The existance of GOD has always been a mystery. How come the egyptians had god for everything?

Answer 1

A basic principle of llfe. "What man does not understand, he either worships or fears".

Answer 2

Which Egyptians ?

The Neteru - Time line - impossibly ancient?

Pre-Dynastic - 4,500 - 3,100 bc

Early Dynastic - 3,100 - 2,649 bc

Old Kingdom - 2,649 - 2,150 bc

First Intermediate Period - 2,150 - 2,030 bc

Middle Kingdom - 2,030 -1,640 bc

Second Intermediate Period - 1640 -1550 bc

New Kingdom - 1550 -1070 bc

Third Intermediate Period - 1070 - 712 bc

Late Period - 712 - 332 bc

Macedonian and Ptolemaic Periods - 332 - 30 bc

30 bc - End of Egypt as an independent entity, Octavian subsumes the remains of the last Ptolemaic holdings.

You see, there is quite a lot more of Egypt that our puny couple of thousand years. During that time much ancient wisdom was lost. or perverted by avaricious priesthoods.

It is clear from the Pyramid texts engraved in the Pyramid of Unas that at that time the scribes were transliterating texts that they barely understood, and concepts of which they had not clue.

What did Osiris ( your chosen namesake ) and Thoth bring with them when they arrived in times long before those I mentioned above. In the pre-Pre-Dynastic times, between about 9,000 and 7,000 years bc a fully formed animal agriculture and horticulture, complete with a widfe range of 'new' domesticated species arrived in the Nile region. At this time most of the surrounding land, which is now desert was still fertile and green.

Someone mentioned Ahkenaten ( Amenhotep IV ) above, and his attempt to restore, repeat restore, monotheism in the newly constructed city of Akhetaton, built between 1353 - 1335 bc. It is widely believed that in pre-Dynastic times polytheism was not practised.

So......maybe the answer is, if you go back far enough, the ancient Egyptians did not have a 'God' for everything.

One thing is certain, the Egyptians did not proceed from a primitive beginning to a zenith of excellence, it was much rather the other way round. This is even true of the pyramid construction, the three great pyramids of Giza were the oldest, and the best constructed, all the later ones were of a progressively lesser quality. Like they were loosing their abilities, not increasing them.

I suspect that this may be true for many other 'civilisations', including our current versions.

Answer 3

It seems to me that all cultures have a higher power, a world wide flood story, a afterlife theory.

It also seems to me that it is rather interesting that it is just in the past few hundred years that there are those who don't think there is a GOD. Before then people never questionsed it. In their primitive way they needed something to believe in.

As for the Eggyptians haveing many gods? We can only guess on that question. Perhaps because they were becomming more civilized and educated and they needed explainations for everything.

Answer 4

The Egyptians, like many, many other ancient cultures, had gods to cover every aspect of existence, including death. In an attempt to make sense of the world, to make sense of their own existence and their place within the world, beings of great power, who created and placed man here for a purpose divine, were sought, placated, sacrificed to, brought offerings. The "gods" explained the inexplicable. Belief in them gave the people a common ground, a system of working out right and wrong. It allowed them to interpret and make sense of things they had no way to explain otherwise. To the Egyptians, the world was so vast that a single deity could not be ruler of it all. They attributed different things to different deities. And to their Kings/Pharaohs, whose job it was to oversee the land and her people, they gave a divinity..."Son of Ra"...the divine meeting the human in the person of the ruler of the two lands. A way of direct contact with the Gods in the person of the Pharaoh.....

Answer 5

Not specifically answering the question, but I don't think pantheism is as different from monotheism as we often assume. Christianity, for example, claims God is omnipresent - ie He or She is just as present in the sun, the air, the water etc, as the followers of more 'primitive' religions believed their individual Gods were.

Shinto still propounds the idea of different spirits being present in different animals, geographical features etc.

Interestingly, many Japanese people find no contradiction between having Shinto ceremonies for certain events, Buddhist ones for others (notably weddings and funerals - think it's commonly Buddhist weddings and Shinto funerals, but it could be the other way around).

Answer 6

The cynical view -

The smartest of the people were those that did not work, but had everything given to them. These were the aristocrats and the priesthood. Laziest of the two was the priesthood. They devised all manner of terrible things that could happen to you if you didn't do what they said.

They invented many and diverse gods, that mimicked the way work was organized among men. Thus men worked together as did the gods and the priesthood were their chosen spokesman.

If you chose not to cooperate, then you incurred the wrath of the gods and all those nasty little things that the priesthood said could happen to you, become fulfilled.

Answer 7

Akenhaten believed in one god. He was unusual as an Egyptian.

Answer 8

It will remain a mystery has no one knows for certain that he exists & yes people believe to me thats not the same has knowing.

Answer 9

It is like Greek myhology, myths only, the exoteric part. The true Egyptian spirituality, the esoteric part, recognizes only one intelliegent principle, what we call God today.

Answer 10

By getting more civilized... society challenge beliefs more and more... before... beliefs were seen as plain and mere truth, and nobody questioned them or challenged them... but as society grows and mature, individual, groups of people, and society as a whole start to challenge their own beliefs and fate....

Now.. there is even people that ask if we truly exist... can you believe that?... I am sure no Egyptian ever wondered if he/she really existed haha!

Just challenging our own existence is proof of our maturing and somehow boredom of having nothing to do, but just think and challenge everything we think we know...

Why wouldn't people challenge the idea of a god, if they even challenge their own existence?

Hope that helps!

CHRIS

Answer 11

Studying the Australian Aboriginal religions is much more fruitful and interesting. And of far longer existence.