child sacrifice in ancient religions

The practice of sacrificing children was common in most ancient cultures and continued until relatively recent times. The gods, it was believed, demanded the very best of human sacrifices -- so the youngest, the most beautiful or the most favoured of each family's children was destined to lose his or her life on a sacrificial altar in order to ensure the prosperity of the family or community.

These days, of course, such children often lose their innocence on similar religious altars for the base gratification of men of God.

In the bible, when Abraham received a vision from God to take his favourite son to Mt Moriah for sacrifice the Moslems say that Abraham took Ishmael, but the Jews insist it was Isaac.

Whichever boy it was, the sacrifice was not made. The Bible claims that God was testing Abraham's faith, but common sense dictates that the poor old man couldn't bear to part with the sons he had waited so long for.

Actually, it is more likely that Abraham chose his firstborn, Ishmael, for the aborted sacrifice because shortly afterwards a jealous Sarah had Hagar and Ishmael banished. Naturally, after spending four years doting on Ishmael, Abraham had developed a close relationship with Hagar and even when Isaac was born to Sarah he was unlikely to have lost interest in the former slave-girl and her child.

Sarah had expected Ishmael to be sacrificed, and when he came back alive she was furious because her son's inheritance was now at risk.



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how much do religions borrow from each other?

It is no coincidence that the basics of Judaism - and through it both Christianity and Islam - derive from Sumeric literature as well as its legal and moral codes.

Judah, born c.1740 BC (the son of Jacob, grandson of Isaac and great-grandson of Abraham), was the founder of Judaism and lived during the times of Hammurabi (the great king of Babylon in the civilization of Sumer situated in modern Iraq).

Abraham was born c. 1860 BC in Ur, in southern Iraq, to a wealthy family who had lived in that area for generations. The family was forced to flee to Haran in Canaan when Abraham aroused the king's wrath - but through the generations, the family of Abraham never lost touch with its homeland.

When the Hammurabi Code was proclaimed by the king of Babylon, Hammurabi, in 1750 BC, Judah was about 10 years old and he - and his father Jacob - cannot have been ignorant of it, or any of the many Sumeric codes of law that date back to c. 2250 BC under king Ur-Nammu.

The Hammurabi Code of 1750 BC (inscribed on a black stone pillar which is now located in the Louvre, Paris) is the best preserved and the most extensive of the Sumeric codes. It contains close to 300 laws - covering everything imaginable from military matters to minute personal matters - all of which, of course, are commanded by the gods, in this case the sun-god Shamash, and carry terrible punishments for non-compliance. Hammurabi collected the laws from Babylon's past rulers which, according to the Bible, started with Nimrod - the great-grandson of Noah of the Flood.

Substitute the many gods of the Sumerian civilization with the one God of the Israelites, Christians and Moslems, and there is a basic similarity between the Hammurabi Code and the Old Testament, Torah and Koran.

Furthermore, the story of Adam and Eve of Eden - depicted in Judaic-Christian literature - is influenced directly by the story of Enki and Ninhursag of Dimun in Sumeric literature. The biblical deluge story of Noah is also influenced by the story of Ziusudra in Sumeric literature; and the magnificent Sumeric epic of Gilgamesh and Enkidu - a homosexual love story - underlies a great deal of what the developing religions were all about.

The ideas of heaven and hell, resurrection, an 'eye for an eye' and taking care of widows and orphans - matters that concerned the later Prophets - all came from the Sumerian civilization. The Sumeric word for hell is Kur, meaning a 'foreign land', and considering that Sumer was protected from menacing neighbors by mountains and a river, it is easy to see how hell came to be related to crossing a river and meeting a terrible fate.

Basically, Judaism took everything it wanted from the Sumeric literature and laws and left the rest; Christianity took everything it wanted from Judaic literature and laws and left the rest; Islam took everything it wanted from Judaism, Christianity and the eastern religions and left the rest; and that is why - despite the unique features they added - they have so many similarities.

Furthermore, since the earliest known evidence of deity worship was a shrine found in northern Spain, in the El Juyu cave, c. 12,000 BC - 8,500 years before the commencement in c. 3,500 BC of the Sumerian civilization - who is to say how much of their religious rites, laws and creation stories the Sumerians borrowed from the European tribes migrating to warmer southern lands after the Ice Age ended?

Between the final recession of the Ice Age in 12,000 BC and establishment of the first civilization - the Egyptiac in c. 4000 BC - vast trade and migration routes had been opened up, and with the European migrants and traders came ideas that were far in advance of anything known elsewhere.

