Evolution of Gods

[josef rosenkranz]

Since the appearance of a belief in supernatural forces,from the most early stages of human societies,up to our days it has undergone an evolution ,we could say as a sort of darwinistic evolution almost parallel to social,political,spiritual evolution of societies.

The early beliefs in fetish objects,in saint animals,in idols,in all kind of what we would call generally as Gods,played a major role in the lives of early close communities and latter on of greater communities cristalized as nations or peoples.
The aid and assistance of Gods were allways used in struggle between men as well as in struggle of
communities or peoples between them.
That situation has changed very little even in our days.

However the beliefs in Gods or religions, as we call the cult of Gods, and even the Gods themselves have undergone radical changes from primitive ones to most sophisticated ones.

During times some people have appeared on the stage of history and then disappeared leaving place to others.All this processus took place during wars where the strongest won and the weaker disintegrated
in a manner similar to the darwinian evolution of species only in a much much shorter of time.
We would be tempted to conclude that the Gods of the stronger where also stronger Gods, but being all of them only mindly creation of men the comparison is totally imaginary.

Not the power of the belief.
We cannot affirm that the power of the belief in any God decided the victory in struggles or wars but it stands to reason that it played in a lot of times a most important role.
I would like to open a debate on this issue because it sheds a light on the creation of God by men.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Interesting post.

I've always found the 5000 odd year evolution of the Abrahamic god quite fascinating. About 5000 years ago ,the nomadic goat herders who became the Jews didn't actually have god of their own.So they pinched one no one would miss. They chose a minor Babylonian deity they just called "El" which means " god". He lived on a nearby mountain,much like the later Greek gods living on Mt Olympus.

Sometime around the C4th BCE,he changed from "eL" a rather insignificant little mountain god of an even more insignificant little people,to YHWH ( I AM WHO AM) creator of all things.The ONLY god,creator of all things and lord of the universe.The little tribe now numbered about a dozen tribes,they became his "chosen people." That meant they could invade a foreign a country and murder/enslave the inhabitants with God's blessings. So they did that,and renamed the country the stole "The promised Land".

This practice had so many practical advantages,it continues to this day;with pretty much every tribe eventually getting a turn.Some more than once. Currently it's America's turn,but that's nearly finished. It's almost time for China to have yet another turn.


Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

[LEDO]

In my opinion, in Babylon and Egypt as well as areas in between, astrology was the key factor. The stars appeared to have control over the seasons as the same stars patterns appeared at every season, hence they must control men also. Family groups were also considered part of this. They were considered to be under the influence of a particular zodiac group, which is why we call them "houses." Family groups populated a specific area or tiowns which grew into cities. Specific gods were assigned to each zodiac as well as the sun and the moon became involved to make things complex. Soon cities would have a patron diety. The city which was in charge over other cities, had their patron diety go to the top of the class and become the supreme god. YHWH was a moon god, who later lost being associated with the moon. Tsippora, a city in Babylon had the Zu-bird as its patron diety. It represented the Pleiades in the constellations which was also the sign of the vernal equinox circa 2185 BCE (zero point). In the Bible Zippora (z pronounced as ts) the wife of Moses is one of seven sisters, which is the Greek version of the Pleiades. Her name also means "bird or fowl." When you map out the storybook of the Biblical constellations as I have done, they are connected in an orderly fashion. Zippora also falls on the Pleiades. It is shortly after Moses meeting Zippora that Moses returns to Egypt and the Passover happens, which by coincidence takes place at the vernal equinox. This allows me to date the story. And that is what Christmas is all about about Charlie Brown.

[josef rosenkranz]

Interesting post.

I've always found the 5000 odd year evolution of the Abrahamic god quite fascinating. About 5000 years ago ,the nomadic goat herders who became the Jews didn't actually have god of their own.So they pinched one no one would miss. They chose a minor Babylonian deity they just called "El" which means " god". He lived on a nearby mountain,much like the later Greek gods living on Mt Olympus.

Sometime around the C4th BCE,he changed from "eL" a rather insignificant little mountain god of an even more insignificant little people,to YHWH ( I AM WHO AM) creator of all things.The ONLY god,creator of all things and lord of the universe.The little tribe now numbered about a dozen tribes,they became his "chosen people." That meant they could invade a foreign a country and murder/enslave the inhabitants with God's blessings. So they did that,and renamed the country the stole "The promised Land".

This practice had so many practical advantages,it continues to this day;with pretty much every tribe eventually getting a turn.Some more than once. Currently it's America's turn,but that's nearly finished. It's almost time for China to have yet another turn.


Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.

I don't know wherefrom you quote the origin of the abrahamic religions as originated from 5000 years ago.
I have also read a lot about the subject.Historians, archeologists, linguists and other scientists have studied this puzzle for about 200 years and as far as I know did not came to a final conclusion.
The old testament was studied as a historical document and found, beyond the primitive conception abuot the creation of the world,as comprising contradictions and being written in many litterary styles which prove that they Byble was written and rewritten for a lot of times.

Actually the idea of my post was not to refer only to the abrahmic religions,which is rather a narrow issue but in general about the evolution of this notion of God in the mind of people along history.
The belief in a supernatural force originated in the dawn of history.
What where the causes which generated this belief?
What was the contribution of this belief in the development of early societies?
Was this contribution positive or negative?
Could we imagine an early society as existing without the belief in a supernatural force?
How did evolve the imagination of Gods from fetish objects or animals to a more (if) evoluated representations of idols?
Why appeared the need to pass fom a peinted or sculptured God to an unseen God actually representated by written words?

I think that those issues are interesting because albeit priests even of our days tend to represent God as an immuable entity in time ,it's all lie.
The God of our days is not the same in the perception of people as he was a 100 years ago or as 200 years ago.
For example the fear of God ,the fear of sinning and be punished by God has changed even in the mind of the believers as it was in the not so far past.
Ther is a dynamics in the believe which evolves parralel to the changes which societies undergo.

I believe that debating those and related issues in a dynamic understanding of changes of religions ,beginning with early societies ,could contribute to a better undestanding of the position of atheism in the present and in the future.

[LEDO]

Gerald Massey had thoughts along that line and surmised that the Bushmen had ideas that originated when man was still an ape. His evidence is interesting, but speculative and not scientific.