Part B: A Compare and Contrast of the Religious Values in Ancient Egypt and China
Religion has played a very significant role in the way that civilizations over time have operated. Encompassing more than just an imposing autonomous moral compass, having specific and certain beliefs have managed to perpetuate a variety of cultural contexts for thousands of years throughout countless civilizations. Especially for ancient civilizations, religion marked a wide array of cultural attributes, ranging from agricultural practices to political infrastructure. The potential, it seems, to prescribe certain spiritual aspects onto a person at an individual level, very well defines how a society functions. Egypt and China were both great empires in the …show more content…
The Egyptian people not only believed that there were multiple gods, such as Re, Amun, Ptah, and others, but that their pharaoh was the manifestation of the god Horus himself, and hence was the people’s own living god on earth. This immense power that the pharaoh had to ensure prosperity and fertility by translating divine order and justice into laws, was greatly supported by the Egyptians. Although the Chinese had kings, those kings did not possess the same godly characteristics and were not as strong as an influence as the pharaohs of Egypt. Similarly, with the onset of Confucianism, spread the idea of the Mandate of Heaven and established a new philosophy that “blessed the emperors and allowed them to rule” (Acrobatiq, 2017) giving the kings of ancient China a sense of entitlement to the role as …show more content…
Ma’at was thought to be molded by the gods at the beginning of time and displays that everything is in its appropriate place. Over time, Ma’at became something that everyone had the responsibility for maintaining and this became the basis by which individuals’ actions could be judged to determine an Egyptian's place in the afterlife. Among the few philosophical trends for the ancient Chinese, Taoism is one school of thought that closely parallels the philosophical essence of Ma’at with some minor contradictions. Taoism strongly encourages that everything is as it should be, much like Ma’at. However, the central philosophy of the Tao was that of an individual who is in perfect harmony with the way things are and advocated living in accordance with nature, understanding that natural morals govern the universe, and acceptance of the natural order of things. Unlike the Ma’at, Taoism is moral in the deepest sense, and thus did not govern a person’s afterlife, rather it instilled a viewpoint towards life that dictated how Chinese people would live more presently and appreciatively here on
Religion has played a very significant role in the way that civilizations over time have operated. Encompassing more than just an imposing autonomous moral compass, having specific and certain beliefs have managed to perpetuate a variety of cultural contexts for thousands of years throughout countless civilizations. Especially for ancient civilizations, religion marked a wide array of cultural attributes, ranging from agricultural practices to political infrastructure. The potential, it seems, to prescribe certain spiritual aspects onto a person at an individual level, very well defines how a society functions. Egypt and China were both great empires in the …show more content…
The Egyptian people not only believed that there were multiple gods, such as Re, Amun, Ptah, and others, but that their pharaoh was the manifestation of the god Horus himself, and hence was the people’s own living god on earth. This immense power that the pharaoh had to ensure prosperity and fertility by translating divine order and justice into laws, was greatly supported by the Egyptians. Although the Chinese had kings, those kings did not possess the same godly characteristics and were not as strong as an influence as the pharaohs of Egypt. Similarly, with the onset of Confucianism, spread the idea of the Mandate of Heaven and established a new philosophy that “blessed the emperors and allowed them to rule” (Acrobatiq, 2017) giving the kings of ancient China a sense of entitlement to the role as …show more content…
Ma’at was thought to be molded by the gods at the beginning of time and displays that everything is in its appropriate place. Over time, Ma’at became something that everyone had the responsibility for maintaining and this became the basis by which individuals’ actions could be judged to determine an Egyptian's place in the afterlife. Among the few philosophical trends for the ancient Chinese, Taoism is one school of thought that closely parallels the philosophical essence of Ma’at with some minor contradictions. Taoism strongly encourages that everything is as it should be, much like Ma’at. However, the central philosophy of the Tao was that of an individual who is in perfect harmony with the way things are and advocated living in accordance with nature, understanding that natural morals govern the universe, and acceptance of the natural order of things. Unlike the Ma’at, Taoism is moral in the deepest sense, and thus did not govern a person’s afterlife, rather it instilled a viewpoint towards life that dictated how Chinese people would live more presently and appreciatively here on