The Bactrian Greeks are said to have adopted Buddhism, but retained the worship the traditional Olympian pantheon. I'd love to hear Let's Talk Religion's thoughts on this interesting example of historical syncretism.
@@celsus7979 - Regardless of what the doctrine says, Buddha behaves as a supreme God in Buddhism. For example consider how he tames Sun Wukong, the rebellious monkey god who defeated Heaven (Tian) itself. For theological (theoretical) discussions you may be right but for all the effective meaning of what actually is a god or a God in human psychology and sociology, Buddha is a Supreme God.
@@celsus7979 classic Buddhists do believe that the Buddha had godly powers (omniscience, being able to fly to heaven and talk to gods, ability to tame animals and produce fire and water, emanating light, teletransportation, etc) and godly origin (considered to be the reincarnation of the god Svetaketu who descended in his mother Mayadevi as a white elephant, being born from the side of his mother, talking and walking from birth, etc)
Thanks for the excellent work, it was a pleasure to watch. When you mentioned the work of Hornung as offering an alternative view to Assmann, I must admit I had hoped to see a bit more of comparison between the two viewpoints. But after watching I had to subscribe.
Indeed I did find this informative and interesting. Thank you for the great research and explanations. Mankind has never had such ease of access to such truly meaningful information. You are providing a great service. Take care.
Great talk as usual From a Traditional esoteric Islamic perspective, all there is, is Allah, The One. The Abstract in relation to the concrete, the Transcendent in relation to the immanent, the Thinker behind thought. God is the Absolute in relation the particular. And the particular, which makes up the world, are all expressions of the Absolute through Divine Will. The purpose of religion is to cultivate a relationship with the Absolute such that there is bliss. The understanding is that, after you die, you present to God, to the Absolute, what is in your heart. The whole purpose of Islam is to cultivate a sound heart, which is rooted in sound understanding of God. The reason polytheism is reviled by traditional monotheism is because it represents a fractured and wayward understanding of the Divine, like a mind that has gone insane and has become incoherent. The Absolute is like the cosmic mirror, whatever you present to it is reflected back at the intellect which then manifests as one's experienced reality. But in the realm beyond death, the physical veils that otherwise shield us from our state, are removed and gone, and so there is no intermediary between conception, perception, and experience. In Islam, this relates to the kashf [unveiling]. Rightly guided ones, the Prophets, are teachers who came to make coherent our internal state and our intellect so that our relationship with the Absolute is sound. From this perspective, there is the Essence of God [dhat], then there are the Attributes of God [sifat], and then there are the Names of God and then the Acts of God, all in descending orders which make up the macrocosm down to the microcosm. When a person's relationship with God has become disrupted, and where a sense of transcendent oneness lost, then we all into a state of particularity. The Attributes of God manifest as the Names of God, like The Merciful, the Just, the Kind, etc. When we have fallen into a state of particularity, then we see the expressed Names of God, in the Acts of God, with essences of their own. In this case, they become seen as gods.
Gotta be careful with the generalizations of a supreme deity in Pre-Islamic Arabia. The name allāh is found in pre-Islamic pagan inscriptions, there is no doubt about it. Arab Christians from the 1st to 4th centuries used the word al-ilāh (the god) to refer to their monotheistic deity, not allāh. Christians do begin using al-ilāh and allāh interchangeably later on in the 6th century as seen in the poetry of al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī and ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith. The Nabataeans often referred to their main deity Dhu-Shara simply as *ʾlhʾ (*the god) and so allāh being a contraction of al-ilāh used as an epithet that replaced a respective deity’s proper name is the most likely answer. Allāh meant the god, yes. The main god, whether that be of the Christians or Pagans. That seems to be the most likely answer; that allāh is a contracted form of the word al-ilāh. But this doesn't mean that allāh was considered a creator god by the Nabataeans or Safaitic writers, this might've developed later on in Late Antiquity and might not date that far back. "Pre-Islamic Arabia" covers 1500 years of history from the Qedarites of the Assyrian period to the Lakhmids and Ghassanids in the Byzantine-Sassanian period. It also spans a large geographic area from the fertile crescent where Arabs settled Hellenized Aramaean cities such as Palmyra and Hatra all the way south to the monsoon civilizations of Yemen
Most Arabs were not Christian from the 1st to the 4th centuries they were polytheistic but Islam is the first monotheistic religion to get ahold like that in the Arabian peninsula
Allah or al-Illah is surely more or less the same as El in the Canaanite religion, and as such the name may refer to the supreme (and rather personal, Amun-like rather than Atum-like) god of their pantheon (Zeus-like) or as just generic term for "god" or "deity", depending on context as our custom of capitalizing or not the first letter only began in the Renaissance.
What led associating an all-encompassing divinity with different deities of the Egyptian pantheon, for example Isis over Amun? The worship of a female deity over that if a male can reflect on many elements and changes within a society (for example, a more agricultural society over one that practices more hunting, or makes use of a plow) and Isis is not just any female deity at that - such a Ma'at, who embodies cosmic order anyway - but one with specifically associated with womanhood. Could a transition from Amun to Isis be associated with any societal change in particular, or is it instead something perhaps more regionally driven, for example, if a city who worshipped Isis happened to come to a lot of wealth or power, thereby spreading the cult of their own patron deity to the whole of Egypt (a more plausible explanation perhaps, and a phenomenon that has seen itself repeated much more throughout history). I still find it interesting, the dynamics could have led to a change in the absolute divinity, from Amun, to Isis, to another altogether, and how that might reflect on state of affairs at the time ...
It may well relate to the loss of the pharaohs (Egypt became foreign-dominated) and their need to identify themselves with a chief patriarchal god. The chief patriarchal god and monarchy are closely related, even in Mesopotamian traditions it is Enlil the sky god who brings not generic creation nor humankind... but KINGSHIP to the world. It's only later as this patriarchal chief god becomes sole god in the context of Jewish religious evolution when he absorbs the attributes and powers of other deities, expelled from the pantheon. Prior to this patriarchal theism (first polytheism, then personal monotheism of an imperfect god which is only one side and not anymore everything like the original Pan-Theos), it was quite widespread (from the Basque Country to India and China apparently) a belief similar to that of Amun and his children, who in many cases manifests as gender-binary monotheism (two gendered gods a single God, there may be other spirits but are lesser, as happens in the Basque tradition, or are manifestations of the sole Pan-Theos and its binary derivation, as happened in Egypt and in some versions of Hinduism, notably Shaktism and some Shaivism). As Casilda Rodrigáñez interprets in her excellent book "El Asalto al Hades" ("Assault to Hades", freely downloadable at her personal site but only available in Spanish), in the times of the Metal Ages (Bronze, Iron), when notably the very patriarcha Indoeuropeans conquered the less patriarchal peoples of "Old Europe" (yes, she follows Gimbutas largely on this, I could add some shading but enough for this comment), the shift from a pre-patriarchal male god (Dragon or Snake God typically) to the patriarchal male gods of the Indoeuropeans (notably Zeus = Jupiter = Odin = Daghda) came with the legend of the dragonslayer, which she interprets not in the usual way but as the Dragon (the ancient male God) defending the Goddess (the maiden) and being slaughtered as result, then rape and female slavery ensues but is hidden by a carefully modified narrative, which makes the patriarchal dragonslayer a "hero" instead of a rapist-enslaver (that's the case of Apollo and Thor in ancient legends and of St. George for most Christians but Michael Archangel for the Basques, for reasons of a very weird and quite "Freudian" legend that I will spare you for the time being). So there was a longing for the old religion underlying all the Mediterranean (and probably other areas too), a longing for the end of patriarchy itself, which manifested often in polytheisms as veneration of this or that godess, for example Athena in the quite patriarchal Athens, Cybeles in Asia Minor and by import in much of the Roman sphere (Romans made Cybeles equal to Magna Mater) and Isis in Egypt, which became a focus for a very popular religion not just in that provicia but in much of the Roman Empire, being the main competitor of Christianity. That's surely a reason why Christianity made Mary such an important and near-divine figure ("mother of God" nonetheless!) and why in many areas Christianity basically means Maryanism, with not just the distant "God the Father" but even Jesus being rather secondary in popular devotion. Mary is of course a very "domesticated" version of the ancient Goddess but still gives women and mother-loving men a good spritual reference. I was raised as Catholic and at least 50% of the religion in terms devotional are Maryanism, which makes good sense for children very especially: having a second imaginary all-loving mum is better than having a second imaginary tyrannical second dad, really.
This "monotheistic" conception of God being the One from everything emanates and also the same time Nothing has been recurred over and over through history. One thing comes to mind is (some sects of) hinduism. Where the Brahman(atman?) take the form as a central uncreated God who emanates all gods, and reality itself. Even in abrahamic religions, especially in mysticisms, this concept found itself again and again.
@@ihavenojawandimustscream4681 I guess the vastness of cosmos and nature, the inability to comprehend its mystery do bring a lot of people to contemplate in this direction.
Great video! Really added more into what I had learnt over the years as ancient Egyptian culture and language is still the same and used in Somalia. The Egyptian believed in Waaq also as a god. There are many towns called waaq in Somalia and Somalis have also used the term Waaq as God. Please do a video on Waaq and its beliefs, where the ancient Somalis in the time of Jahil era, had worshiped, which is full of very rich history.
really excellent video, the problem of mono/polytheism is so necessarily simplified for most people it's really essential to start pointing out how earlier models of "pagan" belief were just as confronted with the experience of an embodied god and pantheistic divinity especially when they were no longer allowed to worship at their temples. The parallels to Jewish development and the later Christian revolution echo the Egyptian experiences so profoundly. PS Loved the great clips and pics of egypt!
is there any way around these full length ads? i like listening to videos like these on my phone while i work and pressing the skip ad button isn't handy and breaks the flow of work. i don't mind the 15 second ads, but documentary level ads are mood killers.
@@xunqianbaidu6917 polytheistic religions are definitely more concerned with orthopraxy but they most certainly are concerned with elements of orthodoxy too.The idea that people never believed in these Gods but yet made pilgrimages to temples and festivals,offered elaborate sacrifices,etc is absurd and not reflected anywhere on the historical record or any primary sources
08:46 The creation of the world is conceived of as creating in the word Atum. I think that so much early interpretation, the word 'gods' is also a monotheistic/dualist Christian imposition. The Egyptians used the word Neter or natures, implying they were aspects of God, like a diamond has aspects.
Out of Africa, man was aware of one God and 'meditative wisdom', they knew the 25000 year cosmic cycle and also knew Vedic mathematics (arithmetic and number theory) and even knew of the 12 Zodiac signs. And as man migrated from Gobekli Tepe to Australia, they preserved the same insignia inscribed on the pillars in Turkey.
