Mankind has always had a fascination with religion and the heavens. From the earliest Humanoid people to present day humans, they all worshiped a god. There is evidence as early as 100,000 B.C.E; people had some sort of religion. Some historians have suggested that those early humans worshipped the skulls of cave bears, which they regarded as rivals for the spaces in which they lived. By 50,000 B.C.E, Neanderthal people buried their dead with ceremony and care, behavior suggesting a belief in the hereafter. Such conjecture has no proof, but the evidence suggests that religion emerged among the earliest examples of human capacity to think in the abstract. Ancient Sumerians believed that religion and government shared a close relationship. Religion permeated the social, political, and economic, as well as the spiritual and ethical of society. By 2250 B.C.E, Sumerians had a long list of gods they worshipped. Temples were erected throughout Sumer for the sacrifices thought necessary to ensure good harvest. Sumerian religion had important political ramifications as well. It ascribed ownership of all lands to the gods. The king was a king-priest, responsible to the gods alone. Below him, an elaborate class of priests enjoyed worldly power, privilege, and comfort, and to this class fell the responsibility for education and the writing of texts. It is writings that undoubtedly represent the Sumerians’ greatest contribution to the advancement of general civilization. Another example of how religion in ancient times related to government is how the Egyptian civilization identified the king with a god. The pharaoh was said to be the earthly manifestation of the god Horus, deity of the sky. Egyptian religion comprised a complex combination of local and national gods, and in a cumulative process added new beliefs and gods over thousands of years of Egyptian history. Religion played a central role in an Egyptian’s personal and social life. The pharaoh acted as a link between mortals and the eternal. Priests, or servants of the gods, functioned as delegates of the pharaoh. The common people relied on their ruler for their access to the afterlife. The offerings that would secure the pharaoh’s existence in the afterlife held the people’s only key to the eternal. Therefore, every Egyptian’s self-interest relied on making sure that the pharaoh’s tomb could sustain and maintain him. The Ancient Greeks also had a vast array of gods they believed in. At the core of Greek religion, lay a large family of gods. They lived in Mount Olympus. It is believed these gods descended from a pair of older gods: Uranus, representing the heavens, and Gaia, representing the earth. The Greeks had a long list of gods. In the Greek pantheon, Zeus, the sky god, functioned as the king of the gods on Mount Olympus. Hera, Zeus’ wife—and also his sister—functioned as the patron of women, who appealed to her for help. Zeus had two brothers, Poseidon and Hades, who ruled the rest of the universe. Poseidon reigned over the seas, waters, and earthquakes; while Hades ruled the underworld and land of the dead. They were many other gods that the Greeks worshipped for example Athena, goddess of wisdom and patron of the city of Athens. It is said she sprang fully developed, from the head of Zeus, and the Greeks worshipped her as a virgin goddess. Greeks also worshipped Ares, a god of war, for luck in the upcoming battles to be fought. These are just a few of the many gods’ these ancient civilizations worshipped.
From the beginning of time, people have always wanted to believe in something greater than themselves. Whether it is countless deities or just one deity like present day, we are always going to look for something greater to comfort us, or to blame our problems on. Whatever the case may be, one thing is for sure; as long as the human race is here on this planet, religion will play a key role in shaping and molding who we become as a society.