Throughout ancient civilization, it is evident that religion does play a significant role in impacting the lives of people. The prominent role it has in the construction of laws and a government makes it clear to see why the type of religion that a society follows will reflect in the actions of that society.
Traveling as far back as the very first traces of civilization, there was law to establish order among the people. In Mesopotamia lived a man named Hammurabi who established the law of the land. Hammurabi, as many other leaders we will discuss, was appointed by a God. Because of this fact alone we can describe his leadership as divine authority. He was given the title of "exalted prince- because he was sent by a God named Murdok to protect the weak from the strong and assure that true justice prevails through out the land. The reasons why it is so hard to govern people with the absence of religion is because there is no one to determine what is indeed right from wrong, just from unjust, and moral from immoral. When there is consent on a higher power or a God, then what ever the God says is normally what determines these values. Divine authority means that you have been given that power to govern people from a even higher authority that is considered a God, which is why in a monarchy that person is considered a king or ruler amongst men generally. .
With Hammurabi's code, we can easily see the hierarchy amongst people illustrated by the reduced amount of severeness for a criminal infraction committed by a person of higher status in that society. An example of this can be found in the actual code where it states,"" If he destroys the eye of a common man, or break the bone of a common man, then he shall pay one mana of silver."" 1 The following passage states,"" If he destroys the eye of a man's slave, or break the bone of a man's slave, than he shall pay ½ the price.
