Do you think that ancient Egyptians and Romans believed in the truth of their Gods?

Question

as strongly & unwaveringly as modern Deists (Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu) believe in the truth of their God(s)?

Answer 1

Of course they did. And they went to an awful lot of trouble to show it.

Actually, I'd say they believed it even more strongly. They had answers for even fewer phenomena then, so they had even more reason to believe in a supernatural explanation.

Answer 2

Yes. But their truth was strongly rooted in the nature of things, too (at least in the case of the Ancient Egyptians). Some of their teachings actually discuss a "big bang" as the beginning of the universe. Much of their religious truths (if you've ever carefully read books about Hermeticism) were based on observable scientific truth. The anthropomorphization of deity is where it started going down hill IMO.

Answer 3

The Egyptians especially were extremely religious and devout. Fortunately for them and others around them, they were also very understanding and willingly accepted other gods into their pantheon.
With the Romans....well....it is a little harder to tell. The farther back in history, the more they seemed to believe. Again, they were also very willing to accept other beliefs and gods, which meant that different segments of the population probably continued to believe strongly even after others ceased to do so.

Answer 4

Yep, fa shizzle, and yes. They had the same kind of faith. Even some other parallels. Modern archeologists would call Set an Egyptian god. I bet that He was more like Satan is to Christianity. He was to blame, in their eyes, for some things but noone really worshipped him, except for hard-core rebels. If you asked the average ancient Egyptian on the street whether Set was a god, I bet they would laugh or spit or walk away from you.

Answer 5

Not a lot of material remains on the Egyptian philosophies. But the Romans inherited most of their beliefs from the Greeks. If you go back and read Plato and the other ancient Greeks, you will find that they held little faith in the traditional Greek gods. Rather they treated them as "myths". They argued about the name and nature of the "One Being" who they realized must be the real - and only - god in existence. In fact, the terms "theist", "atheist" and "agnostic" all come from the Greek philosophers of that time.

The people of those cultures were just as divided, just as devoted, and just as defiant of religion as people are today. Human nature has not changed.

As a Christian, I know that God is out there, and has been attempting to reveal himself to every generation, race and culture. So I would expect to find the many of the same ideas and doctrines of my faith echoed in those others. They learned them from the same source - God himself.

Answer 6

Definitely... I don't think they would have bothered to build shrines and temples if they didn't believe in them.

Deists aren't Christians, Jews, Muslims... Deism is a separate belief, usually seeing God as more of an absentee landlord than a ruler. You mean Theist, which is basically anyone who has a belief in a Higher Power. =)

Answer 7

I am sure that both the Egyptians and Romans had folks who did believe that their Gods were true as well as those who just mouthed the words and followed along to fit in, just like folks today do.

Answer 8

Some Egyptians volunteered to be buried alive with the Pharaoh that takes a pretty strong belief in religion.

Answer 9

Yes. I think that to some extent Religion evolves along with the human beings.

Answer 10

gods are belief... when theres no belief theres no god...