You should cover Lady Isis ! She was also hailed as somewhat of a universal goddess and some pray almost exclusively to her, despite the pantheon. Patron deity.
Theres a cycle to it, * you start with universal oneness, (monism/pantheism) * then it becomes animistic pantheism, *Then the allegories for things become humanoid And its pagan polytheism, *Then there is one best god so henotheism, *Then the best god becomes the only god so monotheism. *Then the one god becomes the ultimate reality in its true form, and we start over at the beginning.
Filip have you heard of Edward P Butler? He is a American philosopher and practicing polytheist. Check out his blog you might want to collaborate with him maybe.
He's not that good because he has no real education in Egyptian religion or history and he goes at stuff from a platonic view rather than address things as they are
"Was Egypt poly or mono theoist?" Depends on when you ask. Egyptian theology was around for thousands of years before the Greeks took over. Things change a lot in that time
Yeah, looking at how much abrahamic religion has changed over the course of its 3000ish year history, one can only imagine the plethora of movements and changes egyptian religion might have had in its own incredibly long history
It really doesn't depend on who you it has everything to do with reading the texts and primary sources on Egyptian religion rather than taking the skewed views of a scholar whose too influenced by monotheism
@@Texasmade74 The texts and primary sources that survived, sure. And maybe also looking at the difference between the everyday practices of adherents versus what's written on their conveniently-preserved book.
Why Sir David Attenborogh has Aten in his surname ? Is his paternal ancestry descended from the priests of the short-lived Aten worshipping, or simultaneosly Egyptian Pharoanic royalty , of Achenaton?
But fitst let us upgrade our "Gedachten and dreams" and children zijn niet klaar voor zoiets strafs Dave Geybels. Eerst afzien en leren, dan pas bewijs & benieten. ❤❤
Ptah, the first Creator God that crowned itself God over all gods. Self-Annointed. Sovereign. Lord over the People of Memphis until their lack of faith made Him have the Ennead conquer them. Blessings and Prayers for Ptah to resurrect from the oppression. "Ptah the begetter of the first beginning Ptah lord of truth Ptah lord of eternity Ptah who listens to prayers Ptah master of ceremonies Ptah master of justice Ptah the God who made himself to be God Ptah the double being Ptah the beautiful face" "[Ptah] crafted the world in the design of his heart" ~ a hymn to Ptah dating to the Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt "[Ptah] gave life to all the gods and their spirits as well, through his heart and his words." ~ the Shabaka Stone dating to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt
The Instructions for King MeriKaRe are very similar in content and language with Surah Luqman (chapter 31 of the Quran) . In Islamic exegesis, Luqman is thought to be a wise man from Egypt, but not much is known about him. I speculate that the letter for King MeriKaRe is a letter from Luqman to his son. Check the Instructions and the Surah side by side and tell me if I'm wrong.
The heart of the Amarna throne is the golden throne of King Tut it is all about the seven spirits of AmenRa versus the Aten. Immortal body versus mortal self. Watch. No ancient high priest of Egypt will tell you this.
Just to clarify; there were no GODS or GOD but Nytr Nitr ... wich the word Nature came from ... so these deities or so called "Gods" are just presentation of natures of energies , and that is a major flaw in Egyptology as most Egyptologists are not Egyptian ... interesting idea, isn't it ? Am From Alexandria , Egypt
Please more of this content! Sadly there's not enough discussion about ancient religions as religions because they're only seen as myths with stories for videogames and movies.
Well, it doesn't help that most of them _are not_ religions in the modern sense. Egypt had a robust theology, but it was rather exceptional in that way. Most ancient "religions" were not nearly so structured.
This is probably one of the most fascinating videos of yours I have watched. I spend quite a bit of time studying Hermeticism and have too many books on ancient Egyptian culture, religion, and literature so this aligns perfectly with my interests. Great work. I appreciate it. I wonder if one day you will ever do a video on Mesopotamian religion? We have a good amount of data on their religious beliefs but due to the "game of thrones" of southern and northern Mesopotamia and the mix of cultures and peoples, it can be quite the undertaking. I would love to see Sumerian, Akkadian, or even Babylonian religions or even possibly how their theology evolved or changed throughout the ages. The religious beliefs of the Sumerians were adopted by many of these cultures with some minor changes and different titles and ideas but I think that would be fascinating and would love to see what you could come up with. Top-notch channel with great scholarship.
@@adamhagewiesche7254 I don't think I could tell you the BEST ones. Still, some excellent ones on Hermeticism: Eternal Hermes, Egyptian Hermes, Secret History of Trismegistus, Gnosis and Hermeticism, and Quest for Hermes Trismegistus are all solid books in my opinion. You could read the actual Hermetic texts known as the Corpus Hermeticum. I really, at this point in time, do not have recommendations for Egyptian religion. Still, some books I have include Religion and Ritual in Egypt, Egyptian Myth and Legends, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, Kemetic Literature, Book of the Dead, and Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol. 1-3. I have not read all of the Egyptian books yet so that is why I can't give the best recommendation but hopefully, this was helpful.
I am an academic research scientist who grew up with a large amount of skepticism toward religion writ large for most of my life. Meditation made me more sympathetic to spiritual ideas about oneness, but I was still left with archaic and simplistic views about religion and theological history. Your channel has exposed me to the almost universal presence of universalism in religions across space and time, which has inspired in me this feeling that at some level we are all looking for the same thing. I find that feeling to be incredibly enriching existentially (something truly hard to find in the world these days) and has given me a great deal of empathy and respect towards others and their convictions. I don’t think I would have been receptive to these ideas in many other forms, but your academic due diligence, respectful delivery, and emphasis of nuance and context makes the information you present almost impossible to earnestly disregard. I also think that the value of your presentation qualities are amplified by the unfortunate state of the discipline you present on. I think that because the humanities don’t have immediate profit potential, they unfortunately lack a robust public communication industry that STEM research relies on for inspiring future thinkers and maintaining the pace of the public’s general knowledge about science. Because of this, ideas that are immensely important for understanding our place in the world and the experience of living itself are seen as esoteric and inaccessibly stuck in the Ivory Tower. You deserve praise for providing this quality of service on a free and accessible platform. I know many others on here have probably had interest in these topics for a while, but at least for me (and perhaps others who spent years calloused from appreciating spiritual questions), you have opened up a new dimension of the world to appreciate. Thank you.
I’m happy for you, my brother. Life is substantially more enjoyable with an understanding of the Breadth of It beyond this mortal coil, Prior to our own incarnations and Beyond. Blessings 🦋
The movie Zeitgeist believes Christianity was a copy of ancient Egyptian religion. I agree with you. I think all religions can fit,, as the same, and one. Their God was Atum. The splitting of an atom destroys. And Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe in the first human to be Adam. The Hindus believe the God of destruction and creation. Again, splitting an atom can destroy... We would have to rebuild and recreate. Plato's Atlantis story I believe to be true. We are on the same path, It seems humans never learn, we destroy and rebuild, and destroy ourselves again. Like a loop.
I too found orthodox organized religion too mired in ridiculous childish stories and inconsistencies to be credible. It was obvious to me from a very young age that all religions were human constructs being expressed in a variety of different ways. First I thought I was an atheist, but then I stumbled on the term 'Modern Deist' which seemed to describe my spiritual feelings better than the term 'Atheist' or 'Agnostic'. Then a couple of years later I again stumbled across yet another term; 'Scientific Pantheism' (also called 'Naturalistic Pantheism'). This seems the most appropriate description, because it's flexible, completely consistent with science, there's no anthropomorphized God, and no dogma, just the sense of oneness with the Cosmos. As Carl Sagan so beautifully put it; 'The Cosmos is all that is, all that ever was, or ever will be'...'We are made of star stuff...star stuff contemplating the stars'...'We are not only in the Cosmos, the Cosmos is within us...We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself'.
Jan Assmann has truly revivified Egyptology. His article "Monotheism and Polytheism" is an eye opener too. Thanks so much for your insightfully historical presentations.
Some forms of ancient Egyptian religion could be interpreted as proto-Christianity in terms of moral precepts and general concepts of Mankind's relationship to the divine. This is a GREAT introductions to the depth and complexity of Egyptian religion. It also helps to explain the early acceptance and proliferation of Christianity in Egypt.
Id say its more like hinduism with its idea that the universe itself is apart of god or expression of it like brahmin is in hinduism. It also has a soft polytheistic layer and reincarnation
Anybody who is interested in this topic needs to read “Sufism and Ancient Wisdom”! A book that focuses on the influences on Islam and Islamic Mysticism mainly from Ancients Egypt and Mesopotamia, but also of course Greek philosophy, and delves into the theological concepts of Monotheism, Polytheism, Prophethood, Tradition, and so much more. It quotes Assman several times as well. fascinating book. Filip, I think you’d love the work and it would spark so many interesting videos. Thanks for this.
@@Texasmade74 finding a non outdated scholar is extremely difficult, and finding an unbiased one is impossible. Historians have to make do with what they have.
@@hl-yz7gr brief explanation?Yes well the book goes into a very detailed covering of Egyptian religion,cults,and even covers pre dynastic Egyptian religion which is much more totemic or animistic than polytheistic.It also covers indepth information on many of the Gods and who they were syncretized with and why,etc
@@ayatashraf8303 the age of a book doesn't make the research or material on it void because new findings or theories etc do that.That book is still on solid ground and footing over 15 years later because of the amount of research that's gone into it whereas books by more feminist Egyptologist like Kara Cooney don't even hold up to scrutiny
We always did and still do call anyone who is not a Muslim, a pagan. Because that's what they are. You're either a Muslim monotheist or a pagan disbeliever.
Considering that Ancient Egypt at various points in history either ruled or had large influence in Canaan/Israel, did any of the Ancient Egyptian religious traditions and notions influence the religious culture and thought of Canaan/Israel?
Well there is the idea that Akhenaten’s revolutionary monotheistic approach influenced Moses but I’m of the belief that these cultures transmitted info back and forth rather than some top down concept.
You talk like an American Christian. The distinction is not so much between monotheism and polytheism but between theistic religions and non-theistic religions. That is the big divide, i.e. whether you attribute your fate to someone or something else (theistic) or to yourself (atheistic, non-theistic). It is handy and easy to attribute your fate to some god, in that way you can control populations as a priest or through priests and the people themselves do not need to do anything except pay their respects to their priests and invented gods. This distinction is much more fundamental than between religions of one or more gods.
Now that you have done videos on the "One God" in Ancient Egypt and on Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia I would like to ask this. Did Ancient Mesopotamia ever have a concept of, depending on how you want to call it, "One God"/"Absolute Divinity"/"Ultimate Reality"/"Brahman"? If so, I would like to see a video on that too.
