• Maeve@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      Afawk, every known religion in the world is some variation of the ancient Sumerian religion. Yhwh* was a storm god and supposedly the Elohim were more peaceful, hence the Jekyll -Hyde personality of the OT god, trying to reconcile the two into one, although it’s been suggested “Elohim” are plural.

      *I didn’t think there was a more horrible autocorrect than iOS until I returned to Android.

      • Contramuffin@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I think you’re referring to Abrahamic religions. The mythology of, say, Japan is distinctly their own. But yes, to my understanding, Islam is derived from Christianity, and Christianity is derived from Judaism, and Judaism is derived from Yahwism.

        Yahweh was a warrior-storm god, which is why apparently a lot of his curses are carried out via storms or floods. And also why he was very warlike. Then Yahweh eventually got merged with El over time, who was the kind, wise father god of the pantheon. Apparently you can still figure out which parts of the Bible came from which god by looking at if the Biblical god was referred to as Yahweh or Elohim. Apparently there was another storm god from a nearby mythology named Baal, and instead of merging into 1 god, they ended up becoming rival ideologies, which is why the devil ended up being named after Baal (Beelzebub).

        Anyways, Yahwism is kinda wild. Yahweh had a goddess wife at some point and then people just kinda forgot about her

        • Maeve@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          Nevermind, I see what happened, with another reply to my comment. Thanks again for your kindness! D’oh

        • Maeve@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          Hey, thanks so much for a detailed reply. YT isn’t always or even often the best source, but I did watch a lot of YouTube videos on the subject because I tend to get fixated on weird things. It wasn’t esoterica channel that gave* me the information about every known religion being some variation of the ancient Sumerian religion. I’m sorry I can’t remember which channels, but they did seem to be somewhat credible.

          I do see where I failed at punctuation, paragraphs, and clarity in referencing yhwh and Elohim. Even a simple “for example” prefacing the reference would have been more clear! I really need to pay more attention to these things, and order my thoughts more, before writing.

          Thank you again for your kind reply.

          *Edited, because autocorrect seems very much to be devolving, on the two major handheld devices available in the USA, or intent on vexing me.

      • Midnight@slrpnk.net
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        9 months ago

        There are plenty of known religions that share no significant similarity with Sumerian beliefs, ie basically every First Nation/Native American religious system. People have been in the Americas longer than Sumer existed.

        And thats just stuff I’m even vaugely familiar with. I’d wager 0% of Subsaharan African religions, aborigional, and probably most Asian religious beliefs don’t have any Sumerian influence.

        • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Yeah, Sumerian religions have had a massive impact on world religions given Sumeria’s location in Mesopotamia and being the home to the first permanent settlements in the Eurasian continent. But as you say there are places they didn’t reach.

          Though it’s particularly interesting what spreads and how. Enki was one of the most important gods to Mesopotamia, and that makes sense, but he didn’t spread nearly as far as aspects of Inanna who was regularly reimagined as she found her way to new cultures such as as Cybele in Rome.

        • Maeve@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          This is all I need: another fixation right before I’m about to be incredibly busy for some months. Paleo American you say? They had developed, organized religion, you say? Thanks!