Before writing, which the Sumerians invented, everything was necessarily passed on from generation to generation orally - usually in the form of stories to make them easier to remember; and there is plenty of evidence, too, that early art forms are attempts to convey the culture and laws of those who drew them - either as adjuncts to the stories or as stand-alone truths.

the religions of india, china and japan

The years between 600BC to 551BC represented a golden period for the birth of great thinkers in the eastern as well as the western lands.

In 600BC, the founder of Taoism, Lao-tzu was born in China.

In 580 BC, Pythagoras, a great mathematician as well as the founder of the dualism of the body and soul, was born in Greece.

In 563BC, Siddhartha Guatama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism (and, by influence, Japanese Shinto), was born in India.

In 551BC, Confucius, the founder of Confucianism, was born in China.

Unlike the bloodthirsty polytheistic and monotheistic religions - demanding a blood sacrifice of one sort or another in order to placate a god and gain whatever it was that worshippers wanted - the major religions that developed in India and China after the 6th Century BC were a lot more civilized and centered more on ethics, social behavior and personal enlightenment than organized worship of a god.

In India, Hinduism - encapsulating karma and the rigid caste system, without which man has no place - derived from the fears and ignorance of the early Indic civilization before 3000 BC and continues to the present day. Ancient Hinduism was, of course, an influencing force in the rise of the new thinkers of the 6th century BC, particularly Buddha, an Indian prince, whose four Noble Truths and the eight-fold path makes no provision for a god.

In China, Confucianism - advocating reverence of ancestors - differed from Buddhism and Taoism in that there were no temples or priests. Taoism, as represented by the magnificent White Cloud Temple in Peking, differs from Buddhism and Confucianism in that it has many gods - all for mundane purposes, such as the kitchen god that still exists in superstitious Chinese households - but it, too, is concerned wholly with man's benevolence.

In Japan, Shinto was developed as a particular form of Japanese Buddhism - worshipping Nature in the form of mountain and forest gods - and, like all of the far-eastern religions, it is particularly strong on truthfulness. In 1871, Shinto was proclaimed the Japanese national religion.

did christianity end the roman empire?

That the mighty Roman Empire of Hellenic civilization fell in 378 - fifty-five years after Constantine embraced Christianity as his empire's official religion - leaves many wondering whether Christianity caused the fall of the Roman Empire.

Actually, the Emperor Constantine's adoption of Christianity in 313 was a means by which he hoped to save the Roman Empire from the marauding Goths.

Not only were the Christians becoming increasingly difficult to control - there was widespread persecution of them in Roman ruled lands - but they were also becoming a force to be reckoned with. Rather than fighting the Goths as well as trying to quell the Christians, Constantine made a strategic decision to unite with the Christians.

Up until his conversion in 313, Constantine, and the Roman Emperors before him, had been throwing Christians to the lions for believing, among other things, that Jesus was the son of God. It was only apparently because of a dream he had of Jesus, telling him to put the cross on his warriors shields before going into battle, that Constantine decided turning away from the Roman gods towards the one Christian god was going to be more auspicious for him and the Roman state.

Had Constantine lost the battle, our history would be very different, but he did win the battle and consequently the 'cross' became not so much a symbol of Jesus' suffering but one of conquest. Hence, Christian soldiers!

Under the Roman Emperor Constantine, the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church was held at Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople was established as the capital of the Christian (Roman) Empire in 330.

Forty-eight years later, in 378, the Visigoths defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople, so moving the capital of the Christian Roman Empire to Constantinople was a wise strategic move.

It was this battle at Adrianople in 378 - not the adoption of Christianity - that ended the old Roman Empire based in Rome.

By 395, the Christian or Holy Roman Empire - which it now became known as - was split into Eastern and Western regions, but Christianity had been - and would remain so - far more important a religious influence in the eastern city of Constantinople than it ever was in the western city of Rome.

The Romans - who had ruled the world from Egypt to England at various time during the period 31BC-378AD - were military conquerors not religious mystics. Having ruled for over 400 years, they were not likely to relinquish their superior place in the world easily. If adopting Christianity would further their aims - help them reclaim power by mystic rather than military force - then it was a strategic move for them to take.

how were the pagans converted to christianity?

Despite embracing Christianity, Emperor Constantine still hedged his bets by celebrating the Roman gods -- as did just about everyone else in the Roman empire!

The success of Roman Christianity was due entirely to the fact that pagan gods and celebrations were incorporated into the new religion.

It was not difficult to subdue and convert pagan populations when their lives and beliefs remained essentially unchanged.