This was a great informative video on something that's very poorly understood due to our specific history and relationship with religion. We often don't realize we project social ideas onto the thinking of other people's. For instance, many hunter-gatherer people believe in some kind of singular creator and original deity, but the perspective of whether it's "monotheistic" or not is anchored on where anthropologists stand on an argument about western Christian doctrine. The truth is our rigid idea of polytheism vs monotheism has kept us from understanding the complex dynamics of theology different people's have, and the idea that these ideas may not be diametrically opposed the same way we see them.
I agree, furthermore, our categories don't fit with the religions of the world. How do you even begin to categorize religions? Maybe if you add distinctness into the mix? Christianity is one God, distinct from everything else. Egypt is multiple gods, but not fully distinct from each other. Hinduism is an Ultimate God with multiple Gods with little to no distinction. Its a start?
I don’t think you understand “Western Christian Doctrine” Christians depending on their culture may describe it differently, but the Bible makes it clear, that there are many gods but only one supreme creator God who created everything. This is why I’m Exodus for example, says that God will pass judgement on the “gods” of Egypt. Monotheism can be defined as belief in a one supreme creator God, or just one God.
@@justchilling704 I think you're misunderstanding my point. My point is that when people tall about what constitutes "monotheism", they are using a Christian framework whether in favor or against said "monotheism".
@@Atigulus1 Youee correct about Westerners and people from a Christian’s background, I agree, I’m just pointing out that the Christian and also Jewish framework is the same as the one found in much of Africa, Asias etc. Many gods but one supreme creator God. Check out Dr. Michael Heiser he does a lot of work in this area.
Just a minute and a half into this, and I'm already reminded of a conversation I had with someone who cautioned against using the terms "monotheism" and "polytheism" as they may make our minds gravitate toward some preconceived examples. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it reminding myself that Elohim in Hebrew technically means "Gods" and the concept of Brahman in Hinduism feels a bit monotheistic. EDIT: and then of course the video goes on to talk about this a bit more xD
Elohim does not mean "gods" in Hebrew/Canaanite. There are many words in Hebrew with the plural ending "-im" that are actually singular. Elohim is singular. *Some* argue that it's an example of "Pluralis Majestatis" which refers to the use of a plural word to refer honorifically to a single person or entity (also called the 'plural of respect', the 'honorific plural', the 'plural of excellence', or the 'plural of intensity'). But most Hebrew authorities agree that Elohim is not an example of the above and is just singular.
Another fascinating and informative piece from a man quickly becoming my favorite presenter. I am an agnostic, and sometimes flirt with true atheism. Through these videos I have begun to think that while religion (organized) is a bane, belief in higher powers is natural, human, universal and part of being human.
I have a saying that goes hand in hand with your sentiment; Saints, scriptures and sages and no Religion Yet I would recommend you look into the psychological benefits of communal experiences such as going to church or singing Kirtan with a group. Whether you believe what the others there do or not, you can gain the benefit of engaging in a superordinate goal of unity. I go to a protestant Christian church even though my knowledge of God is different than everyone else there. The experience of singing in unison and focusing on the immaterial is quite the blissful experience that easily puts one into a state of flow. art.
I think it might be fairer to say that a number of centuries-old religions that were organized in the last few millennia are a bane. When people accrete power from the weight of lineage and tradition, that has a bad effect on things. But the instinct to systematize reality into a coherent narrative isn't wrong. It's how people understand reality in the first place, at all. The problem is an unwillingness to change that narrative when evidence conflicts with its components, and that unwillingness comes from understanding that the privilege that someone has depends on everyone agreeing that their privilege is justified.
@@Duiker36 *Excellent comment!* I totally agree. The abuse of religion or the ruse of having divine backing or a secret occult recipe to fame and power without any real logical communal motive for good *only to create debauched monarchies by claiming to be God's replacement* (the usual "Daddy-said-I-can-now-shut-up" - tactic), is wrong. *Sibling rivalry!* The right to boss others must come from the others first. Merit is important. Any animal can have offspring, - but the real art is birth-control, and it protects from overpopulation and wars for resources. *Therefore consulting Ouija Boards is actually the best way to find out how lacking in power we all are and should remain. Lol.*
Hello, It's great presentation on such highly complicated topic but you greatly simplified as much as possible, thank you. As an a Egyptian deeply interested in my Ancient Ancestors, as a Muslim believe in Oneness and as as believer in spiritism also, seems language has a great rule in misunderstanding or unclarity in these topics. The ancient word NITCHER (𓊹) which is translated to GOD and the word NITCHRO (𓊹𓊹𓊹) which is translated into GODs seems either misinterpreted or has another meaning. Seems ancient Egyptians somehow understood the concept of Spiritism doctrine. As per my understanding, they were dealing with all NITCHRO not as Gods but as noble spirits who guided and guides humanity in all aspects along with this they knew the ONE which they referred to as ATUM. It's very interesting when you see too many similarities in ancient Egypt's doctrine with modern monotheistic religions specially Abrahamic religions. Examples: 1- God has (Blown) life into ADAM's body through ADAM's (nostril) which very similar to ATUM blowing SHU!!! 2- God has created ADAM from clay which is typically the ancient Egyptian believe of human kind are created from clay on a clay roller by KHNUM!!! Seems there is some missing links between ancient religions in general and modern ones. Because as you mentioned in all polytheistic religions there is always a referment for ONE divine power which dominates over all other Gods they might be worshiping. I got this from a Hindu friend when was openly discussing such topic with him. And the most interesting is when I asked him on if they believe in ONE superpower or divine, he immediately responded back "of course" with a look which means (how you would think otherwise)!! Great work. Thank you
U probably don’t know any thing about Somalia But The earliest recorded ancient Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty (25th century BC), returning with cargoes of antyue and Puntites. However, gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt as early as the time of Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty. In our life style & religion and Gods in our history and culture still exist in Faroues culture in Somalia . All this gods that u mention here exist places in Somalia .. like El waaq Abudwaaq this waaq exist in Egyptian time even Ra exist like place in Somalia .. I hope world do some reaserch in Somalia .. we are finding some Egyptian money in Somalia
Very well done video! I've been researching Egyptian religion recently and this was very concise with great production quality. The more I research the more I discover that "monotheistic" religions usually have some very "polytheistic" aspects to them, even if they don't officially recognize them as such. Thanks again for a wonderful video!
You have it backwards. Polytheistic religions always have a root of monotheism, most cultures around the world started of monotheistic, then typically once they form civilizations and organize cities they typically start worshiping other gods specifically lesser gods that are basically super humans.
@@justchilling704 Nopes there is enough archological evidence of polytheism pagansism is far older than monotheism . basically earliest civilization were pantheist and "henotheist" who worship one god as supreme but acknowledge other gods or godesss as well so i corect term is "henotheism" nor monotheism !
@@Sushil_sharma344 You’re conflating things. There is zero evidence that monotheism is somehow younger than paganism it doesn’t make sense either. I’d love to see how you think archeology has anything to do with metaphysical things such as beliefs that’s somewhat more related to history. There are tribes that have always been monotheistic, there are pagan civilizations that a record period in their past of worshipping one God. I have no idea why you’re pushing for this view so hard but it’s never been accurate, especially when Aboriginal Australian’s, Indigenous American’s, and African’s histories and beliefs demonstrate this. W for God L for you.
Monotheism was started by Judaism or zororastion but all ancient civilizations were polytheist paganist . whether it Mesopotamia Egyptian or indus valley civilization even Mayans so there is no way monotheism is older than polytheism or pagansism at all and Tribes were not monotheist they were henotheist that was the correct term to be used they do worship worship their personal god by acknowledgimg the existence of other gods as well ! And another important thing tribal very much like the idea of pagans to make idol of their own god so this again different from strict monotheism where you don't have build any idol for that but never possible in ancient civilizations all those polytheist or henotheist used pagangs way to worship their god ! What I'm saying is polytheism or paganism is older than "strict monotheism" what I mean by "strictly monotheism" is not building any idols or associating any symbolic to the god !
@@Sushil_sharma344 This is how I know you’re ignorant on the topic. How tf did Jews invent monotheism when, like I said before there are tribes far from them that believed in One Supreme God before them?! It’s also clear you don’t even know that Hinduism is monotheistic, or for that matter very ancient Mesopotamians go read a book or two instead of wasting my time.
Man, any other religious philosophy nerds out there intrigued by the concept behind what the god Atum represents? Simultaneously representing nothing as well as everything kind of reminds me a bit about the "Dao." (EDIT: I slightly tweaked my previous sentences here for clarification now talking about what Atum _represents_ rather than kind of saying Atum = Dao or monotheistic God). This idea also feels like it parallels a thought I once had that partially led to my transition from agnosticism to apatheism. (for those who are curious, this thought experiment started by me thinking of a situation where I felt very thankful for something, but not toward any particular person. For me, this was being grateful for the experience of music, and the thoughts occurred while I was sitting in a lecture learning about the anatomy of the inner ear and the Organ of Corti. It was in this lecture where I finally learned why we're able to perceive pitch, harmonies, and volume due to the intricate structures that subdivide frequencies via the cochlea and the orchestration of depolarizing action potentials via the shearing of tiny hair cells. Without them, music as we knew it wouldn't exist. I then thought that even if the atheistic nihilism model of the universe were true, I wanted to thank something even if it was nothing. I wanted to thank the fact that I sat in the lecture that day. I wanted to thank the fact that I had prior experiences of music that impacted me during difficult times earlier in life. I wanted to thank the billions of years of Darwinian pruning that led to these structures forming the way they did. I wanted to thank how my own consciousness existed to the point where I'd be able to appreciate this realization even if it could just be the result of the anthropic principle and survivorship bias. Before I knew it, thanking nothing felt like thanking...everything. And thanking everything...felt like believing in God all over again.)
I once asked my philosophy group to compare the concepts of Tao and God. To some members, these were identical concepts, to others they were diametrically opposed.
@@Texasmade74 Thanks for pointing this out, and I've since tried clarifying the syntax of my first paragraph a bit more since I realized that I was actually focusing on the concept on what Atum _represented_ rather than saying that Atum is straight up synonymous with the Dao or monotheistic God. But meanwhile, it's cool that you also pointed a delineation between what is a material representation of a god and what is a pervading principle. It reminds me of how I've been having a continual thought experiment on how well the terms "the universe" (material representation) and "the truth" (pervading principle) could be interchanged with the word "God" within the context of the bible and say...secular scientific journals. While it doesn't always work 1:1 (i.e. God speaking through prophets), it's very interesting seeing what stays consistent when switching between an atheistic and theistic lens. Personally, I prefer the old testament God being represented by a pervading principle like "the truth" over the pantheistic representation of "the universe," but it's a close match.
