The ancient Egyptian civilization, one of the oldest civilization on earth, lived in Northeastern Africa around 3000 BCE. This nation’s culture is well known globally for important cultural enrichment in multiple fields of human knowledge, from the arts to religion to sciences. This essay will show that Ancient Egyptian’ theories about the nature of the universe or the human soul are based on faith. This been said, the main elements to the creation of the universe, the cult of the dead theory and the scientific arts will enable a better understanding on why the Egyptians used faith to justify their beliefs.
To begin, the main elements to the creation of the universe are not based on observations nor deduction. In the first place, the Egyptians …show more content…
The Ancient Egyptian civilisation believed that death was only a passage for a better life in the next world and a temporary interruption of life. They had such a positive attitude towards death because of their belief in immortality. However, nobody among them experienced life after death and came back to earth to confirm the existence of a paradise where the personality, social ranking, family and even possessions of a person would be intact. Also, their vision on immortality is not based on rationalism because the only kind of knowledge within that theory is a priori knowledge. However, if we look at the definition of a priori: "relating to what can be known through an understanding of how certain things work rather than by observation", the Egyptians didn’t even know how immortality actually worked because it was such an abstract concept. They simply applied practices related to it without wondering how it functions. In the Egyptian culture, the passage of the soul through the Hall of Trust was also very important. Briefly, at death, the soul had to pass before the god Osiris and forty-two judges, representing the 42 laws of Ma’ at, in the Hall of Trust. This process was used to weigh the soul’s heart against the feather of Ma’ at, goddess of truth, harmony and justice. If the soul’s heart and the feather were in perfect balance, the dead could attain a stage of blessedness as an effective …show more content…
The following information will summarize the pros and cons of faith in relation to the scientific arts. First, the Egyptians developed lots of formulas. This mathematic innovation was pretty helpful to determine, for example, the slope of a pyramid and contribute at the same time at the beautiful architecture of Egypt. Still, unlike the Greeks, they were not interested in proving their formulas. They simply believed in their reliability without further questioning. Second, the construction of the pyramids, a great legacy in the architecture’s world, was related to their belief in heaven and the gods. As a matter of fact, the pyramids were often the burial place for a king or a queen and it was believed that the shape of the pyramid was used as a stairway for his/her majesty to access the god’s world. Finally, the confidence the Egyptians had in their beliefs will necessarily lead to empiricism over time because some will no more be satisfy with faith as a system of belief and research for explanations through experience or observation. A good example is illustrated through Thales. He was the first philosopher to question the truth about the Greek Mythology, which was based on faith and traditional stories. He was no longer satisfy with that system of belief and wanted empirical evidence to justify his beliefs. On the other hand, the Ancient Egyptians’
To begin, the main elements to the creation of the universe are not based on observations nor deduction. In the first place, the Egyptians …show more content…
The Ancient Egyptian civilisation believed that death was only a passage for a better life in the next world and a temporary interruption of life. They had such a positive attitude towards death because of their belief in immortality. However, nobody among them experienced life after death and came back to earth to confirm the existence of a paradise where the personality, social ranking, family and even possessions of a person would be intact. Also, their vision on immortality is not based on rationalism because the only kind of knowledge within that theory is a priori knowledge. However, if we look at the definition of a priori: "relating to what can be known through an understanding of how certain things work rather than by observation", the Egyptians didn’t even know how immortality actually worked because it was such an abstract concept. They simply applied practices related to it without wondering how it functions. In the Egyptian culture, the passage of the soul through the Hall of Trust was also very important. Briefly, at death, the soul had to pass before the god Osiris and forty-two judges, representing the 42 laws of Ma’ at, in the Hall of Trust. This process was used to weigh the soul’s heart against the feather of Ma’ at, goddess of truth, harmony and justice. If the soul’s heart and the feather were in perfect balance, the dead could attain a stage of blessedness as an effective …show more content…
The following information will summarize the pros and cons of faith in relation to the scientific arts. First, the Egyptians developed lots of formulas. This mathematic innovation was pretty helpful to determine, for example, the slope of a pyramid and contribute at the same time at the beautiful architecture of Egypt. Still, unlike the Greeks, they were not interested in proving their formulas. They simply believed in their reliability without further questioning. Second, the construction of the pyramids, a great legacy in the architecture’s world, was related to their belief in heaven and the gods. As a matter of fact, the pyramids were often the burial place for a king or a queen and it was believed that the shape of the pyramid was used as a stairway for his/her majesty to access the god’s world. Finally, the confidence the Egyptians had in their beliefs will necessarily lead to empiricism over time because some will no more be satisfy with faith as a system of belief and research for explanations through experience or observation. A good example is illustrated through Thales. He was the first philosopher to question the truth about the Greek Mythology, which was based on faith and traditional stories. He was no longer satisfy with that system of belief and wanted empirical evidence to justify his beliefs. On the other hand, the Ancient Egyptians’