gods, rules, and the social scene!

Gods, the gods of ancient time Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China. We have been looking at them over the last couple of week's and I have come to realize that they are not all that different. Amon (egyptian) Shamash (mesopotamia) Surya (india) and Tai-Yang (china) all gods of the sun. Different names, different times, and different people worshipping the same thing, the sun.  What do these gods really have in common, or what do they have to do with the start of civilization. The gods themselves don't really have anything to do with it, but, the people that believe in them do. With an understanding of religion the people of these cultures show a high understanding of thought and a believe in higher human existence. 

                                                                        

The gods of Egypt varied from animism to polytheistic to monotheistic. It changed with the pharaoh Amenhotep IV (fiero pp30) who put Aten above the other gods making it monotheistic. The Pharaohs themselves where seen as god on earth, doing gods work. This maybe why the people of Egypt where willing to build the pyramids for them. There are a couple of story's of Egyptian gods that are similar to the story in the christian bible (Osiris and Set) like the resurrection of Jesus. The Egyptian with this show a understanding of something greater then themselves and wishing for understand  which is a step into civilization

The gods of Mesopotamia where similar to the gods of Egypt but, there was more physical and spiritual woe. There is again a similarity between the start of civilizations. With the under standing of  higher power.  My ideal of the Mesopotamia's first step into, taste of, civilization was when the Epic of Gilgamesh was written. This story tell us about Gilgamesh, first understanding of lose and pain and the search of an afterlife. 

The gods from India and China are a little different, not that they are not the same as the gods of Egypt and Mesopotamia  they are just visualized in a different way. I will never be able to explain it. Although, the people of these place still had the same experience's realizing a higher power, questioning their existence. both of these cultures had a believe in being part of and not being a subject to god, unlike the other civilization but, they still believed and questioned why they are here.