@@cuckoophendula8211 well we can firmly establish that Atum is not like the concept of Brahman for many reasons one being he clearly has a creation account attributed to him and Brahman is absent from most all of Hindu theology but in Hindu philosophies Brahman is prominent because all of the sampadryas have their own ideologies on Brahman
Great video. Thanks for all your stuff, I’ve really gotten into this channel recently and plan to get on patreon soon. Do you think you might ever make a video on Neoplatonism specifically? It seems like Platonic/Neoplatonic thought is so influential to a lot of the other stuff discussed on this channel
@@LetsTalkReligion please for the love of Atum could you explain the Henads in Neoplatonism and their relationship with The One 🙃 They are so confusing.
Dr Assman's parents must be disappointed he went into Egyptology rather than the family's proctology practice, I recall when Dr Van Nostrand met Dr Assman in a license plate mix up
There were always 1 God and many gods. The one God in Egypt had different names, like Atum, Amun, Amun-Re, or Aton. God and gods were not the same. Gods were aspects of the one God (like the god of the fertility, or the Nile god), here you recognize the pantheism. In the so called monolatry (as known from the Old Testament) you have tribal gods as aspects of the one God. Echnaton tried to cancel the gods, so there were only the One God left (Aton), he did not invent monotheism. Monotheism existed throughout all the times.
The pyramid texts on cheops pyramid have a phrase written in ancient Egyptian language - wa wa en snu - that translate one and only has no second. The ancient Egyptians believe in one god who has characters represented in his creatures. So they appreciated the creatures who had these characters
I've gravitated to panentheism in recent years, my view of deity inspired in part by my reading of the Bhagavad Gita. God can be experienced as one or many; both ways are valid.
@@Texasmade74 Indeed I do. Though perhaps I should've instead asked if you've ever heard of omnism, or perennial philosophy. Regardless, I have no problem taking the Gita's teaching that the Hindu gods are manifestations of Brahman and universalizing it to include other divinities from other religious traditions.
Mr Philip, you really need to find Theological comparison aside from Hinduism's brahman vedanta & Shaivism, then try make a single video about Buddhism and it's Theology (alongside of how Buddhist Cosmology demotes many Vedic elements into lower strats) It's also feels like in this video, you also happens to just discovered the Theological concepts of Monolatry and henotheism, with hinges of Theopanies of the myriad of pagan deities into a Supreme being in either pantheistic or henotheistic manner, it's not as surprising as even the cult of Yahweh or El being speculated by many scholars to be syncretised and became national/patron deity of Israelites, not sure if that's true but if it's true, it's ended up sounding like a more successful version of Shaivism and Vaishnavism through how Christianity makes it a continuation of Tanakh/Torah Theology through Gospels/New Testament texts This is something which eventually questioned by Christian Gnostic groups of early Christianities to literally Greco-Roman, Near Eastern, Egyptian, (and even in Manichaeism and Mandaeism case of Vedic and Zoroastrian pantheons) to downright Hebrew deity names to be reduced into Demiurge(s), Archons and Archdemons and other world-crafting devils of early Christian Gnostic Cosmologies (see Perates, Justin's Book of Baruch, Ebionites, Ophites, Elchaisaites and Naassenes)
Christianity/Judaism being considered a monotheistic religion is a new thought. What I mean is, if you look at who wrote Genesis, and the founder of the Jewish/Christian religions we know today, Moses. Moses and the Canaanite jews at the time worshipped many Gods. It wasn't until Moses went to the mountains and received "word from A god" and brought it to the other Jews for them to worship. "God" was choosen at that point to be worshipped among other Gods. Even furthmore, when Moses came down with the commandments after "that god" led them into the promised land, Moses was griefed to find them worshipping a golden calf once again. So, TODAY, we may all believe Christianity and Judaism to be monotheistic, but dilligently at its founding, it was nothing close. Judaism/Christianity/Islam are henotheistic, not monotheistic. We've just created the illusion in our head in the last 2,000 years that it is a monotheistic God while at the same time dismissing the truth of the past. "You shall not have any Gods before me" Even God admitted in one of His commandments that there was another God to be haved. Polytheism is the adhereance to multiple Gods equally. Henotheism is the adhereance of ONE God among many.
The bible also says You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he, before me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me (Isaiah 43:10). All other Gods are idols made by mans imagination.
@@MrShnazer Noted, but what's strange to me about that verse is "no god before me" and "no god after me", to imply there is a start and end date to "God".... Is there a "before god"? Likewise, is there an "after god"? Those words don't make sense together if God is all encompassing, everlasting and enduring...How can there be a before and after? Furthermore, is god constrained by time? I hope god doesn't mix his words up... I appreciate the response and we can have a debate without being at eachothers throats :)
Some have falsely claimed that the ancient Kemites (Egyptians) were polytheistic literalists, but in his book, “Ancient Egyptian Roots of Christianity,” Egyptian-American Egyptologist, Moustafa Gadalla, writes, “The ancient Egyptians believed in one God who was self-produced, self-existent, immortal, invisible, eternal, omniscient, almighty, etcetera. This one God was represented through the functions and attributes of his [or her] domain. These attributes were called the Neteru . . . In other words, the all, or the Neteru, are the One” (Gadalla, 2019). Furthermore, Gadalla states, “The ancient Egyptians used pictorial symbols to represent divine attributes and actions” (Gadalla, 2019). Lastly, he says, “The figures of Isis, Osiris, Horus, Nut, etcetera, became the symbols of such attributes, functions, forces and energies, and were never intended to be looked upon as real personages” (Gadalla, 2019). In summary, the Neteru represent symbolic personifications of the attributes, characteristics, or sub-personalities of the One Supreme Creator. Reference: Gadalla, M. (2019). Ancient Egyptians roots of Christianity. (S. Hennessy, Narr). [Audiobook]. www.audible.com/pd?asin=B07N8J1PJM&source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp.
Neteru/netjerw literally means gods in plural. Netjer was the word for god (with a glyph of a sacred banner) -u/w is the plural suffix (three lines, or just repeated the glyph three times)
Paganism is such a beautiful and diverse religion, pagans don't have any issue with respecting Gods of other cultures and look at them like mirror images of their own Gods...beautiful...
That feels like a pretty selective reading of the history of polytheism. Even in Egypt itself there were instances of hostility towards other gods or religious systems.
Indian Hindus Pagans are peaceful as long as one does not eat cow meat.... If a person is allegedly found with cow meat, he's beaten to death by "peaceful", " Tolerant " pagan Hindus... Just search "Cow-Vigilantism" Or "Mob-lynchig in India"...
The Bactrian Greeks are said to have adopted Buddhism, but retained the worship the traditional Olympian pantheon. I'd love to hear Let's Talk Religion's thoughts on this interesting example of historical syncretism.
Buddhism had generally no problem in incorporating all kinds of gods, as long as Buddha reigned supreme. This surely began in India itself.
'Reigning supreme' is kind of misleading. It paints a picture of Buddha as being a God.
Buddha didnt have any godly powers or godly origin.
@@celsus7979 - Regardless of what the doctrine says, Buddha behaves as a supreme God in Buddhism. For example consider how he tames Sun Wukong, the rebellious monkey god who defeated Heaven (Tian) itself.
For theological (theoretical) discussions you may be right but for all the effective meaning of what actually is a god or a God in human psychology and sociology, Buddha is a Supreme God.
@@celsus7979 classic Buddhists do believe that the Buddha had godly powers (omniscience, being able to fly to heaven and talk to gods, ability to tame animals and produce fire and water, emanating light, teletransportation, etc) and godly origin (considered to be the reincarnation of the god Svetaketu who descended in his mother Mayadevi as a white elephant, being born from the side of his mother, talking and walking from birth, etc)
@@LuisAldamiz great rebuttal
I love Egypt……. Akenaton is very interesting, Hathor is my favorite! Dandera is a beautiful place. Bendiciones Filip para ti desde México 🇲🇽!
Love the Amun-Min cameo at 14:50 when talking about Amun-Ra.
Min's one of my favorite Egyptian gods, has to be one of the hardest workers out there
I admire your videos. They are both deep and accessible at the same time, which is not an easy thing to accomplish.
Please keep making these videos.
Glad to hear it!
Thanks for the excellent work, it was a pleasure to watch. When you mentioned the work of Hornung as offering an alternative view to Assmann, I must admit I had hoped to see a bit more of comparison between the two viewpoints. But after watching I had to subscribe.
Indeed I did find this informative and interesting. Thank you for the great research and explanations. Mankind has never had such ease of access to such truly meaningful information. You are providing a great service. Take care.
Thanks for all the valuable information and excellent presentation.
As always very beautifully done!
Great talk as usual
From a Traditional esoteric Islamic perspective, all there is, is Allah, The One. The Abstract in relation to the concrete, the Transcendent in relation to the immanent, the Thinker behind thought. God is the Absolute in relation the particular. And the particular, which makes up the world, are all expressions of the Absolute through Divine Will.
The purpose of religion is to cultivate a relationship with the Absolute such that there is bliss. The understanding is that, after you die, you present to God, to the Absolute, what is in your heart. The whole purpose of Islam is to cultivate a sound heart, which is rooted in sound understanding of God. The reason polytheism is reviled by traditional monotheism is because it represents a fractured and wayward understanding of the Divine, like a mind that has gone insane and has become incoherent. The Absolute is like the cosmic mirror, whatever you present to it is reflected back at the intellect which then manifests as one's experienced reality. But in the realm beyond death, the physical veils that otherwise shield us from our state, are removed and gone, and so there is no intermediary between conception, perception, and experience. In Islam, this relates to the kashf [unveiling].
Rightly guided ones, the Prophets, are teachers who came to make coherent our internal state and our intellect so that our relationship with the Absolute is sound. From this perspective, there is the Essence of God [dhat], then there are the Attributes of God [sifat], and then there are the Names of God and then the Acts of God, all in descending orders which make up the macrocosm down to the microcosm. When a person's relationship with God has become disrupted, and where a sense of transcendent oneness lost, then we all into a state of particularity. The Attributes of God manifest as the Names of God, like The Merciful, the Just, the Kind, etc. When we have fallen into a state of particularity, then we see the expressed Names of God, in the Acts of God, with essences of their own. In this case, they become seen as gods.
Thats why islam, esoteric or orthodox, is still wrong. Thats a complete deformation of platonic oneness, which is the base for this idea.
@@xiuhcoatl4830 wtf are you on about bro. Did you read what he wrote? How does exactly pervert platonic oneness jackass?
If I am not mistaken there was a Slavic monotheism. That could be an interesting video topic.
