Throughout history, Religions have played a big role in daily life and have impact the way we do things. Religions have been into existence since the early humans, and are still active today. Religion is the way of life and how people worshipped their gods or goddesses. Every religions have a certain belief and faith that set them apart from the others Religions, people have passed on their religions from generation to generation because it is a written principal that were documented for them to followed, and practice with their children.
There are thousands f religions in the world presently that belief in different principal and cultural values but have similar creation stories. In my paper, I will be comparing three religions which are, The Stone Age fertility, The Vikings and the India, and focus on how Violence and sacrifices impact the lives of the people. The three religions depend on their goddesses for food and nurturing.
They have creation stories that are similar to each other’s, the people were hunters and gatherers who depended on their goddesses for protection and making of food for their family and their communities. The Stone Age is considered the fundamental of the agriculture revolution, and hunter-gathering because people developed tools to help themselves in the process of growing food, protecting themselves and hunter gathering. The Stone Age fertility is compared to the Vikings and Indian empires because violence and sacrifice also played a role in the Stone Age Fertility.
It was a time when people worshipped woman deities and goddesses because human life emerged from a women deities and throughout creation stories “female and male deities were worshiped in these societies, the highest ower in the universe was seen as the feminine power to give and sustain life “(Eisler, Pg4). Eisler meant that the feminist powers were shared between a female and a male deities to enhance life, but the power is obtained in a feminist form. In most of the creation stories we covered in class, emphasize on how a goddesses used a male snakes in the process of giving birth and regenerating to the earth.
In the Vikings and the Indian religions also have creation stories that talked about how goddesses were the head of the deities because they were known as the giver, and nurturer of life and could take it back. Furthermore, Women goddesses were also called the fertility during the Stone Age because “the mother from whose womb all life ensues and to whom all life returns at death, like the vegetation, to be again reborn” (Eisler Pg5). This showed even when goddesses were violated, and killed because of jealousy, they became reborn and provided fruit and vegetable for the earth they form.
Goddesses were known as the giver and nurturer of all form of life on earth. Also in a male deities creation stories, a male deities also enter in their feminist characters to formed the sky and earth and give life to it by asturbating or vomiting. The majority of the male deities creation stories talks about how a male deities came out of his own will to gave birth to the universe and form life for them to give sacrifice and worships in return of blessing.
Creation stories also talked about how violence was showed when goddesses were killed by men because of jealousy. . They were all extremely jealous that Hainuwele could distribute such wealth and decided to kill her” (Sproul Pg. 328). The people envy Hainuwele because of her power to distribute food and wealth for her community. The Vikings Empire is considered one of the aggressive group of people that uses their warrior’s power to conquer, and invade other empires. They were known for destruction, murder and raped women using their violence activities.
The Vikings were outlawed and “bad to the born” (David, Pg. 296) because they were killing and destructing anything they could possibly see or touched. The Vikings “. Believed that a warrior’s death ensured passage to a fighter’s’ paradise called Valhalla” (Davis, Pg. 297). The Vikings invaded half of Europe because they were the most feared and used the eas as their route, and they were warriors that could show up quickly and were impossible to track because they did not always settle into the places that they found.
The Vikings were also nicknamed Norsemen “who terrorized, raped, and pillaged their way across Europe. ” (Davis, Pg. 296). The Vikings were also religious because they believed in many warriors gods, one of the main gods the Vikings worshipped was Odin who was known as the blood god. Though the Vikings were aggressive and a violence group of people, they are compared to the Stone Age fertility and the Indians because “… here they put own roots as farmers and fishermen until overpopulation and harsh northern environment led them to turn their considerable skills as oceangoing sailors to piracy and raiding” ( Davis, Pg. 297). The Vikings were also hunters and gatherers like the Stone Age , and Indians because they depended on their fertility goddesses for food and were gatherer too, but the reason while they became raiders was because they ran out of resources, so they decided invading other empire was the best way to access more resources.
Furthermore, The Vikings creation stories are compared to the Stone age and Indians ecause it talked about how male deities came into existence, and formed into their feminist characters to formed the earth and gave life to it, “In time, Ymir gives birth to three beings, born from the sweat of his armpits and from one of his legs. ” This showed how the three religions are similar to each other because feminist power is the provider in this creation stories.
The Vikings also had a fertility male deity called Freyr (Frey) “who ensures the success of a harvest” (Davis, Pg. 301). Violence is also shown in this religions when it talked about how “Bor’s three sons killed Ymir. So much blood flowed from his wounds that all the frost-giants were drowned” (Sturluson, Pg. 1) because he was jealous and wanted to killed the other gods. The name India came from an Indus valley. The Indians religion is developed from many creation stories, and are similar to the Stone Age and the Vikings Empire.
The Indian religions is consist of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, and is worshipped and practiced differently by many Indians. The Indians depends on their goddesses and gods for blessing and being the provider of food, and wealth. Hinduism is the largest religion in India ecause is known as a one god religion that transformed in an avatar’s form to serve many purposes… The word “Vedas” mean knowledge, and the India believed in an afterlife called the castle system that states “.. iving a good life means the soul will be born into a higher state in its next incarnation, an evil life did not means eternal damnation but a rebirth of the soul into a lower state, possibly even as an animal” (Davis, Pg. 327). This is a kind of system that mean if you do the right thing your soul will probably be reborn in a better class than the past until you nter in the heavenly kingdom where the head god Brahman Lives.
Yoga as also played a role In the India religions, because yoga was used doing the India time of worshipped to connect their body and mind with their soul during meditation. In some of the India creation stories the “primal man” was cut into pieces and offered as sacrifices to form the universe. “… From his head the sky evolved, from his feet the earth, and from his ear the cardinal points of the compass” (Sproul, Pg. 181). This shown how a feminist power is also present in a male deities stories to form the universe.