For instance, the Roman Feast of Saturnalia on the winter solstice was converted to became the official celebration of the birth of Jesus. December 25 in the year 1AD was not the birth of Jesus, and even though most people now accept that the Romans got it wrong - our society still perpetuates the myth of His birthday as well as the calendar upon which it is based.

Herod, the King of the Jews in Judea at the time Jesus was born - who decreed the killing of all male children under the age of two and caused Mary and Joseph to flee to Egypt with their son Jesus - has been found to have died between a lunar eclipse in March and the Jewish Passover of April in the year 4BC (four years before the year ascribed to the birth of Jesus).

Also, Jesus cannot possibly have been born in December because in winter time it was a Talmudic custom for shepherds to keep their flocks indoors between November and March.

If the shepherds were out watching their flocks at night when they saw the Star of Bethlehem - probably Jupiter in its full glory - then on astronomical reckoning Jesus had to be born between April and October in the year 5BC or 6BC. Probably September in the year 6BC because at that time the sun would be setting as Jupiter would be rising, making it a glorious sight in the night sky.

In that most of the Christian celebrations conveniently coincided with traditional Pagan festivals - and Jesus was portrayed as a good man, teaching love and forgiveness and doing a great deal to help the sick and poor, as did many of the Pagan priests - it cannot have been too hard to convert Pagans to the early form of Christianity.

Later on, of course, Roman Christianity became quite brutal and would not tolerate any rival beliefs.

did islam prolong paganism in england?

Rome's grand plans for England in 597 - mass conversion to Christianity under rule of the Roman Pope - did not eventuate due to something entirely unexpected. The unexpected event was, of course, the birth in 622 of the new Moslem religion in the Middle East.

By 638, the Moslem Arabs had conquered Jerusalem and their impending conquest of Spain (achieved by 715) had so threatened Rome that many Roman priests fled to Ireland - an incredibly poor and backward country that had been thoroughly Christianized by St. Patrick 200 years before - and as a result of this Ireland, not England, became the cradle of western civilization and the safe haven for Roman Christianity.

Having been under Roman rule from 54BC to 407AD, England in 638 was a far more civilized country than Ireland. Also, as a result of invasions between 410-442 by fierce north European tribes - the Jutes, Angles and Saxons - England in 638 also had a far more polyglot ethnic mix than Ireland's Celts. England, of course, had its ancient Britons and Celts, but it now included Jutes, Angles and Saxons - most of whom, in 638, were fiercely Pagan - and after 787 it also included the Danes (who arrived on raids from north Europe and eventually settled in England).

Although Christianity eventually filtered through to England - and the knights of England made history in the Crusades against the Moslem Arabs - Christianity was not only never as strong in England as it was in Ireland but it was also never as Roman influenced as it was in Ireland. This is also true of the north European countries from whence a large part of both English ethnicity and the Protestant movement - which took hold in the 1500s, leading to the establishment of the Anglican Church in 1563 - is derived.

England did not reject Christianity, but it most certainly came to reject Roman rule of the new religion, especially the Pope's refusal to allow the English language to supplant Latin in services and literature.

The particular ethnicity of England - and its civilized state by 638 - may have mitigated against Roman Catholicism ever taking 100% control of England as it did in Ireland, but the threat to Rome of the Moslem Arabs that turned its attention away from England towards Ireland most definitely prolonged paganism in England and changed the course of English history.

was arabic civilization founded on islam?

Arabic civilization is often confused with the Syriac and Iranic (later Islamic) civilizations. Both the Arabic and the Iranic (later Islamic) civilizations had roots in the Syriac civilization, but otherwise they were dissimilar.

The Syriac civilization existed from 1200 BC - 970 AD, and - contrary to what one might believe - it was not related to the ancient Sumeric civilization of Iraq that gave to the world, among other things, the invention of writing, and from which the Babylonian (predominantly Jewish) civilization emerged in 1500 BC.

Instead, the Syriac civilization was related to the same Minoan civilization that gave birth to the Hellenic civilization and as such it was more European than Middle Eastern. Arabic civilization existed from 975-1525 in Arabia, Iraq and Syria and it did not adopt Islam, universally, until 1516.

The Iranic (later Islamic) civilization commenced in 1320. It was initially centered in Iran and was related to the Syriac civilization. Unlike Arab civilization, it was based on Islam from the start.The birth of the religion of Islam is dated at 622 with Hegira - the flight of Mohammed to Medina; and although Islam later spread throughout the Middle Eastern nations it was not a distinctive feature of the Arabic civilization from the start.

