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Ancient History

 

Egypt was a theocracy where the ruler was a "divine figure". In China the people believed in the replacement of dynasties thru the dynastic cycle. In Mesopotamia, the people believed that the kings were representatives of the gods. .
             Religion.
             Buddhism, Hinduism and the people of Mesopotamia had different interpretations of what their gods were like; some of the religions didn't even believe in a god. In Mesopotamia the people were polytheistic, they believed in many gods. Sumerians (people of Mesopotamia) believed in about 3,000 gods; these gods lived like regular humans. They also believed that humans were nothing but servants of the gods. Like the Egyptians the Sumerians built ziggurats to worship their gods and made animal sacrifices to make the gods happy. After a human's death their soul would be in "the land of no return". Here souls were just living in a depressing, dark environment. In Buddhism and Hinduism the soul would go through reincarnation as an afterlife. .
             Buddhism was a religion based on accepting that the world was all suffering, and through following the Eightfold Path would result in reaching Nirvana. Nirvana was the opposite of what the Sumerians believed, Nirvana was reaching the state of happiness. In Nirvana you would be released from the Four Noble Truths. Reaching Nirvana would take a series of lifetimes to reach, which meant that you would have to go through reincarnation. Not only did Buddhism believe in reincarnation, but Hinduism did also. In Buddhism there was a man said to be "the enlightened one", he was Siddhartha Gautama. Some people would think of him as a god and would praise him as a god, but he was not meant to symbolize a god. Buddhism and Hinduism have similar ideas about reincarnation; such as Moska and Nirvana they both can be reached by perfect understanding and no longer having to be reborn. .
             Hinduism believed in good and bad karma, which was something positive or negative done in life.


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