Ancient religions: Mithraism

Mithras’s early life was one of hardship and painful triumph. Finally,he captured the primaeval bull and, after dragging it back to his cave, killed the animal in order to release its life force for the benefit of humanity: from the bull’s body grew useful plants and herbs, from its blood came the vine, and from its semen all useful animals. This bull slaying scene - known as a tauroctony -was to be found in relief or as a wall painting in all Mithraea. The scene includes the Sun god and the Moon goddess as well as the Raven, the Sun god’s messenger. Mithras is assisted by a dog, a snake and a scorpion, and is attended by the twin Torchbearers, Cautes and Cautopates.

Proto-Indo-European religion

The similarities in religions across Eurasia show a common line of descent and a cultural evolution of the ideas of religion.

From Wikipedia:

“The existence of similarities among the deities and religious practices of the Indo-European peoples allows glimpses of a common Proto-Indo-European religion and mythology. This hypothetical religion would have been the ancestor of the majority of the religions of pre-Christian Europe, of the Dharmic religions in India, and of Zoroastrianism in Iran.”Indications of the existence of this ancestral religion can be detected in commonalities between languages and religious customs of Indo-European peoples. To presuppose this ancestral religion did exist, though, any details must remain conjectural. While similar religious customs among Indo-European peoples can provide evidence for a shared religious heritage, a shared custom does not necessarily indicate a common source for such a custom; some of these practices may well have evolved in a process of parallel evolution. Archaeological evidence, where any can be found, is difficult to match to a specific culture. The best evidence is therefore the existence of cognate words and names in the Indo-European languages.”

Ancient religions: Atenism

Atenism my have been the inspiration for Judaism. At least one psalm is a version of a hymn to the Sun-god.

From Encyclopedia Mythica:

Aten: the name of the visible solar disc in ancient Egypt. Originally a manifestation of the sun god, Aten (Aton) became the only true sun god during the reign of pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1367 - 1350 BCE). The sun gods Re and Atum lost much of their importance during this period….Aten was depicted as a radiant solar disc with rays ending in hands holding the ankh symbols or in hands of blessing over the king and his family, but also as a winged sun disc.

Religions: Confucianism

From Wikipedia:

“Confucianism or “The Teachings of Confucius”) is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system originally developed from the teachings of the early Chinese sage Confucius. It should be noted that many “Confucian” teachings existed before Confucius but they were summaried and furthur developed by him. Confucianism is a complex system of moral, social, political, and religious thought which has had tremendous influence on the history of Chinese civilization.”K’ung Fu Tzu (Confucius) (551–479 BCE) was a famous sage and social philosopher of China whose teachings deeply influenced East Asia for twenty centuries. The relationship between Confucianism and Confucius himself, however, is tenuous… The first occurrences of a real Confucian system may have been created by his disciples or by their disciples. During the philosophically fertile period of the Hundred Schools of Thought, great early figures of Confucianism such as Mencius and Xun Zi (not to be confused with Sun Zi) developed Confucianism into an ethical and political doctrine….

“It is debatable whether Confucianism should be called a religion. While it prescribes a great deal of ritual, little of it could be construed as worship or meditation in a formal sense. Confucius occasionally made statements about the existence of other-worldly beings that sound distinctly agnostic and humanistic to Western ears. Thus, Confucianism is often considered an ethical tradition and not a religion. However the United Nations recognizes Confucianism as a religion.

“Its effect on Chinese and other East Asian societies and cultures has been immense and parallels the effects of religious movements, seen in other cultures. Those who follow the teachings of Confucius say that they are comforted by it. It includes a great deal of ritual and (in its Neo-Confucian formulation) gives a comprehensive explanation of the world, of human nature, etc. Moreover, religions in Chinese culture are not mutually exclusive entities — each tradition is free to find its specific niche, its field of specialisation. One can be a Taoist, Christian, Muslim, Shintoist or Buddhist and still profess Confucianist beliefs.”

When I was a child, Confucianism seemed the most sensible teaching available.

See also Shinto.

Religions: Christianity

From Wikipedia:

Western Christianity. Western Christianity is a form of Christianity that comprises Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism (sometimes considered a part of Protestantism), and Protestantism. As opposed to Eastern Christianity, it developed and came to be predominant in Western Europe. Some of the principal respects in which Western Christianity differs from Eastern Christianity are Western Christianity’s doctrine of original sin; Most Western Christians use an amended version of the Nicene Creed that states that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son” (considered heretical by most Eastern Christians, who use the Creed as originally promulgated by the Council of Nicaea, saying that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father”); and the date of Easter, a major religious holiday.Eastern Christianity. Eastern Christianity refers collectively to the Christian traditions and churches which developed in Greece, Russia, the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia Minor, the Middle East, northeastern Africa and southern India over several centuries of religious antiquity. It is contrasted with the Western traditions of Christianity which descend through, or alongside that of, the Catholic Church’s Western church also known as the Latin Rite.

Arianism (Christianity). Arianism refers to the theological positions made famous by the theologian Arius (c. 250-336 CE), who lived and taught in Alexandria, Egypt, in the early 4th century. The controversial teachings of Arius dealt with the relationship between God the Father and the person of Jesus Christ, a relationship known as the doctrine of the Trinity. Arius taught that God the Father and the Son did not exist together eternally. Further, Arius taught that the pre-incarnate Jesus was a divine being created by (and possibly inferior to) the Father at some point, before which the Son did not exist. In English-language works, it is sometimes said that Arians believe that Jesus is or was a “creature”; in this context, the word is being used in its original sense of “created being”.

See also: Islam.