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Religion's Role In Mesopotamian And Egyptian Societies

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All throughout history, religion has played a very important role in ancient societies. It has been a source of guidance and support. It is understood, still to this day, that religion adds to the belief that with faith in some form of religion, people’s lives will be better. Religion is commonly practiced through prayers, mythology, services, and even sacrifices. Religion has played such a large role in ancient societies that depending on the civilization, people would do absolutely anything to ensure that the god or gods were always pleased. Two specific civilizations that have been studied, in which religion played a major role in, are the Egyptian civilization and the Mesopotamian civilization. Although they were not civilized at the same time, it is very clear that the Mesopotamian and Egyptian societies were influenced by their relationships with their gods. Despite the fact that there are many differences between the two societies, there are some similarities between their views of the gods. …show more content…

Mesopotamian people understood the gods to be very “hot” or cold”. It was as if they would do work solely to keep the gods happy and to prevent them from becoming angry. This is because if the gods were pleased, good things would come one’s way or bad things just would not happen. If the gods were displeased, their wrath would be unleashed and horrific things would happen. A few of these horrible things could include a plague or even someone’s child becoming ill or dying. A great example of this can be found in The Epic of Gilgamesh, when the gods were planning to send a terrible flood to wipe out all of humanity. This is seen in the quote, “The gods had decided to destroy the world, but none of the gods could tell any living thing about their plans”. It seemed as if the people made one wrong move or made a mistake, the would be punished in some

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