Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [22]
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.”
Some might consider this idea heretical, but if you know that prayer, stop for a moment and substitute “Zeus” or “Re” for “Our Father.” The entreaties that Christians make in this familiar prayer to their divinity are simple yet universal desires that have been part of ritualized prayers across many diverse religions for thousands of years.
“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”—make earth a paradise
“Give us this day our daily bread”—help the crops to grow
“Forgive us our trespasses (or debts)”—we all make mistakes, but have mercy on us
“Lead us not into temptation”—we are weak and do things we know are wrong
“Deliver us from evil”—keep us safe from all the bad things that are out there in the dark and dangerous world
Similar prayers of entreaty can be found in almost every religion and culture.
For instance, this is a traditional African prayer from Sudan:
Our Father it is thy universe, it is thy will.
Let us be at peace, let the souls of the people be cool.
Thou art our Father, remove all evil from our path.
Prayers are—in a most fundamental and ancient way—the essence of belief in the supernatural world. Prayers found in Egyptian tombs are more than five thousand years old. In modern America, a majority of people claim that they believe in prayer and say they pray regularly. The essential underlying question is: If myths were once created to answer fundamental questions and solve problems outside the control of mortals, when did these myths morph into religions?
Setting aside Karl Marx’s famous statement that “Religion…is the opium of the people,” religion is an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, practices, and worship that may center on one supreme God or Deity, or a number of gods or deities. The earliest recorded evidence of religious activity dates from about 60,000 BCE, and today there are thousands of religions in the world. The eight major ones are Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, and Taoism. But throughout history, mythologies and religions have shared some basic traits and characteristics:
Religious rituals are central to both mythic belief systems and religion. Every tradition has some basic practices that include acts and ceremonies by which believers appeal to and serve God or other sacred powers. The Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, is filled with elaborate instructions for the ritual sacrifice of animals, practices not very different from the animal sacrifices that were common in ancient Mesopotamia or Greece. Christians around the world participate in a ritual in which bread and wine are believed to be transformed into the body and blood of Jesus, which was shed in a rite of sacrifice, an act that also has very ancient roots.
Prayer is probably the most common ritual. When praying, a believer or someone on behalf of believers addresses words and thoughts to an object of worship. Most major religions have a daily schedule of prayer.
Many religions also have rituals intended to purify the body. For example, Hindus consider the waters of the Ganges River in India to be sacred, and every year, millions of Hindus purify their bodies by bathing in the river, especially at the holy city of Varanasi. The common practice of Christian baptism—either infant or adult—is another widely practiced ritual with deep roots in mythical practices. The mother of Achilles dipping her infant son into sacred waters is not so different from the Christian priest anointing an infant’s head with holy water to consecrate and protect the newborn, or the Hindu pilgrims who travel to the Ganges River for a dip.
Belief in a deity. “Who knows this truly, and who will now declare it, what paths lead together to the gods?” the ancient Rig-Veda of Hinduism asks. “Only their lowest aspects of existence are seen, who exist on supreme mystical planes.”
Like ancient myths, most religions believe in one or more