The Split Between Christianity and Judaism

Something that I had not known very much about was the split between Christianity and Judaism. It just wasn't something that I was ever taught before this week. I knew that Christianity was originally part of Judaism but I had never known the specifics on how exactly the transition was made from being a sector of one religion to a completely different religion. Even though I am "Christian", I realized that I do not know very much about Christianity and its origins and I suppose those are kind of important things to know about if you want to call yourself a Christian. I did not know if the transition from being part Judaism to being a separate religion was a sudden change or a more gradual change.

I had always heard that the Christianity became a religion before Jesus was even killed. I thought that he made up the religion and gradually gained followers. I also thought that it was the Jews that killed him because he was becoming too powerful. I used to think all of that when I was younger but now that I think about it, it seems pretty impossible for a religion to spread and gain a lot of power in such a short period of time. So that is why it makes sense that Jesus was born and died a jew.

Another thing that I didn't know about was Paul and his letters. I found it very interesting that his letters contained teachings that were put into the bible. Back then, sending letters was a good way to spread to word about this new religion. When Paul said that if the Romans don't love god then they would be first to die when the world ends, the Romans thought that this was a threat and acted upon it. If someone told me that if I didn't love god then I would die, I would think they were crazy. And because I am not a religious person, and I don't really believe in god, it makes me wonder why these people like Paul and Jesus felt so strongly that there was one god. It makes me wonder if they were in fact crazy or if they were just power hungry. It if weird to think entire religions could be based off of lies that one person told, or even worse a crazy person thought they knew about.

So the main thing is, the change from Judaism to Christianity was kind of a gradual change but a few events occurred to help move it along. Events like the revolt against the Roman Empire. I learned that when some of the jews didn't convert to Christianity, the people  who did were mad so they said that it was the jews who hates Jesus even though that probably wasn't true given Jesus was jewish and Christianity was still part of Judaism. It is kind of intriguing to think about how history can be changed by one person saying something. It is kind of like how a religion can be made based on a lie. History can be made based on a lie too.

The Rise of Christianity

Today's history class was very interesting, getting into groups and discussing last nights reading got me thinking a little. After reading the article two nights ago, all of the ideas and things that it talked about didn't completely sink in. Yea, I understood that christianity changed to world and gave society a different understanding of life and an incentive to be good. But I think that the things the article left unsaid and open for understanding were the most meaningful things. I think that the whole idea of Christianity and having only one god altered society a little. It changed the peoples way of thinking because instead of many gods that were cold and mean looking down upon the humans, there is one god that loves all people if they are good. So this is something that made Christianity more appealing to people because no one wants to have to love gods that don't really do anything in return. So that is what changed societies view on things, the had a different motive to live. Also, they had a different motive to be good to other people because if they are then good will like them and let them go to heaven.

In class today, with answering questions on the spot about each of the different readings view on how Christianity changed the world, the two separate views were very different but still had similarities. My reading focused more on the appeal of Christianity and why people would want to convert in a more community oriented way and whats good for them socially. The second reading that I learned about today in class, was about how converting to Christianity would be good for someone in a more religious sort of way. This reading had to do with the beliefs and all of good things that Christianity would bring to the people that converted. I think that both of them are "right" in a way. Each of them could apply to different people, the first one would be people who aren't extremely religious but still want to follow good teaching and be a part of a more close community. The second reading could apply to more religious people who are looking for the best way to practice religion from a belief standpoint.

Akhenaton and Cuntural Diffusion

So what does cultural diffusion mean? Cultural diffusion is the spreading of ideas or products from one culture to another. That is the literal, dictionary.com meaning. But in actuality, it is a lot more then that and can not be described in one sentence. It is really complex and hard to wrap your brain around. But basically, whenever you have an interaction with someone you, as a person, have changed a little bit. So when there are a billion interactions between tons of different people, that can cause big change. When you tell your ideas to someone and they tell them to someone else and them to someone else, your idea spreads and soon a lot of people agree or disagree with you and this changes them as a person. This is cultural diffusion. 


