Ancient Religion: Adventures in the Human Spirit - Essay Example

There were many diverse religions followed in ancient times. Most people in the ancient world thought that there were many invisible spirits in control of the cosmos. 

Even though the concept of monotheism was unheard of in Mesopotamia, a worshipper could center on a single deity as the entity of his own worship and reverence, without assuming that his own deity was unique The Mesopotamians believed that the afterlife was a dreadful experience, where the dead eat dust and wore feathers as clothing, weeping in the realms of the Netherworld and Ereshkigal.

They believed that everything was cyclic, and probably considered life and death as such as well. The Greeks too believed in life after death. A special place of bliss, the Elysian Fields, was reserved for the heroes. The souls damned for being evil were sent to everlasting punishment, in the underworld. The soul that was good, was sent to the dominion of the Blessed. The Greek god Hades is identified in Greek mythology as the king of the underworld. The Romans had a comparable belief system about life after death, with Hades becoming identified as Pluto.

The Egyptians had a very optimistic view of the afterlife. Burying the dead was of religious concern in Egypt, The Egyptians believed that the vital life force was composed of several psychical elements, of which the most important was the ka. The ka, a duplicate of the body, accompanied the body throughout life and, after death, departed from the body to take its place in the kingdom of the dead. The ka, however, could not exist without the body; every effort had to be made, therefore, to preserve the corpse.

Contemporary religion Many religions practiced in modern times too believes in life after death. An afterlife concept that is found among Hindus and Buddhists is reincarnation, as developing humans’ life after life in the physical world that is, acquiring a superior grade of consciousness by means of successive reincarnations. This chain is conceived to lead toward an eventual liberation or ‘nirvana’. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all propound the belief in life after death. The Islamic belief in the afterlife is similar to the Christian and Jewish belief in the afterlife; all souls are awaiting judgment and will be sent to heaven or hell according to their deeds after being tried on the Day of Judgment.