Gotta be careful with the generalizations of a supreme deity in Pre-Islamic Arabia. The name allāh is found in pre-Islamic pagan inscriptions, there is no doubt about it. Arab Christians from the 1st to 4th centuries used the word al-ilāh (the god) to refer to their monotheistic deity, not allāh. Christians do begin using al-ilāh and allāh interchangeably later on in the 6th century as seen in the poetry of al-Nābigha al-Dhubyānī and ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith. The Nabataeans often referred to their main deity Dhu-Shara simply as *ʾlhʾ (*the god) and so allāh being a contraction of al-ilāh used as an epithet that replaced a respective deity’s proper name is the most likely answer. Allāh meant the god, yes. The main god, whether that be of the Christians or Pagans. That seems to be the most likely answer; that allāh is a contracted form of the word al-ilāh. But this doesn't mean that allāh was considered a creator god by the Nabataeans or Safaitic writers, this might've developed later on in Late Antiquity and might not date that far back. "Pre-Islamic Arabia" covers 1500 years of history from the Qedarites of the Assyrian period to the Lakhmids and Ghassanids in the Byzantine-Sassanian period. It also spans a large geographic area from the fertile crescent where Arabs settled Hellenized Aramaean cities such as Palmyra and Hatra all the way south to the monsoon civilizations of Yemen
Most Arabs were not Christian from the 1st to the 4th centuries they were polytheistic but Islam is the first monotheistic religion to get ahold like that in the Arabian peninsula
jesus is lord
@@iSuKOwnerS really now?Can you prove that
Allah or al-Illah is surely more or less the same as El in the Canaanite religion, and as such the name may refer to the supreme (and rather personal, Amun-like rather than Atum-like) god of their pantheon (Zeus-like) or as just generic term for "god" or "deity", depending on context as our custom of capitalizing or not the first letter only began in the Renaissance.
All you've proven with that lengthy comment is that you have no idea about the development of languages.
I love to see philepe do a video on the egyptian moon god called iah (pronounced yah) and any confusion with the God of the old testament.
Highly informative. Thanks!
What led associating an all-encompassing divinity with different deities of the Egyptian pantheon, for example Isis over Amun? The worship of a female deity over that if a male can reflect on many elements and changes within a society (for example, a more agricultural society over one that practices more hunting, or makes use of a plow) and Isis is not just any female deity at that - such a Ma'at, who embodies cosmic order anyway - but one with specifically associated with womanhood. Could a transition from Amun to Isis be associated with any societal change in particular, or is it instead something perhaps more regionally driven, for example, if a city who worshipped Isis happened to come to a lot of wealth or power, thereby spreading the cult of their own patron deity to the whole of Egypt (a more plausible explanation perhaps, and a phenomenon that has seen itself repeated much more throughout history). I still find it interesting, the dynamics could have led to a change in the absolute divinity, from Amun, to Isis, to another altogether, and how that might reflect on state of affairs at the time ...
It may well relate to the loss of the pharaohs (Egypt became foreign-dominated) and their need to identify themselves with a chief patriarchal god. The chief patriarchal god and monarchy are closely related, even in Mesopotamian traditions it is Enlil the sky god who brings not generic creation nor humankind... but KINGSHIP to the world. It's only later as this patriarchal chief god becomes sole god in the context of Jewish religious evolution when he absorbs the attributes and powers of other deities, expelled from the pantheon.
Prior to this patriarchal theism (first polytheism, then personal monotheism of an imperfect god which is only one side and not anymore everything like the original Pan-Theos), it was quite widespread (from the Basque Country to India and China apparently) a belief similar to that of Amun and his children, who in many cases manifests as gender-binary monotheism (two gendered gods a single God, there may be other spirits but are lesser, as happens in the Basque tradition, or are manifestations of the sole Pan-Theos and its binary derivation, as happened in Egypt and in some versions of Hinduism, notably Shaktism and some Shaivism).
As Casilda Rodrigáñez interprets in her excellent book "El Asalto al Hades" ("Assault to Hades", freely downloadable at her personal site but only available in Spanish), in the times of the Metal Ages (Bronze, Iron), when notably the very patriarcha Indoeuropeans conquered the less patriarchal peoples of "Old Europe" (yes, she follows Gimbutas largely on this, I could add some shading but enough for this comment), the shift from a pre-patriarchal male god (Dragon or Snake God typically) to the patriarchal male gods of the Indoeuropeans (notably Zeus = Jupiter = Odin = Daghda) came with the legend of the dragonslayer, which she interprets not in the usual way but as the Dragon (the ancient male God) defending the Goddess (the maiden) and being slaughtered as result, then rape and female slavery ensues but is hidden by a carefully modified narrative, which makes the patriarchal dragonslayer a "hero" instead of a rapist-enslaver (that's the case of Apollo and Thor in ancient legends and of St. George for most Christians but Michael Archangel for the Basques, for reasons of a very weird and quite "Freudian" legend that I will spare you for the time being).
So there was a longing for the old religion underlying all the Mediterranean (and probably other areas too), a longing for the end of patriarchy itself, which manifested often in polytheisms as veneration of this or that godess, for example Athena in the quite patriarchal Athens, Cybeles in Asia Minor and by import in much of the Roman sphere (Romans made Cybeles equal to Magna Mater) and Isis in Egypt, which became a focus for a very popular religion not just in that provicia but in much of the Roman Empire, being the main competitor of Christianity.
That's surely a reason why Christianity made Mary such an important and near-divine figure ("mother of God" nonetheless!) and why in many areas Christianity basically means Maryanism, with not just the distant "God the Father" but even Jesus being rather secondary in popular devotion. Mary is of course a very "domesticated" version of the ancient Goddess but still gives women and mother-loving men a good spritual reference.
I was raised as Catholic and at least 50% of the religion in terms devotional are Maryanism, which makes good sense for children very especially: having a second imaginary all-loving mum is better than having a second imaginary tyrannical second dad, really.
This "monotheistic" conception of God being the One from everything emanates and also the same time Nothing has been recurred over and over through history. One thing comes to mind is (some sects of) hinduism. Where the Brahman(atman?) take the form as a central uncreated God who emanates all gods, and reality itself. Even in abrahamic religions, especially in mysticisms, this concept found itself again and again.
The doctrine of an uncreated absolute being is philosophically sound,which is why almost every religion found its way back to it
@@ihavenojawandimustscream4681 I guess the vastness of cosmos and nature, the inability to comprehend its mystery do bring a lot of people to contemplate in this direction.
Great video! Really added more into what I had learnt over the years as ancient Egyptian culture and language is still the same and used in Somalia.
The Egyptian believed in Waaq also as a god. There are many towns called waaq in Somalia and Somalis have also used the term Waaq as God.
Please do a video on Waaq and its beliefs, where the ancient Somalis in the time of Jahil era, had worshiped, which is full of very rich history.
I personally have a lot of respect for religions both past and present
really excellent video, the problem of mono/polytheism is so necessarily simplified for most people it's really essential to start pointing out how earlier models of "pagan" belief were just as confronted with the experience of an embodied god and pantheistic divinity especially when they were no longer allowed to worship at their temples. The parallels to Jewish development and the later Christian revolution echo the Egyptian experiences so profoundly. PS Loved the great clips and pics of egypt!
Egyptian religion was never pantheism
@@Texasmade74 And that's exactly why I didnt say that it was. ;)
@@FraterRC most of your original comment makes zero sense
@@Texasmade74 lol
is there any way around these full length ads?
i like listening to videos like these on my phone while i work and pressing the skip ad button isn't handy and breaks the flow of work. i don't mind the 15 second ads, but documentary level ads are mood killers.
Does it have to be "appeasing" a god - or could it mean ritual to stay in connection with each force?
@@xunqianbaidu6917 no they don't
@@xunqianbaidu6917 no they didn't and this guy who makes these videos doesn't know much about polytheistic religions
@@xunqianbaidu6917 you don't what your talking about either
@@xunqianbaidu6917 polytheistic religions are definitely more concerned with orthopraxy but they most certainly are concerned with elements of orthodoxy too.The idea that people never believed in these Gods but yet made pilgrimages to temples and festivals,offered elaborate sacrifices,etc is absurd and not reflected anywhere on the historical record or any primary sources
Thank you for trying to put light on the grey.
Thanks!
Good morning everyone blessings 🙌 🙏 ✨️
Atum being the entity from which all other gods are aspects of feels kinda gnostic-y
He's only the creator God over one creation account not all of them
08:46 The creation of the world is conceived of as creating in the word Atum.
I think that so much early interpretation, the word 'gods' is also a monotheistic/dualist Christian imposition. The Egyptians used the word Neter or natures, implying they were aspects of God, like a diamond has aspects.
Very interesting episode, thank you
10:30 Coffin Text 80 12:37 Instruction of Merikare 14:59 18:41 20:24
Awesome work!! Bra jobbet! ❤❤❤
Its always polytheism vs religions.
Out of Africa, man was aware of one God and 'meditative wisdom', they knew the 25000 year cosmic cycle and also knew Vedic mathematics (arithmetic and number theory) and even knew of the 12 Zodiac signs. And as man migrated from Gobekli Tepe to Australia, they preserved the same insignia inscribed on the pillars in Turkey.
Do a series on native American religion
You should cover Lady Isis ! She was also hailed as somewhat of a universal goddess and some pray almost exclusively to her, despite the pantheon. Patron deity.
Great content!
An extremely interesting video. Well researched. Well thought through. Well presented. Thank you.
Theres a cycle to it,
* you start with universal oneness, (monism/pantheism)
* then it becomes animistic pantheism,
*Then the allegories for things become humanoid
And its pagan polytheism,
*Then there is one best god so henotheism,
*Then the best god becomes the only god so monotheism.
*Then the one god becomes the ultimate reality in its true form, and we start over at the beginning.
Filip have you heard of Edward P Butler? He is a American philosopher and practicing polytheist. Check out his blog you might want to collaborate with him maybe.
He's not that good because he has no real education in Egyptian religion or history and he goes at stuff from a platonic view rather than address things as they are
Yes I know him and I'm a polytheist too
@@Texasmade74 I do find his philosophical work heavy going. He mentioned his patron deity is Isis. I'm something of a henotheist, I worship Brigid.
@@chendaforest so you believe in all Gods but you don't worship them all
@@Texasmade74 yes in a sense. One ocean made up of infinite drops as it were.
"Was Egypt poly or mono theoist?"
Depends on when you ask.
Egyptian theology was around for thousands of years before the Greeks took over. Things change a lot in that time
Yeah, looking at how much abrahamic religion has changed over the course of its 3000ish year history, one can only imagine the plethora of movements and changes egyptian religion might have had in its own incredibly long history
It really doesn't depend on who you it has everything to do with reading the texts and primary sources on Egyptian religion rather than taking the skewed views of a scholar whose too influenced by monotheism
There are definitely good legitimate non biased scholars of Egyptology out there
Of course. All religions change and evolve over time and place.
