Three Religions

Three Religions


As I've studied the differences between different religions of ancient societies briefly, I've come to discover overarching trends that seem to connect humanity as a whole, leading me to believe that humans will almost always come to the same conclusions. One of the first patterns I began to notice was in how gods were worshipped, the way they would praise them or pay them back for protecting and providing for them. While sacrifice was common, it varied in form. Romans would sacrifice animals and Aztecs would sacrifice people, and yet that was considered an honor among them. On a lighter end of the spectrum, Shinto sacrifice was much more docile, with offerings of rice, saki, and other crops they would grow in order to appease the kami, or spirits. In addition to these, they fervently worshipped certain gods who were thought to bring life, and in different religions they were different gods, however a common trend is worship of a chief sun god. This differs in the Roman and Greek pantheons, as they worship a god of storms, which could just as well bring life through rains. Below is an example text of a fictional 'immortal traveler's journal' that shows more clearly a comparison between the three major religions mentioned above.






Fictional Journal: Immortal Traveler






"Rome;


I have been living in a small wooden apartment deep in the city for a few weeks now. The light seeps in through cracks in the walls like it would a forest, light streaming through the trees, not so nice when it rains though. The people next door are nice enough, they showed me around the neighborhood, gave me food for a night. I was more interested in the temple of Jupiter, however. I go by every day and see people sacrificing animals at the foot of a large statue, tearing out the innards and studying them. Upon closer inspection and further research it seems they seek to see the future using certain organs, and sacrifice the rest to their gods in a pyre. An interesting practice indeed, I intend to study these people further.






Ise;


The architecture of the people here in the nation of Japan are far different than anything I have ever seen, and the religion even more diversified from many other cultures I’ve seen. As compared to the Romans who, sadly, fell a century or so ago, the god they worship as the leader of their kami, their name for gods, is a god of the sun, her name is Amaterasu-ōmikam. When I visited the shrine to this kami, I found many different offerings left, though I must say they were much less visceral than several others that I’ve seen. It was mostly rice from the first harvest, a unique wine called saki, and small amulets, all left for the kami to eat and wear, and to ward off other spirits, rather than to appease their wrath. These gods seem to be slightly more peaceful than some others I have seen.






Tenochtitlan;













I am one of the first to reach this ‘New World’, and I can only hope others won’t arrive for some time. I fear the violent nature of these Aztecs would clash with the violent nature of Europeans, but who is to say. Even the gods of these warriors are violent, hungering all the time. Their pantheon is led by a god of the sun, Huitzilopochtli, also their war god. It is said that they must always sacrifice, perhaps the darkest of the ones I’ve encountered, human hearts, taken from the warriors of the tribes that they’ve conquered. After all these years of travel and study, I can finally see human nature more clearly, the nature of the world in fact. We cling to what provides life, what is the epicenter of that life as well, and we make them gods. And these gods, we sacrifice to them, either to stay their wrath or to ask them to provide us with protection, or sustenance. This is human nature, to cling onto life whatever the cost, even if it means sacrificing things dear to us. "












Roman Practices: (pg. 57)


Aztec Practices: http://www.aztec-history.com/ancient-aztec-religion.html http://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Sacrifice


Shinto Practices: http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/category.php?categoryID=16


http://www.religioustolerance.org/shinto.htm