Religious belief and its societal implications

¶ … World Religions between 1000 BCE and 1200 CE

With the creation of sedentary societies after the prehistoric period, human society had also cultivated specific economic, political and cultural structures that define specific characteristics of a human society. Economic structures include the creation of an agricultural economy, where plant cultivation and animal farming created a living for people. With an agricultural economy, political organization was also created, wherein class divisions emerge from division of labor and ownership of means of production. Culturally, human societies have created rituals, traditions, and beliefs which they developed and passed on throughout history to continue the heritage that are distinctly theirs. Religious philosophy is one such example of a product of culture: as a human experience, religion serves as humanity's 'connection' with their reality and an acknowledgment of the metaphysical.

Looking at the history of religion between the 1000 BCE (before the Christian era) and 1200 CE (during the Christian era), there occurred two phases of religious development: the emergence of Eastern world religions before the Christian era, and the development of Christianity and Islam as major world religions during the Christian era. These two phases in the history of religion illustrates how social movements in history have occurred, as well as the kind of nations and societies that developed as a result of the cultural influences of their respective religions. This paper argues that the emergence of early world religions in the East have influenced the preservation of traditional societies among the nations and the region, while the development and predominance of Christianity in the West led to societies' development to being industrialized and modernized.

From the period 1000 BCE up to the beginnings of the Christian era, religions of the world mainly developed in the East. India, Japan, China, and societies in the Middle Eastern region became the "cradle" for religions like Hinduism Buddhism, Shintoism, Jainism, Judaism and Islam to develop, among others. Western societies, meanwhile, have also developed its own religions, but what dominated society prior to the Christian era is the creation of religious cults or alternative philosophical beliefs in European societies, such as Epicureanism and Skepticism, which all became dominant beliefs in the West from 340-200 BCE.

The early history of these religions demonstrates the contrasting nature of the Eastern and Western religious thought. While the Eastern religions emphasize the importance of collectivity and harmony among people, Western religious thought promotes the expression of individualism. Take as an example the philosophy behind the religions Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism, which originated from this period in India, subsists to the belief that harmony should be achieved between humanity and nature and human beings with other human beings. Similarly, a collectivist approach towards achieving spiritual meaning in life is adopted by Buddhists, who believe that a life of compassionate giving is better than satisfying the worldly needs of the self. Philosophical thinking in the West, on the other hand, mostly deals with the pursuit of self-satisfaction and happiness. Epicureanism teaches individuals to achieve happiness by eliminating the fears and limits that people put into their lives; skepticism, meanwhile, posits that knowledge and truth cannot be truly achieved in the 'material world' that we live in -- it is only in achieving a higher state of understanding that an individual can truly achieve satisfaction, truth and knowledge in life.

During the Christian era, Christianity dominated nations in the West, while at the same time, Islam is gradually spreading its influence in Asia and the Middle East during the same period. What makes this period different from first phase of religious development is that there occurred social change among societies as Christianity dominated the lives of Western societies.