@@Texasmade74 The texts and primary sources that survived, sure. And maybe also looking at the difference between the everyday practices of adherents versus what's written on their conveniently-preserved book.
Why Sir David Attenborogh has Aten in his surname ?
Is his paternal ancestry descended from the priests of the short-lived Aten worshipping, or simultaneosly Egyptian Pharoanic royalty , of Achenaton?
Shout out to Assman dude 😄
But fitst let us upgrade our
"Gedachten and dreams" and children zijn niet klaar voor zoiets strafs Dave Geybels.
Eerst afzien en leren, dan pas bewijs & benieten. ❤❤
I like what Gurdjieff taught about Egypt.
Atum is the synthesis of all the mathematical laws of Nature and the Kosmos
Do many religions consider nothing to be god the same way as mentioned here? Specifically Mesopotamian religion?
Ptah, the first Creator God that crowned itself God over all gods. Self-Annointed. Sovereign. Lord over the People of Memphis until their lack of faith made Him have the Ennead conquer them. Blessings and Prayers for Ptah to resurrect from the oppression.
"Ptah the begetter of the first beginning
Ptah lord of truth
Ptah lord of eternity
Ptah who listens to prayers
Ptah master of ceremonies
Ptah master of justice
Ptah the God who made himself to be God
Ptah the double being
Ptah the beautiful face"
"[Ptah] crafted the world in the design of his heart"
~ a hymn to Ptah dating to the Twenty-second Dynasty of Egypt
"[Ptah] gave life to all the gods and their spirits as well, through his heart and his words."
~ the Shabaka Stone dating to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt
I like Atenism.🌄
The Instructions for King MeriKaRe are very similar in content and language with Surah Luqman (chapter 31 of the Quran) . In Islamic exegesis, Luqman is thought to be a wise man from Egypt, but not much is known about him. I speculate that the letter for King MeriKaRe is a letter from Luqman to his son. Check the Instructions and the Surah side by side and tell me if I'm wrong.
Waarom kiezen jullie steeds voor Daems ? The real mib is ME and we are gelegen aan
parking 't Ven...achter hoek vd Salamanders, clear and
heil Ceasar.
The heart of the Amarna throne is the golden throne of King Tut it is all about the seven spirits of AmenRa versus the Aten. Immortal body versus mortal self. Watch. No ancient high priest of Egypt will tell you this.
I clicked i watched and i liked!
Im the assman Jerry!
-Jan Assmann
Monotheism or Henotheism?
Amen
Just to clarify; there were no GODS or GOD but Nytr Nitr ... wich the word Nature came from ... so these deities or so called "Gods" are just presentation of natures of energies , and that is a major flaw in Egyptology as most Egyptologists are not Egyptian ... interesting idea, isn't it ?
Am From Alexandria , Egypt
17:28 👽️
Why show pictures of One God in human form ?
Does i not sounds a lot like Henotheism?
At’um , atom and Adam????
Please more of this content!
Sadly there's not enough discussion about ancient religions as religions because they're only seen as myths with stories for videogames and movies.
Amazing stuff...blessings and love to you ❤
Well, it doesn't help that most of them _are not_ religions in the modern sense. Egypt had a robust theology, but it was rather exceptional in that way. Most ancient "religions" were not nearly so structured.
TIme may just heal that wound.
@@marvalice3455 they are more extremes, theyre either extremely intense and complex or very basic and unexplainably fundamental
Or, in my dark mind, if we studied them more, certain folks in various religions would have some ‘splaining to do.’😂
This is probably one of the most fascinating videos of yours I have watched. I spend quite a bit of time studying Hermeticism and have too many books on ancient Egyptian culture, religion, and literature so this aligns perfectly with my interests. Great work. I appreciate it. I wonder if one day you will ever do a video on Mesopotamian religion? We have a good amount of data on their religious beliefs but due to the "game of thrones" of southern and northern Mesopotamia and the mix of cultures and peoples, it can be quite the undertaking. I would love to see Sumerian, Akkadian, or even Babylonian religions or even possibly how their theology evolved or changed throughout the ages. The religious beliefs of the Sumerians were adopted by many of these cultures with some minor changes and different titles and ideas but I think that would be fascinating and would love to see what you could come up with. Top-notch channel with great scholarship.
Yes, I hope to cover Mesopotamian religion eventually as well!
What are the best books on studying ancient Egyptian religion and hermeticism?
@@adamhagewiesche7254 I don't think I could tell you the BEST ones. Still, some excellent ones on Hermeticism: Eternal Hermes, Egyptian Hermes, Secret History of Trismegistus, Gnosis and Hermeticism, and Quest for Hermes Trismegistus are all solid books in my opinion. You could read the actual Hermetic texts known as the Corpus Hermeticum. I really, at this point in time, do not have recommendations for Egyptian religion. Still, some books I have include Religion and Ritual in Egypt, Egyptian Myth and Legends, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt, Kemetic Literature, Book of the Dead, and Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol. 1-3. I have not read all of the Egyptian books yet so that is why I can't give the best recommendation but hopefully, this was helpful.
@@JDG602 Thank you so much. I'll be looking into these.
I'm looking for good books on ancient Egyptian Theology. Any suggestions?
I am an academic research scientist who grew up with a large amount of skepticism toward religion writ large for most of my life. Meditation made me more sympathetic to spiritual ideas about oneness, but I was still left with archaic and simplistic views about religion and theological history. Your channel has exposed me to the almost universal presence of universalism in religions across space and time, which has inspired in me this feeling that at some level we are all looking for the same thing. I find that feeling to be incredibly enriching existentially (something truly hard to find in the world these days) and has given me a great deal of empathy and respect towards others and their convictions. I don’t think I would have been receptive to these ideas in many other forms, but your academic due diligence, respectful delivery, and emphasis of nuance and context makes the information you present almost impossible to earnestly disregard.
I also think that the value of your presentation qualities are amplified by the unfortunate state of the discipline you present on. I think that because the humanities don’t have immediate profit potential, they unfortunately lack a robust public communication industry that STEM research relies on for inspiring future thinkers and maintaining the pace of the public’s general knowledge about science. Because of this, ideas that are immensely important for understanding our place in the world and the experience of living itself are seen as esoteric and inaccessibly stuck in the Ivory Tower. You deserve praise for providing this quality of service on a free and accessible platform. I know many others on here have probably had interest in these topics for a while, but at least for me (and perhaps others who spent years calloused from appreciating spiritual questions), you have opened up a new dimension of the world to appreciate.
Thank you.
I’m happy for you, my brother. Life is substantially more enjoyable with an understanding of the Breadth of It beyond this mortal coil, Prior to our own incarnations and Beyond.
Blessings 🦋
Well said 👏🏽
The movie Zeitgeist believes Christianity was a copy of ancient Egyptian religion. I agree with you. I think all religions can fit,, as the same, and one. Their God was Atum. The splitting of an atom destroys. And Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe in the first human to be Adam. The Hindus believe the God of destruction and creation. Again, splitting an atom can destroy... We would have to rebuild and recreate. Plato's Atlantis story I believe to be true. We are on the same path, It seems humans never learn, we destroy and rebuild, and destroy ourselves again. Like a loop.
I too found orthodox organized religion too mired in ridiculous childish stories and inconsistencies to be credible. It was obvious to me from a very young age that all religions were human constructs being expressed in a variety of different ways. First I thought I was an atheist, but then I stumbled on the term 'Modern Deist' which seemed to describe my spiritual feelings better than the term 'Atheist' or 'Agnostic'. Then a couple of years later I again stumbled across yet another term; 'Scientific Pantheism' (also called 'Naturalistic Pantheism'). This seems the most appropriate description, because it's flexible, completely consistent with science, there's no anthropomorphized God, and no dogma, just the sense of oneness with the Cosmos. As Carl Sagan so beautifully put it; 'The Cosmos is all that is, all that ever was, or ever will be'...'We are made of star stuff...star stuff contemplating the stars'...'We are not only in the Cosmos, the Cosmos is within us...We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself'.
But one religion kills you for thinking, conversion etc.
Islam kills you if you don't agree with what it says and claims.
Jan Assmann has truly revivified Egyptology. His article "Monotheism and Polytheism" is an eye opener too. Thanks so much for your insightfully historical presentations.
An outdated and overturned eye-opener
Some forms of ancient Egyptian religion could be interpreted as proto-Christianity in terms of moral precepts and general concepts of Mankind's relationship to the divine. This is a GREAT introductions to the depth and complexity of Egyptian religion. It also helps to explain the early acceptance and proliferation of Christianity in Egypt.
There definitely some overlap I agree. You see the same thing with a lot of various religions.
Id say its more like hinduism with its idea that the universe itself is apart of god or expression of it like brahmin is in hinduism. It also has a soft polytheistic layer and reincarnation
Anybody who is interested in this topic needs to read “Sufism and Ancient Wisdom”! A book that focuses on the influences on Islam and Islamic Mysticism mainly from Ancients Egypt and Mesopotamia, but also of course Greek philosophy, and delves into the theological concepts of Monotheism, Polytheism, Prophethood, Tradition, and so much more. It quotes Assman several times as well. fascinating book. Filip, I think you’d love the work and it would spark so many interesting videos. Thanks for this.
Sounds very interesting. Thanks for the recommendation
Jan Assmann has to be the greatest name in Egyptology.
Quoting outdated and biased scholars is this guy's specialty
@@Texasmade74 finding a non outdated scholar is extremely difficult, and finding an unbiased one is impossible. Historians have to make do with what they have.
@@iamseamonkey6688 what?There's plenty of current Egyptologists
@@iamseamonkey6688 your comment makes no sense at all
I recommend the book "The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt" by Egyptologist Richard H.Wilkinson he's a professor emeritus too
Thanks, can you give me a brief?
@@hl-yz7gr brief explanation?Yes well the book goes into a very detailed covering of Egyptian religion,cults,and even covers pre dynastic Egyptian religion which is much more totemic or animistic than polytheistic.It also covers indepth information on many of the Gods and who they were syncretized with and why,etc
It's from 2003 I would recommend newer ones from 2010s more so but nevertheless the book is a good one
@@ayatashraf8303 definitely not
@@ayatashraf8303 the age of a book doesn't make the research or material on it void because new findings or theories etc do that.That book is still on solid ground and footing over 15 years later because of the amount of research that's gone into it whereas books by more feminist Egyptologist like Kara Cooney don't even hold up to scrutiny
During the crusades, the Muslims referred to the Christians as "pagans" because of how they viewed the christian saints and the trinity
We always did and still do call anyone who is not a Muslim, a pagan. Because that's what they are. You're either a Muslim monotheist or a pagan disbeliever.
