many French until recently believed that when a child not baptized dies, it becomes a bird, until it is finally accepted into heaven. The English believed that swifts flying around a church were the souls of people who had committed a crime. Many traditional people and some Christians believe that the soul of a person who committed suicide wanders aimlessly, forever. Elaborate procedures have been developed to pacify that soul and cause it to stay calmly in on place, not disturbing others. In Jewish cemeteries in Europe, a stone was sometimes put on a tomb to prevent the soul from leaving and wandering. Notes with requests for help, weighted with a rock, are put on the tombs of popular rabbis. Animals and insects in many Buddhist, Hindu, and other cultures are believed to be only a particular reincarnated form of a human soul. Therefore, if they do harm they should have a trial, just like a human, and be punished like a human if guilty. Not long ago, Germans believed that a dog, bull, or wild animal is bad if it did harm, and should have a trial and be punished, like a human. Many cultures in Europe, Africa, and eastern Asia have believed that souls of the dead lived in bean flowers. Bean flowers are scattered around the home in much of Africa and eastern Asia to keep away demons or evil spirits. Salt has long been scattered to drive away evil spirits and to purify an area. There apparently has never been a well documented proof that the soul exists, but it is widely believed to exist. Some people believe that dreams are the wanderings of the soul, and its adventures. Do identical twins have the same soul? Does each twin get a soul upon leaving the mother’s birth canal? We may soon regularly clone a human being, making a copy of that person. Will it have the same soul as the person from whom it was copied, or will it have an individual soul? HEAVEN or PARADISE All religions involve a belief in power (s) higher than man, and an attempt to please and avoid angering those powers or deities. Many gods and goddesses are believed to be subject to spells or other power exercised by sorcerers and other mortals. They include many gods and goddesses of Hindus, and those of ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. Most religions believe in some kind of existence after death. Many religions also believe in a heaven or paradise where the "good" go after death. Ancient Sumerians, predecessors of the Jewish people in the Middle East, thought that Dilmun or paradise was a place full of vegetarians--animals did not eat others, and the sick and lame were made well. The god Enki and goddess Ninki were said to live in Dilmun. Some experts believe that Dilmun was the island of Bahrain. Zoroaster (Zara-ushrtra) modified an older religion, to develop a religion that was very popular in Persia and much of the Middle East when the Jews lived there. He believed that man is free and responsible, that there is a Savior, and a higher state or paradise. The powers of good were led by a Savior, opposing the powers of evil, led by Ahriman. The archangels were much like the angels later developed by the Jewish and Christian beliefs. Those later religions apparently adopted the ecstatic ascent into heaven, enjoyed by the soul of believers in Zoroastrianism. Mithraism, the main religion in the Roman empire at the time of Jesus, also believed that after death, the soul of man can pass though the seven spheres of planets and enter heaven. Muslims, living mostly in dry areas, picture paradise as green, with pretty streams and black-eyed maidens. The Vikings of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden believed that a Viking who died in combat would go to Valhal, where he would feast and fight forever. North American Indians believed that the Happy Hunting Ground was better than the earth, with good hunting and lots of dancing. In the Cook Islands, a brave warrior was believed to go to a good land, Iva, to dance, drink, and chew sugar cane. Australian Aborigines believe that upon death, the spirit may find its way to a home in the sky with the spirit-ancestors. Religions also have different concepts of where bad people go when they die, but most agree that it is a hot place. Man seems to have a need to believe that, upon death, the "good" people will go to a place that is better than their place on Earth. Governments encourage this belief, it helps to prevent the poor and suffering from rebelling against their horrible life on Earth and the government that tolerates it. When the Spanish conquistadors conquered Latin America, they brought priests, to convert and baptize "Indians" into Christianity, to tranquilize and subdue them quickly, so they would be more useful slaves. Each priest probably saved the lives of hundreds of Spanish soldiers and tens of thousands of natives, by subduing the natives with less bloodshed. If there are intelligent beings on any of the hundreds or thousands of other planets in the universe, do the gods for Earth people also apply to other intelligent beings? The original god of the Jewish tribe applied only for that tribe. Later, that god, in a modified form, was said to apply to all mankind. When gods now recognized by people on Earth were created or discovered, man knew nothing about other intelligent beings, on distant parts of Earth or the universe. Do those gods apply to the entire universe? If there is a heaven or a hell, where is it? If it exists as a physical place, why can’t we see it with our Hubbell and other telescopes? If there is "another dimension" that we cannot see, are heaven and hell there? Does only the soul go to heaven or hell upon death? Today there are about six and one-half billion people on Earth. Since man first arrived or developed on Earth, at least 100 billion men, women, and children have died. If each of those has a soul in heaven or hell, those places must be very crowded. Obviously, the body does not go to heaven or hell, it remains where it was buried, cremated, etc., except for gradual change, like nearly all matter. Does the soul in heaven or hell have any feeling? If yes, does that soul have the ability to think? How does it think--does it have a brain or memory chips? How does the soul know that it even exists? Does it have a personality? Is one soul different from other souls, or are they all the same? Does the soul have a distinctive size or appearance, as humans each have a distinctive appearance or size? Can souls determine who, what body, had that soul? What happens if the souls of former friends, enemies, or lovers meet each other? Can the soul remember any of its life on Earth? Does a soul have a body visible to other souls, or is it only molecules like air? Can we tell whether a soul is male or female? Does the soul wear clothes? If yes, what kind of clothes? Why can’t we see those clothes? Do souls enjoy sex with each other? Do they form binding pairs, or do they have sex with any other soul? If lovers die and go to heaven, can they find each other among the billions of souls? Can a father, mother, children, and other relatives find each other in heaven or hell? Do souls eat or drink? Where does that food or drink come from? Does the soul only feel pleasure or pain? Does the soul have only a limited feeling and ability to think, like animals? Can souls in heaven or hell communicate with each other? How? If yes, what language (s) do they use? Some plants and primitive animals are said to feel the shock of cold or heat--does the soul in heaven or hell only have that basic feeling? If the soul cannot feel pleasure or pain, isn’t hell the same as heaven to the soul? Some Christians say that heaven and hell are in another dimension in space, and that we cannot see or feel that dimension. How do we know that it exists, or that heaven and hell are there? Are all beliefs about life after death only formed by the amazing imagination of man? Are all gods and goddesses likewise only the imagination of man? |
