The Significance of Religion in the Development of the Early World Civilization

Introduction

Religion tends to be an organized system of beliefs and practices that lead to or revolve around a specific transcendent spiritual experience. Every culture ever recorded in human history has practiced some form of religion during their existence. In the ancient or early world civilization, religion was composed of regular rituals that were based on a belief in the higher supernatural entities that created and maintained the entire world and the surrounding cosmos. In ancient civilization, religion is considered to have had a profound influence on the people and cultures and also played significant roles in the societies. Religion was crucial in early civilization so that people had something to follow depending on what they believe in. People in the ancient civilizations gave up various materials for their beliefs and conducted various practice. There are numerous religions that existed in the accident world civilizations, this include, Buddhism, Judaism. Hinduism and atavism. This study aims to affirm that religion was significant in the development of early world civilization

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The Significance of Religion in the Development of the Early World Civilization

During the development of the early world civilization, religion was an important factor due to various significant reasons that include; first, religion helped in the formation of social structures and maintaining powers in the governments in the early world civilizations. In ancient China, the Chinese religion believed in the power and mandate of heaven whereby the emperor was only allowed to rule if he is granted the ruling power from heaven and he was expected to be also a powerful and wise leader. The social structure refers to the patterned social arrangement existing in the society the originate and determine the actions of an individual. For any ancient leader to maintain power in the ancient government, he or she should have the favor from the superior powers. For example in the ancient Chinese heritage, the Shang dynasty had to change to Zhou dynasty, this was because Zhou obtained the divine approval from the god; therefore the Chinese believed that the one selected by god usually became the king while the loser became an outlaw (Eisenstadt & Wolfgang, p 15). This belief is also revealed in many changes of dynasty that occurred in China. During the Zhou dynasty, the Confucianism religion spread vastly in China such that those who became Confucius came to believe that wealth and honor did not form an important part of human lives. The ideal of Confucianism converted ancient China into a very structured society that whereby people put more effort into work despite their social class thus increasing productivity.

Secondly, religion helped in the development of the individual spiritual qualities thus purifying or permitting them for human scarification. According to research, Christianity was the largest religion in ancient Rome and had spread all over the entire Rome (Wei-ming, p 26). The Christians were even persecuted for not worshiping the Roman gods and even used as scapegoats in the accident political troubles. The Christians also believed in life after death as it was promised by Jesus Christ. Despite the Christian persecution continuing for over three hundred years, the Christians in the ancient Rome did not worship any other god instead they chose to remain firm with their own spiritual beliefs until Christianity gained approval from the emperor edict of Milan (Fox & Jonathan, p 30). Also in ancient Egypt, the Egyptian religious practices and beliefs were highly valued in the society. They considered the king as their gods; therefore in the book of death, only the pyramid texts that were obtained from king pharaoh were kept, which indicated that only the only the individuals in the noble and upper class of ancient Egypt deserved mummification. The mummification process was very crucial among the ancient Egyptians since it involved the preservation of the dead body so that when the ka and ba returned they could continue to survive in the afterlife.

Thirdly, Religion also helped to highlight corruption and social integration among ancient societies. During the ward time in ancient Greece, financial accountability was considered to be extremely low. During the wartime, the allied tributes were mainly spent on building ships and in other military operation; however, during peace times, there was a surplus of league revenue compared to the incurred expenditure. The allied tributes were effectively used for the intended purposes since various support measures had been put in place by Perikles. These measures include the improvement of the state festivals, the rebuilding of the Acropolis establishment of the Clerchies and colonies and the payment of the trireme crew for the first eight months of the year (Fox & Jonathan, p 40). Revenue being higher compared to the expenditure implies that the league funds could have been used in other privacy affairs by those in power, therefore, showing the connection between power and corruption. Those in power in the ancient society had a higher potential of indulging themselves in unethical practices such as corruption. It was, however, the religion that made it easy for ancient individuals to identify the various suspicious corruption practices that were happening in the society.