Considering that Ancient Egypt at various points in history either ruled or had large influence in Canaan/Israel, did any of the Ancient Egyptian religious traditions and notions influence the religious culture and thought of Canaan/Israel?
Well there is the idea that Akhenaten’s revolutionary monotheistic approach influenced Moses but I’m of the belief that these cultures transmitted info back and forth rather than some top down concept.
@@jessicaclakley3691 yeah I can see it like that.
There's a theory that Moses was a priest of Akhenaten but that's highly speculative
Canaanite dynasty also ruled Egypt
@@jessicaclakley3691 there's no archeological or anthropological evidence for Moses
You talk like an American Christian. The distinction is not so much between monotheism and polytheism but between theistic religions and non-theistic religions. That is the big divide, i.e. whether you attribute your fate to someone or something else (theistic) or to yourself (atheistic, non-theistic). It is handy and easy to attribute your fate to some god, in that way you can control populations as a priest or through priests and the people themselves do not need to do anything except pay their respects to their priests and invented gods. This distinction is much more fundamental than between religions of one or more gods.
Now that you have done videos on the "One God" in Ancient Egypt and on Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia I would like to ask this. Did Ancient Mesopotamia ever have a concept of, depending on how you want to call it, "One God"/"Absolute Divinity"/"Ultimate Reality"/"Brahman"? If so, I would like to see a video on that too.
This was a great informative video on something that's very poorly understood due to our specific history and relationship with religion. We often don't realize we project social ideas onto the thinking of other people's. For instance, many hunter-gatherer people believe in some kind of singular creator and original deity, but the perspective of whether it's "monotheistic" or not is anchored on where anthropologists stand on an argument about western Christian doctrine. The truth is our rigid idea of polytheism vs monotheism has kept us from understanding the complex dynamics of theology different people's have, and the idea that these ideas may not be diametrically opposed the same way we see them.
I agree, furthermore, our categories don't fit with the religions of the world. How do you even begin to categorize religions? Maybe if you add distinctness into the mix? Christianity is one God, distinct from everything else. Egypt is multiple gods, but not fully distinct from each other. Hinduism is an Ultimate God with multiple Gods with little to no distinction. Its a start?
I don’t think you understand “Western Christian Doctrine” Christians depending on their culture may describe it differently, but the Bible makes it clear, that there are many gods but only one supreme creator God who created everything. This is why I’m Exodus for example, says that God will pass judgement on the “gods” of Egypt.
Monotheism can be defined as belief in a one supreme creator God, or just one God.
@@justchilling704 I think you're misunderstanding my point. My point is that when people tall about what constitutes "monotheism", they are using a Christian framework whether in favor or against said "monotheism".
@@Atigulus1 Youee correct about Westerners and people from a Christian’s background, I agree, I’m just pointing out that the Christian and also Jewish framework is the same as the one found in much of Africa, Asias etc. Many gods but one supreme creator God. Check out Dr. Michael Heiser he does a lot of work in this area.
Dear Philip,
This was an outstanding presentation. very impressive with beautiful illustrations.Many thanks from all of us
Great episode as ever.
Just a minute and a half into this, and I'm already reminded of a conversation I had with someone who cautioned against using the terms "monotheism" and "polytheism" as they may make our minds gravitate toward some preconceived examples. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it reminding myself that Elohim in Hebrew technically means "Gods" and the concept of Brahman in Hinduism feels a bit monotheistic. EDIT: and then of course the video goes on to talk about this a bit more xD
Brahman is just a concept within Vedanta
Elohim does not mean "gods" in Hebrew/Canaanite. There are many words in Hebrew with the plural ending "-im" that are actually singular. Elohim is singular.
*Some* argue that it's an example of "Pluralis Majestatis" which refers to the use of a plural word to refer honorifically to a single person or entity (also called the 'plural of respect', the 'honorific plural', the 'plural of excellence', or the 'plural of intensity').
But most Hebrew authorities agree that Elohim is not an example of the above and is just singular.
@@omarchehimi8981 Elohim is definitely both plural and singular depending on usage
@@omarchehimi8981 most Hebrew authorities are not authorities at all except to other Jews
Elohim is a way to refer to the One God in Majesty by pluralising it, as far as i remember reading.
Another fascinating and informative piece from a man quickly becoming my favorite presenter. I am an agnostic, and sometimes flirt with true atheism. Through these videos I have begun to think that while religion (organized) is a bane, belief in higher powers is natural, human, universal and part of being human.
You should check out the book “the Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss” by David Bentley Hart
I have a saying that goes hand in hand with your sentiment;
Saints, scriptures and sages and no Religion
Yet I would recommend you look into the psychological benefits of communal experiences such as going to church or singing Kirtan with a group. Whether you believe what the others there do or not, you can gain the benefit of engaging in a superordinate goal of unity. I go to a protestant Christian church even though my knowledge of God is different than everyone else there. The experience of singing in unison and focusing on the immaterial is quite the blissful experience that easily puts one into a state of flow.
art.
And when you play with the *paranormal* , you realize there is a higher intelligence.
I think it might be fairer to say that a number of centuries-old religions that were organized in the last few millennia are a bane. When people accrete power from the weight of lineage and tradition, that has a bad effect on things. But the instinct to systematize reality into a coherent narrative isn't wrong. It's how people understand reality in the first place, at all. The problem is an unwillingness to change that narrative when evidence conflicts with its components, and that unwillingness comes from understanding that the privilege that someone has depends on everyone agreeing that their privilege is justified.
@@Duiker36 *Excellent comment!* I totally agree. The abuse of religion or the ruse of having divine backing or a secret occult recipe to fame and power without any real logical communal motive for good *only to create debauched monarchies by claiming to be God's replacement* (the usual "Daddy-said-I-can-now-shut-up" - tactic), is wrong. *Sibling rivalry!* The right to boss others must come from the others first. Merit is important. Any animal can have offspring, - but the real art is birth-control, and it protects from overpopulation and wars for resources. *Therefore consulting Ouija Boards is actually the best way to find out how lacking in power we all are and should remain. Lol.*
Hello, It's great presentation on such highly complicated topic but you greatly simplified as much as possible, thank you.
As an a Egyptian deeply interested in my Ancient Ancestors, as a Muslim believe in Oneness and as as believer in spiritism also, seems language has a great rule in misunderstanding or unclarity in these topics.
The ancient word NITCHER (𓊹) which is translated to GOD and the word NITCHRO (𓊹𓊹𓊹) which is translated into GODs seems either misinterpreted or has another meaning.
Seems ancient Egyptians somehow understood the concept of Spiritism doctrine. As per my understanding, they were dealing with all NITCHRO not as Gods but as noble spirits who guided and guides humanity in all aspects along with this they knew the ONE which they referred to as ATUM.
It's very interesting when you see too many similarities in ancient Egypt's doctrine with modern monotheistic religions specially Abrahamic religions.
Examples:
1- God has (Blown) life into ADAM's body through ADAM's (nostril) which very similar to ATUM blowing SHU!!!
2- God has created ADAM from clay which is typically the ancient Egyptian believe of human kind are created from clay on a clay roller by KHNUM!!!
Seems there is some missing links between ancient religions in general and modern ones. Because as you mentioned in all polytheistic religions there is always a referment for ONE divine power which dominates over all other Gods they might be worshiping. I got this from a Hindu friend when was openly discussing such topic with him.
And the most interesting is when I asked him on if they believe in ONE superpower or divine, he immediately responded back "of course" with a look which means (how you would think otherwise)!!
Great work. Thank you
U probably don’t know any thing about Somalia But The earliest recorded ancient Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty (25th century BC), returning with cargoes of antyue and Puntites. However, gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt as early as the time of Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty.
In our life style & religion and Gods in our history and culture still exist in Faroues culture in Somalia . All this gods that u mention here exist places in Somalia .. like El waaq Abudwaaq this waaq exist in Egyptian time even Ra exist like place in Somalia .. I hope world do some reaserch in Somalia .. we are finding some Egyptian money in Somalia
Very well done video! I've been researching Egyptian religion recently and this was very concise with great production quality. The more I research the more I discover that "monotheistic" religions usually have some very "polytheistic" aspects to them, even if they don't officially recognize them as such. Thanks again for a wonderful video!
You have it backwards. Polytheistic religions always have a root of monotheism, most cultures around the world started of monotheistic, then typically once they form civilizations and organize cities they typically start worshiping other gods specifically lesser gods that are basically super humans.
@@justchilling704
Nopes there is enough archological evidence of polytheism pagansism is far older than monotheism . basically earliest civilization were pantheist and "henotheist" who worship one god as supreme but acknowledge other gods or godesss as well so i corect term is "henotheism" nor monotheism !
@@Sushil_sharma344 You’re conflating things. There is zero evidence that monotheism is somehow younger than paganism it doesn’t make sense either. I’d love to see how you think archeology has anything to do with metaphysical things such as beliefs that’s somewhat more related to history. There are tribes that have always been monotheistic, there are pagan civilizations that a record period in their past of worshipping one God. I have no idea why you’re pushing for this view so hard but it’s never been accurate, especially when Aboriginal Australian’s, Indigenous American’s, and African’s histories and beliefs demonstrate this. W for God L for you.
Monotheism was started by Judaism or zororastion but all ancient civilizations were polytheist paganist . whether it Mesopotamia Egyptian or indus valley civilization even Mayans so there is no way monotheism is older than polytheism or pagansism at all and Tribes were not monotheist they were henotheist that was the correct term to be used they do worship worship their personal god by acknowledgimg the existence of other gods as well ! And another important thing tribal very much like the idea of pagans to make idol of their own god so this again different from strict monotheism where you don't have build any idol for that but never possible in ancient civilizations all those polytheist or henotheist used pagangs way to worship their god ! What I'm saying is polytheism or paganism is older than "strict monotheism" what I mean by "strictly monotheism" is not building any idols or associating any symbolic to the god !
@@Sushil_sharma344 This is how I know you’re ignorant on the topic. How tf did Jews invent monotheism when, like I said before there are tribes far from them that believed in One Supreme God before them?! It’s also clear you don’t even know that Hinduism is monotheistic, or for that matter very ancient Mesopotamians go read a book or two instead of wasting my time.
Man, any other religious philosophy nerds out there intrigued by the concept behind what the god Atum represents? Simultaneously representing nothing as well as everything kind of reminds me a bit about the "Dao." (EDIT: I slightly tweaked my previous sentences here for clarification now talking about what Atum _represents_ rather than kind of saying Atum = Dao or monotheistic God). This idea also feels like it parallels a thought I once had that partially led to my transition from agnosticism to apatheism.