So how does this relate to Akhenaton? Akhenaton was supposedly the one who came up with the idea of Monotheism and believing in only one god. But really, it could have been anyone who thought if that idea. And actually, it most likely wasn't Akhenaton who thought of this idea, he could have heard of it through cultural diffusion. But anyway, thats not really the point. The point is, when Akhenaton introduced Monotheism, the Egyptians didn't really follow it but they weren't angry or anything. So this means that as soon as Akhenaton died, Monotheism was over for Egypt. But how did the ideal of Monotheism live on? Again, possibly through cultural diffusion. Some Egyptians might have actually agreed with Akhenaton's idea of Monotheism and when they talk about it with other people, the idea gets around. But also,  Monotheism doesn't seem like an extremely uncommon thing to think of. Anyone could have thought of the idea of Monotheism any number of times after Akhenaton. So the idea might not have resurfaced because of cultural diffusion. Although, cultural diffusion probably played a role in the climb of Monotheism.  

Monotheism vs. Polytheism

Earlier this week in history, we focused on the differences between Monotheism and Polytheism. We were put into groups and we made a venn diagram about Monotheism and Polytheism. We found that the major differences between the two were:

• Monotheism has one god while Polytheism has many gods. This kind of goes without saying though.
• People that were/are monotheistic think that one over all god is more powerful then many weaker gods. But Polytheists thought that many gods made for a more powerful religion and so the two view points contradicted but of course each type of religion thinks it is better then the other.
• Monotheism is very popular now and Polytheism is not common at all nowadays. But Polytheism used to  be the more popular type of religion.
• Monotheism is more of strict religion because there is only one god that you can worship. But Polytheism lets you choose with god(s) you would like to worship and they don't force you to worship any certain god.

Some pros and cons that we came up for Monotheism were as follows. They are what monotheistic and polytheistic people would think, not what a neutral person would think:

Pros:

• One god can better unit a religion.
• One powerful god can do all of the things if not more then many weaker gods.
• A Monotheistic god has more concern for it's people. This was a piece of information that we found in a reading about monotheism.
• You can choose how religious you want to be. If you don't want to be that religious and worship everyday or go to church you don't have to.

Cons:

• Monotheism can cause more conflict because being forced to following one god is stricter then choosing which god you would like to worship.
• Having different denominations in religions can lead to wars over religion.

Pros about Polytheism:

• If someone believes in another god, it is easily accepted because there are so many gods and everyone can choose their own god to worship.
• There is a specific god for everything.
• Wars aren't fought over religions but instead over territory (which has nothing to do with religion). When countries or groups are conquered, they can still worship which ever god they want.

Cons:

• Polytheism doesn't have any very powerful gods, only a bunch of slightly powerful gods.
• People are less unified because everyone is worshipping a god of their choosing so it is more like your own little religion opposed to everyone worshipping the same one.
• Gods don't forgive their followers.

We were asked to answer this question with a thesis statement and three points. "Why did the world go from a civilization that was 90% polytheistic to a religion that was 90% monotheistic."

Thesis: Monotheism appealed to the progressing society and unvalidated the beliefs of Polytheism because of the rational core concepts of Monotheism, progressive changes to the approach of religion and the sense of unification and individuality in the experience if religion when compared to Polytheistic beliefs.

• Monotheism reflects rational values and beliefs, while polytheism expresses more radical themes.
• Monotheism proposed a change of take on religion after Polytheism lost validity as society progressed.
• Instead of the vastness and objectiveness of Polytheism, Monotheism provides a more unified community and subjective, individual opportunity to religiously practice.