Fourth, Religion also had a significant contribution to the ancient world civilization since it helped to improve the society's art and architectures. In the temples and pyramids of Mayans in ancient Egypt, they all had artistic sculptures and drawings of their gods and the stories about them, for example, how they lived. In some cultures in ancient civilization such as the Egyptians, art was inseparable from their religious beliefs. They used art to express their religious value and beliefs in various places such as the holy shrines and places of worship, which acted as a constant reminder of what they believe in. On the other and, the impact of religion on architecture can also be seen through the holy building that were built for purposes of religious worship. The societies usually designed and built their building depending on their religion for example religion determined the architecture and art of the house of worship, the religious shrines a and the buildings that were to be used for secular purposes. Each tribe or community in the ancient world civilization had their architectural designs, which were determined by their respective religion. The religion influence also determined the design and construction of the civilians building in the ancient civilization determined by the religious influence. For example, the Muslim has a unique way of constructing their building and palaces. Their building has unique features such as Masharabia to uplift the image of the building.

Fifth, Religion also helped in defining cultures in the ancient civilizations. Culture tends to be the combined effects of the humanly constructed social elements that enable people to live together. Religion during the ancient civilization excelled tremendously being a cultural identity marker. Religion was able to identify and various cultures in the ancient civilization using various factors that include, first, the symbols of group identity, each culture, or groups in the ancients society used specific religious signs and symbols to identify themselves. The signs and symbols acted as a constant reminder of who they are as a group and also enabled them to live together. Some of the symbols include architectures such as the religious building. Each of the culture in the ancient civilization had its sign or symbol with a different meaning depending on their religion. In most cases, the symbols and signs that acted as the cultural identifiers were hosted on flags and on their clothing's.

Secondly, through stories of places in the world. Some of the cultures in the ancient civilization used religion as their identity makers. Various culture in ancient civilization usually conflict about their origin and their god. Some cultures believed in the life after death while others did not believe in it other cultures believed that they were created by God as he was creating the rest of the world while others tend to have a different story about their origins. For example, Islam and the Buddhist had different stories concerning their gods and their origin. These conflicting stories helped to differentiate and identify the different cultures that existed in the society. Thirdly, depending on the common life practiced. During the ancient civilization, some cultures shared the same religious practice. This made it easy to identify the different cultures that existed in the society. For example, some of the cultures had similar ways of worshiping their gods or even burying their leaders thus being grouped under one culture (Wei-ming, p 6). The Egyptians in the ancient civilization were identified by the religious practices they were involved in such as burying their leaders in holy shrines with all their variables since they believed in life after death. Some culture also had similar life practices that were controlled by their religion. For example, some cultures were determined by how they much they valued their leaders in the society, for example, the Chinese believed that their leaders were anointed by god; therefore they had at most value for them.

Conclusion

Religion tends to be an organized system of beliefs and practices that lead to or revolve around a certain transcendent spiritual experience. Every culture ever recorded in human history has practiced some form of religion during their existence. I affirm that Religion has played a significant role in the development of early world civilization across the globe. Religion was a significant factor during the development of the early world civilization due to various factors that include; first, it helped in the formation of social structures and maintaining powers in the governments in the early world civilizations. Secondly, helped in the development of the individual spiritual qualities thus purifying or permitting them for human scarification. Thirdly, Religion also helped to highlight corruption and social integration among ancient societies. Fourth, Religion helped to improve society's art and architectures. Fifth, Religion also helped in defining cultures in the ancient civilizations.

Works Cited

Eisenstadt, Shmuel N., and Wolfgang Schluchter. "Introduction: paths to early modernities-a comparative view." Public Spheres and Collective Identities. Routledge, 2018. 1-18.

Fox, Jonathan. A world survey of religion and the state. Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Wei-ming, D. U. "The Development of Civilizations Dialogue and Its World Significance [J]." Researches On The Hui 3 (2003).