At the time of the rise of western civilization in 675, neither the Arabic nor the Iranic (later Islamic) civilizations existed. It was, nevertheless, Arabic Islamic elements within the Syriac civilization that clashed with the West between 634-641 - culminating in the conquest of Jerusalem in 638 - and the clash was, of course, related to the different views of two religions, Christianity and Islam, that both owe their roots to Judaism.

did ireland save christianity?

The physical location of Ireland, as well as the easy conversion to Christianity of its Celtic Pagan population, most definitely provided Christianity with a safe haven, but it was the expansionist evangelical efforts of Pope Gregory (590-604) that prevented Christianity from dying out in Europe and remaining, if at all, as an essentially middle-eastern religion.

Historians claim that Ireland - an ethnic Celtic island at the westernmost part of Europe - is the cradle of western civilization, and Christianity is the religion upon which it was founded in 675 AD.

In that St. Patrick had Christianized Ireland from 432AD, and Rome was - and still is - the central power of Christianity in the western world, it does seem strange that Ireland, rather than Rome, is considered to be the cradle of western civilization and the savior of Christianity.

It is unclear whether it was the isolated western geographical region of Ireland, its distinctive race of white Celtic people or its devotion to Christianity that made it the historical birthplace of western civilization.

Actually, Ireland's geographic position had to be the definitive factor.

With the fall of the Roman Empire in 378AD, the European city states and the new religion of Christianity were in the throes of turmoil. Ireland was seen as being the last bastion - the last hope - for the continuation of any sort of European civilization, with or without Christianity, in the face of advancing hordes from eastern Europe, the far north and the Middle East. And, as it turned out, it was!

Here is what was happening in Europe at the time:

• 378 - the Visigoths defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople
• 395 - the Roman Empire was divided into eastern and western parts
• 407 - the Romans evacuated Britain
• 410 - Rome sacked by the Visigoths
• 410-442 The Jutes, Angles and Saxons invaded Britain

At this point, in 432AD, when all appeared to be lost in Europe, St Patrick returns to Ireland - where he had previously been enslaved - on an evangelical mission to introduce Christianity to the Pagan Celtic race and hopefully convert the population to his faith. In the following years, things got worse in Europe.

• 450 - The Huns invade all Roman cities in the old Empire
• 455 - Rome, itself, was sacked by the Vandals

It took Rome nearly 150 years to recover from the invasion, and while Christianity was stagnating in Rome it was thriving in the eastern lands. The magnificent church of St Sophia - which later became a mosque - was built in Constantinople in 532-537 and stands as evidence that Christianity was seen more as an eastern religion than a European one.

Fearing loss of power, in 597 Pope Gregory sent St Augustine to England. It was expected that with the widespread conversion to Christianity in England that Rome would regain control of that part of the world - if not politically then at least in the hearts and minds of the population - but the new religion of Islam intervened.

were the prophets mentally ill or gifted?

In today's world, someone claiming to be a prophet - especially one having the ability to hear the voice of God, or professing to be the son of God - would be ignored as a nutter or taken to the nearest mental institution. In ancient times, however, afflicted people were not shunned as nutters. They were seen as being truly touched by powers beyond human comprehension.

Common among all new religions over the centuries has been the phenomenon of the 'vision' or the 'dream' of being spoken to directly by a supernatural being. The visionary prophets of old, with their epilepsy and various other mental disorders, succeeded in inspiring believers because nobody understood their conditions. It was widely believed that such people were literally touched by God, and as such they were especially gifted.

Like the Prophet Mohammed, who was born in 470, Jesus logically was a man of God rather than the son of God, but both not only claimed to have spoken directly with God but they also displayed disabilities that we would now call either epilepsy, schizophrenia or bi-polar disorder.

There is a passage in the Bible that describes the family of Jesus - his mother and brothers - taking him back to Nazareth when he became manic while preaching at Capernaum. His behavior at the Temple, overturning the tables of the money-lenders, is also indicative of mental instability.

Nevertheless, such traits were necessary in those days in order to gain the desired attention. You had to be extraordinarily different. Today, we understand the mental illnesses that caused the visionary hallucinations of the old prophets and do not hold such people in awe, but in ancient times those with mental aberrations had extraordinary charisma.

Basically, a certain level of insanity or mental aberration is still necessary in order to inspire others to believe in whatever it is you are preaching. You need to have extraordinary confidence in yourself and an extraordinary belief that you have been singled out for a special mission.

That the religious elites of today exist by virtue of the fantastic visions of ancient prophets - who may or may not have been severely afflicted by mental disorders - is something that nobody particularly wants to acknowledge.

Perhaps a more salient question to ask in view of the fact that many people take up religion after a personal crisis - especially an unhinging one - is not so much the mental state of the Prophets but that of the true believers.