(for those who are curious, this thought experiment started by me thinking of a situation where I felt very thankful for something, but not toward any particular person. For me, this was being grateful for the experience of music, and the thoughts occurred while I was sitting in a lecture learning about the anatomy of the inner ear and the Organ of Corti. It was in this lecture where I finally learned why we're able to perceive pitch, harmonies, and volume due to the intricate structures that subdivide frequencies via the cochlea and the orchestration of depolarizing action potentials via the shearing of tiny hair cells. Without them, music as we knew it wouldn't exist. I then thought that even if the atheistic nihilism model of the universe were true, I wanted to thank something even if it was nothing. I wanted to thank the fact that I sat in the lecture that day. I wanted to thank the fact that I had prior experiences of music that impacted me during difficult times earlier in life. I wanted to thank the billions of years of Darwinian pruning that led to these structures forming the way they did. I wanted to thank how my own consciousness existed to the point where I'd be able to appreciate this realization even if it could just be the result of the anthropic principle and survivorship bias. Before I knew it, thanking nothing felt like thanking...everything. And thanking everything...felt like believing in God all over again.)
I once asked my philosophy group to compare the concepts of Tao and God. To some members, these were identical concepts, to others they were diametrically opposed.
Aten is not like the Dao because Aten is the sun disc not a deity and Dao is a pervading principle not a god or a life source
@@Texasmade74 Thanks for pointing this out, and I've since tried clarifying the syntax of my first paragraph a bit more since I realized that I was actually focusing on the concept on what Atum _represented_ rather than saying that Atum is straight up synonymous with the Dao or monotheistic God.
But meanwhile, it's cool that you also pointed a delineation between what is a material representation of a god and what is a pervading principle. It reminds me of how I've been having a continual thought experiment on how well the terms "the universe" (material representation) and "the truth" (pervading principle) could be interchanged with the word "God" within the context of the bible and say...secular scientific journals. While it doesn't always work 1:1 (i.e. God speaking through prophets), it's very interesting seeing what stays consistent when switching between an atheistic and theistic lens. Personally, I prefer the old testament God being represented by a pervading principle like "the truth" over the pantheistic representation of "the universe," but it's a close match.
Interesting reflection. Thanks for sharing it.
@@cuckoophendula8211 well we can firmly establish that Atum is not like the concept of Brahman for many reasons one being he clearly has a creation account attributed to him and Brahman is absent from most all of Hindu theology but in Hindu philosophies Brahman is prominent because all of the sampadryas have their own ideologies on Brahman
Could you please do a video on "zanadiqa" such as Ibn al-Muqaffa, Ibn ar-Rawandi or al-Razi? I think a lot of people would find it very interesting.
Aten and his servant Akhenaten
The heretic Pharoah who when he died had almost all records of him destroyed and the Old Gods were immediately reestablished by his son
@Меѳодїи you must not not know anything about religions if you just compared Jesus to the Tao and Yhwh lmao 🤣 😂
Great video. Thanks for all your stuff, I’ve really gotten into this channel recently and plan to get on patreon soon. Do you think you might ever make a video on Neoplatonism specifically? It seems like Platonic/Neoplatonic thought is so influential to a lot of the other stuff discussed on this channel
Plotinus and Neoplatonism is definitely on my list of upcoming episodes!
Sweeeeeet! I’ll get a front row ticket
@@LetsTalkReligion please for the love of Atum could you explain the Henads in Neoplatonism and their relationship with The One 🙃
They are so confusing.
Dr Assman's parents must be disappointed he went into Egyptology rather than the family's proctology practice, I recall when Dr Van Nostrand met Dr Assman in a license plate mix up
Lol
There were always 1 God and many gods. The one God in Egypt had different names, like Atum, Amun, Amun-Re, or Aton. God and gods were not the same. Gods were aspects of the one God (like the god of the fertility, or the Nile god), here you recognize the pantheism. In the so called monolatry (as known from the Old Testament) you have tribal gods as aspects of the one God. Echnaton tried to cancel the gods, so there were only the One God left (Aton), he did not invent monotheism. Monotheism existed throughout all the times.
No it didn't, and thats a poor understanding of old religion and polytheism in general
@@xiuhcoatl4830 No, you are wrong.
The pyramid texts on cheops pyramid have a phrase written in ancient Egyptian language - wa wa en snu - that translate one and only has no second. The ancient Egyptians believe in one god who has characters represented in his creatures. So they appreciated the creatures who had these characters
Ohh it’s so cool to hear you mention Jan Assmann! I love his work and I heard that he frequently visits the institute that I study and work at :D
Assman' work is dated and very off
Omnientheism: God is the cause of all true Religion.
I've gravitated to panentheism in recent years, my view of deity inspired in part by my reading of the Bhagavad Gita. God can be experienced as one or many; both ways are valid.
Deity?
The Bhagavad Gita isn't related to Egyptian religion though and neither is Vaishnava philosophy
@@Texasmade74 Ever hear of religious syncretism?
@@Duragizer8775 do you even understand what religious syncretism is??
@@Texasmade74 Indeed I do. Though perhaps I should've instead asked if you've ever heard of omnism, or perennial philosophy. Regardless, I have no problem taking the Gita's teaching that the Hindu gods are manifestations of Brahman and universalizing it to include other divinities from other religious traditions.
this is quality content. thankyou very much, have a fantastic day
Mr Philip, you really need to find Theological comparison aside from Hinduism's brahman vedanta & Shaivism, then try make a single video about Buddhism and it's Theology (alongside of how Buddhist Cosmology demotes many Vedic elements into lower strats)
It's also feels like in this video, you also happens to just discovered the Theological concepts of Monolatry and henotheism, with hinges of Theopanies of the myriad of pagan deities into a Supreme being in either pantheistic or henotheistic manner, it's not as surprising as even the cult of Yahweh or El being speculated by many scholars to be syncretised and became national/patron deity of Israelites, not sure if that's true but if it's true, it's ended up sounding like a more successful version of Shaivism and Vaishnavism through how Christianity makes it a continuation of Tanakh/Torah Theology through Gospels/New Testament texts
This is something which eventually questioned by Christian Gnostic groups of early Christianities to literally Greco-Roman, Near Eastern, Egyptian, (and even in Manichaeism and Mandaeism case of Vedic and Zoroastrian pantheons) to downright Hebrew deity names to be reduced into Demiurge(s), Archons and Archdemons and other world-crafting devils of early Christian Gnostic Cosmologies (see Perates, Justin's Book of Baruch, Ebionites, Ophites, Elchaisaites and Naassenes)
so all possibilities are possible or what do you mean?
Will you please do one on Kriya Yoga?
well the some how the prove of yousuf pbuh
I emerged from his nostrils
Not polytheism, many different gods... plulartheism, many different ways to think about god.
Christianity/Judaism being considered a monotheistic religion is a new thought. What I mean is, if you look at who wrote Genesis, and the founder of the Jewish/Christian religions we know today, Moses. Moses and the Canaanite jews at the time worshipped many Gods. It wasn't until Moses went to the mountains and received "word from A god" and brought it to the other Jews for them to worship.
"God" was choosen at that point to be worshipped among other Gods. Even furthmore, when Moses came down with the commandments after "that god" led them into the promised land, Moses was griefed to find them worshipping a golden calf once again.
So, TODAY, we may all believe Christianity and Judaism to be monotheistic, but dilligently at its founding, it was nothing close.
Judaism/Christianity/Islam are henotheistic, not monotheistic. We've just created the illusion in our head in the last 2,000 years that it is a monotheistic God while at the same time dismissing the truth of the past.
"You shall not have any Gods before me"
Even God admitted in one of His commandments that there was another God to be haved.
Polytheism is the adhereance to multiple Gods equally.
Henotheism is the adhereance of ONE God among many.
The bible also says You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my servants whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he, before me there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me (Isaiah 43:10). All other Gods are idols made by mans imagination.
@@MrShnazer Noted, but what's strange to me about that verse is "no god before me" and "no god after me", to imply there is a start and end date to "God"....
Is there a "before god"? Likewise, is there an "after god"? Those words don't make sense together if God is all encompassing, everlasting and enduring...How can there be a before and after?
Furthermore, is god constrained by time? I hope god doesn't mix his words up...
I appreciate the response and we can have a debate without being at eachothers throats :)
8:58 Tefnut is Goddess of moisten not fire
Some have falsely claimed that the ancient Kemites (Egyptians) were polytheistic literalists, but in his book, “Ancient Egyptian Roots of Christianity,” Egyptian-American Egyptologist, Moustafa Gadalla, writes, “The ancient Egyptians believed in one God who was self-produced, self-existent, immortal, invisible, eternal, omniscient, almighty, etcetera. This one God was represented through the functions and attributes of his [or her] domain. These attributes were called the Neteru . . . In other words, the all, or the Neteru, are the One” (Gadalla, 2019). Furthermore, Gadalla states, “The ancient Egyptians used pictorial symbols to represent divine attributes and actions” (Gadalla, 2019). Lastly, he says, “The figures of Isis, Osiris, Horus, Nut, etcetera, became the symbols of such attributes, functions, forces and energies, and were never intended to be looked upon as real personages” (Gadalla, 2019). In summary, the Neteru represent symbolic personifications of the attributes, characteristics, or sub-personalities of the One Supreme Creator.
Reference:
Gadalla, M. (2019). Ancient Egyptians roots of Christianity. (S. Hennessy, Narr). [Audiobook]. www.audible.com/pd?asin=B07N8J1PJM&source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp.
Neteru/netjerw literally means gods in plural. Netjer was the word for god (with a glyph of a sacred banner) -u/w is the plural suffix (three lines, or just repeated the glyph three times)
Paganism is such a beautiful and diverse religion, pagans don't have any issue with respecting Gods of other cultures and look at them like mirror images of their own Gods...beautiful...
Paganism isn't a religion of it's own it's just a term for all non monotheistic religions
@Ab99 your comments are so absolutely horrible and uneducated that I can't even begin to debunk them because that would mean I take them seriously
That feels like a pretty selective reading of the history of polytheism. Even in Egypt itself there were instances of hostility towards other gods or religious systems.
Indian Hindus Pagans are peaceful as long as one does not eat cow meat.... If a person is allegedly found with cow meat, he's beaten to death by "peaceful", " Tolerant " pagan Hindus...
Just search "Cow-Vigilantism" Or "Mob-lynchig in India"...
@@LetsTalkReligion when?I know Egypt during the New Kingdom adopted Ba'al Hadad and a Canaanite Goddess and even Reshep/Rashep
Thank you for your research. My curiosity lead me to “ Moses and Monotheism” by Sigmund Frued a year ago. I plan to reference Jan Assmann next.
Good one!...probably your best to date. Thank you.
"he was one, and became three" holy trinity?