What happens when we die?
Religion timelines
The first evidence of religion is found in burial rituals of the deceased. The ancient Egyptian religion worshiped over 2000 different gods of the underworld, the most widely know being Isis, Osiris, Horus, Amun, Ra, Hathor, Thoth, Anubis and Ptah. Depictions of gods and afterlife on walls of Egyptian tombs may have been older than 3000 BCE, when it was believed this ancient religion was established. Mummification was a common burial ritual as it was believed to preserve the dead so that they could be reborn in the afterlife. The religion declined after Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BC as Christianity took over. Today Islam is regarded the state religion of Egypt.
A group of people in the Indian Indus Valley lived according to a strict hierarchical social structure called Brahmanism around 1700 BCE, with priests, scholars and teachers at the top. Overtime this evolved into Hinduism with belief in multiple Gods, Karma and reincarnation. Some believe Hinduism started thousands of years earlier and was verbally passed down over many generations, which eventually was transcribed into many Hindu scriptures. To learn more see our pages on Hinduism and Buddhism.
What happens when we die?
In ancient Greek religion and mythology there were twelve Gods, Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes and Hestia. Although they were believed to be immortal they behaved and looked like humans. Greek mythology originated from centuries of oral tradition from Crete around 1200 BCE, but it faded with the rise of Christianity. There are no single scriptures like the Bible or Torah, but there are some worship writings to the Greek gods that still exist today.
Christianity, Islam, and Judaism believe God created everything around 4000 BCE, despite the fact fossils are dated millions of years old by modern dating methods. Some argue that God's original creation process would modify the physics and chemistry of all of our current dating methods, such as carbon dating, while others criticise the dating systems for ignoring the world flood of Noah. There is no doubt that dinosaurs did exist, and in fact many believe they are described as “beasts of the earth” in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. To learn more see our pages on Christianity. For additional religions see our pages on Folk religion and Other religions.
What happens when we die?
Does it actually matter if we cannot explain every mystery, as there are many things we take for granted today we do not fully understand. For instance, not everyone understands how aeroplanes operate, yet they choose to travel on planes. What matters is that we know where we are going and the path we have selected to get us to our chosen destination.
Does it actually matter if we cannot explain every mystery, as there are many things we take for granted today we do not fully understand. For instance, not everyone understands how aeroplanes operate, yet they choose to travel on planes. What matters is that we know where we are going and the path we have selected to get us to our chosen destination.
