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Religious beliefs are fundamentally different from ideological beliefs. Do you agree? Religion has always been perceived by people as a cultural definer, a way of reasoning upon and conceptualizing the sorrounding environment, a gate towards the unknown, a mirror of a different, more sacred yet more symbolical reality. Religious beliefs have been a part of people’s lives for thousands of years, permanently suffering changes in their shape, importance, symbolism, as people evolved, as history evolved. That is why, religion, in itself, is strongly linked to mankind’s historical performances, evolution and mentality. To begin with, in Ancient times, religious beliefs (even though not yet Christian) represented subtle forms of ideologies, of doctrines, imposing a code of life, a code of behaviour. These values gradually moved to form the personal environment of every man, the commandments he/she had to abide by in order to be able to communicate with supernatural presences (gods/goddesses) and ask for their help and guidance in extreme situations, and even be granted a happy life after death. Yet, all the rules and regulations of such a code of moral behaviour had been invented by ancestors and had long become an essential part of their cultural heritage. Thus, religious beliefs were a self-imposed not questionable form of accepting this reality and the other, beyond death. The fact that people did not even think to doubt them or wonder about them, makes me think that religion was indeed a formal channel of imposing human-made ideologies, related to the natural and the supernatural. Let’s take for example the Egyptians, whose religious culture was probably the most prolific in Ancient times. If we judge their culture with modern day concepts and notions, we would conclude that they were under a serious and constant almost “invisible” form of indoctrination. People always felt sorrounded by divine forces, either good or bad, either having a human or an animal appearance or even both. The fact that Egyptian deities took such strange forms, explained the ancient Egyptian’s process of religious thinking: he had to believe in real, concrete presences, who looked like humans, but also had those traits that related them to the animal world as well; they needed to have human feelings but animal instincts, to be more appropiate and much closer to a regular Egyptian’s power of understanding and of respecting his reality. By contrast to the Egyptian religion, whose core idea was axed upon life after death, Greek religious beliefs dealt more with seeking the protection of gods during one’s lifetime. Greek religion held a numerous range of gods and goddesses, temples, mystical secrets (ancient beliefs and rituals), myths and legends. They were seen as answers to any individual’s intimate need for peace and solitude, promising him salvation of the soul, curing him/her of their fear of death and “ensuring” them of a happy, serene life. Thus, Greeks’ or Egyptians’ (or any other ancient peoples’) religious cultures were constructed upon a fundament of ideologies, encompassing different interpretations of the personal/public life and duties of the individual, and physical representations, for all walks of life, for a better Implementation and visualisation.
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