Man and His Gods

	And Man Created Gods...	An introduction. By the end of the Neolithic the men took over from the Matriarchat and created a patriarchal society headed by a plethora of Gods.
	Prehistory 45 000-4000 BC	The first temples apperared in Anatolia before agriculture was invented. They served as yet unknown death rituals. Apparently the dead were offered to the vultures, “skyburials”, like those that are still practiced among the Zaroastrians in India and in Tibet.
	The Invention of Writing 5000-1600 BC	The decisive contibution to the development of religions was writing, which was first invented in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
	The Gods Man Created 6500 BC-700 AD	The first gods were created by the Sumerians and Akkadians in a rare symbiosis to legitimize their patriachal kingdoms and city states.
	The God of Israel 1000 BC-1200 AD	Abraham, who came from Ur in Akkadia and spoke Hebrew was told by his God YWHW to move his tribe, the Israelites to the promised land of Canaan. Through legendary Moses YWHW became the first and only monotheist God ever conceived of.
	India and China 3000 BC-1200 AD	India is the mother of four major religions, Vedic/Brahmaism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism. - China, straddled with a huge agricultural population never developed a western style religion. Both Confucianism and Taoism are philosophical, atheist teachings.
	Buddhism 450 BC-1200 AD	Atheist Buddhism teaches “psychological” techniques dealing with man's sufferings and Karma. In its original form it knows of no deities. Wherever it spread throughout Asia it has been an extrordinary cultural power.
	Greece, The Parthenon Frieze 443-438 BC	Classical Greek concepts of its Gods have influenced Western culture and thinking like no other philosophical sytem. Only in the past 20 years are we becoming aware of its darker aspects, the subject of this short chapter.
	Christianity 50-1200 AD	Grounded in Judaism Christianity has provided a saving from vengeful, unforgiving Hebrew YHWH. Christ sacrificed himself to release man from his sins. A unique solution which has been achieved by softening the demands of strict Jewish monotheism.
	Islam 620-1400 AD	Islam is the latest major extension of Judaic monotheism. Prophet Muhammed redefined the rules and strictures of Islam in accordance with Arabic concepts. In a mere 150 years Islam conquered the remnants of the Greco-Roman Empire between Spain and India and created an architectural revolution from the Mesquita of Cordoba to the Taj Mahal.
	Marxism, Socialism and Communism 1848-2014 AD	A cursory view at the ideologies of the 20th century