If by some miracle, the source of which I cannot at present imagine, the human race survives for the next two thousand years, how do you think it will differ from today?
Well, try going back two thousand years. Naturally, the technology we mostly enjoy these days wasn’t around, but things weren’t so very different by all accounts.
You had a world power, Rome. Many hated it, but not all by a long way and they gave us straight(ish) roads, central heating, decent commercial systems and much, much more. They were, of course, a mighty military power and you had a hard job to stand up to them, but then what’s new, eh – before or since?
The Romans were pagans, worshipping many gods (so religious tolerance wasn’t a problem for most, if they didn’t threaten the state). Men were powerful and often ruled absolutely, unless they were women and ruled absolutely (Christianity and Islam have probably set women’s rights back close on two thousand years between them).
Now, though, we are more enlightened with our Christian and Catholic religions. Hang on though, Catholicism is actually practiced by the Roman Catholic religion, isn’t it? So what about religion in Rome two thousand years ago? Well, try reading Pagan Origins of the Christ Myth by John G. Jackson (Originally published in 1941), if you want the full lowdown, but here’s an extract…
Suppose you had been a child living in Rome 1940 (over 2000 today) years ago; that is, a few years before Jesus is supposed to have been born. About a week before December twenty-fifth, you could have found everybody preparing for a great feast, just as they do in Europe today. To those Romans December twenty-fifth was the birthday of the sun. They wrote that in gold letters in their calendar. Every year about that time, the middle of winter, the sun was born once more and it was going to put an end to the darkness and misery of winter. So they had a great feast, with presents and dolls for everybody, and the best day of all was December twenty-fifth. That feast, they would tell you, was thousands of years old-before Christ was ever heard of.
Just outside Rome there was an underground temple of the Persian God Mithra. Well, at midnight, the first minute of December twenty-fifth, you would have seen that temple all lit up with candles, and priests in white garments at the altar, and boys burning incense; exactly as you will see in a Roman Catholic church at midnight on December twenty-fourth in our own time. And the worshippers of Mithra would have told you that Mithra was a good God who had come from heaven to be born as a man and redeem men from their sins; and he was born in a dark cave or stable on December twenty-fifth.
Then suppose you asked somebody where the Egyptians who lived in Rome had their temple. You would have found these also celebrating the birth of their saviour-god Horus who was born of a virgin in a stable on December twenty-fifth. In the temple you would find a statue of figure of the infant-god Horus lying in a manger, and a statue of his virgin-mother Isis standing beside it; just as in a Roman Catholic church on Christmas day you will find a stable or cave rigged up and the infant Jesus in a manger and a figure of Mary beside it.
Then you might go to the Greek temple, and find them paying respect to the figure of their saviour-god in a manger or cradle. And if you found the quarters of the gladiators, the war-captives from Germany, you would have found these also holding a feast, and they would explain that December twenty-fifth (or mid-winter) was, all over Europe, the great feast of Yule, or the Wheel, which means that the sun had turned back, like a wheel, and was going once more to redeem men from the hell of winter to the heaven of summer.
Things were pretty different then, though. For instance, leaders in Rome had affairs (Cleopatra), were assassinated (Julius Caesar) and jockeyed for position and power. I guess that’s unlike today, or is it? Er … JFK, his brother, George W (who fought tooth and nail to twist the law into making him run out winner) and many others. Of course, there were the really bad types, like Caligula and Nixon – oh, no, Nixon is a bit more recent, isn’t he. Then there were the gladiators – but have you ever been to a football match in Europe, or a boxing match in the USA?
Actually, apart from the very recent progresses made in technology, I don’t think anything much has changed at all in the last two or three thousand years – probably longer. Humans are humans and we’ll probably end up destroying ourselves one day – unless this miracle I can’t foresee happens and we finally get the message that it’s us, not some god, who’s screwing things up for us all!
Tags: american politics, Charter for Government, climate change, constitution, economic crisis, Feminism, global economy, government failure, Personal, personal relationships, Relationships, sexual relationships, society, western culture, women, womens rights
05/01/2009 at 21:32
This was a great post. I went to Pompeii and loved it but I also realised that we actually havent come very far at all.
I always avoided Ancient History at school possibly given I have a mother who is an historian and writes books. However, I could have stayed in Pompeii for months I think. I was fascinated. The art, the buildings, the planning, the roads, the baths, I could have moved in I think.
As for womens rights, well having seen what I did in Pompeii I dont think there was a great deal of equality. Their population was also made up of more slaves than anything and prostitution was rife (using poor women from other countries, sounds fmailiar doesnt it?). The Romans were defineitly amazing. My sister lives in St Albans and of course it has a lot of Roman history too. Its all fascinating but we never learn from the past do we, we just take a decaying interest in it which is such a shame.
As for churches, religions, gods I am on the interfaith bandwagon because when it all boils down the underlying principles of each faith are the same (with a couple of exceptions). Its jsut that man seems to like to be superior in everything. There always has to be a winner….
05/01/2009 at 23:32
@Lilly: Oh yes, I do agree. I come from very near St. Albans and the stuff there is fascinating. The thing that amazes me is that it ALL seems so familiar: be it religion (almost any religion), the economy, wars, individual fears, trials and tribulations, power hungry people, women’s rights (or lack of them), prostitution, art… the similarities are almost endless.