Star Wars

The other day in History class we watched the movie Star Wars; A New Hope. I have seen this movie many times (my brother is a fan...) but I have never watched it while looking for different signs of religion playing into it. Or looking for relations to society today. It was really interesting watching the movie through new eyes. I picked up so much more this time watching the movie then I did all of the other times I have seen this movie. But also you realize how modern day issues in society can give authors or writers inspiration. Like in World War II, there were storm troopers and there were also storm troopers in star wars.  Darth Vader literally translates to Dark Father which can also mean the Devil. So it immediately lets you know who the bad guy is. The movie refers to something called the dark side and the good side. This plays off of the Dao notion, yin and yang. A jedi is kind of like a monk be because at a very young age they are taken in and train their whole lives and they can not marry. That is similar to a monk because monks are also taken in at a young age and aren't allowed to marry. For both, their lives are fully dedicated to being what they are (monk, jedi). I find all of the different references to different religions and cultures in this movie very interesting because seeing, things that you hear about everyday, in a movie so different from our society is very jolting. You look at this movie and think "this is so crazy and nothing like our world" but really there are more similarities then one would originally see or think.

Questions Regarding Religion

Today in history class we all came up with questions that could be asked and fit into the religion unit. All of the questions were based off of common themes that we came up with as a class. We read articles about religion around the world and that is how we came up with the common themes. My article was about how in South Africa, there was a billboard that indicated that atheists are stupid and that they "consider themselves a mistake." This caused the atheists to get angry and take action. So one of the common themes that we found was that action is taken when two religions oppose each other. Other themes that we found were Discrimination, so groups/religions treating people like they are not as good as them. Government and politics and how this can contrast with religion. Monotheism vs. polytheism is another theme that we came up with because polytheism was a lot more prominent a long time ago then it is now. The questions that my group came up with were as follows:

"How has the corruption of society effected religion?" We thought this question was relevant to the themes that we discussed because taking violent action is within the theme of taking action and violent action can corrupt society.

"What causes religious to change in certain areas?" This is more of a question regarding the development of religions and how they can evolve and shape around the environment that the people are living in. So this is probably a good question when talking about different sections of Christianity (Catholic, Lutheran etc.).

"How have monotheism and polytheism effected the development of the world differently?" This is also a question that is about the idea of how religion and ideas can change over the years based on environment or leadership. Different peoples views have changed the relevance of polytheism in society.

"How has religion clashed with government and politics?" This question has to do with how religion can have an effect on politics and people's opinions of those politics. Like an example is Mitt Romney, he is a Mormon and a lot of people are against him just because of his faith. All they see is that he is a Mormon, they don't see his values or his ideas for the country. This is an example of how religion can interfere with politics. Religion can interfere with government because maybe a political leader's religion's values tell him that he should do something but the values of the country and the people might tell him to do something else. This leaves this politic in a dilemma because he/she might not know what to do.

"How has tradition in religion cause conflict?" This is kind of like the the corruption question where violence plays a role. Different people's traditions and beliefs in their religion may conflict and make other religions angry. Like Mormons are allowed to have multiple wives but that is highly frowned upon by other religions.

How Does Religion Shape the World Today

How does religion shape the way people understand and respond to the world around them and how does it reflect on an individuals person experience with religion? This is the first prompt of the second semester. I think that wherever you go and who ever you meet, it is hard not to eventually expose your religion (or your non-religion...?). Sometimes it might be very obvious at people will know the second they see you and other times it might take a long time for anyone to figure out what religion you are. I am not saying that everyone in the world cares what religion people are or that it comes up in every conversation one has with a new person. But eventually this person might find out because for some people religion is a big part of their life. Religion can determine who one might marry or who one might be friends with, but this is not the case for everyone. And also as years goes by and times change, religion is becoming less of a major thing for some people as it once was. But even though people might consider themselves atheist, belief can still play a big role in their lives (or in this case non-belief).


So it shows the way people understand the world because religion can sometimes be the reason a person does something. Like terrorists probably didn't wake up one day and decide that they want to do what terrorists do. They believe that they are doing the right thing for their religion and other people view these people as doing things because of their religion, not just to do it. So if you know someones religion it might be able to help you understand the decisions that they make.