Religion Through The Ages Has

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and how it either unites or divides people. For the first time, moreso than Rome's conversion to Christianity, a religious division was taking place within a relatively homogeneous society. Religion perhaps is predominately viewed by most contemporaries as problematic given the current divisions among many Catholics and Protestants in Ireland and the continuing conflict between Muslims and Hebrews in the Middle East. The Crusades serve as an example of how two religiously unified societies become fierce competitors in the conquest for world domination, in this sense, religion is divisive. The dynamics in determining whether religion unites or divides people are extremely complex especially when discussing civilizations from the Egyptians to the English dynasties. However, three distinctions can be outlined in this discussion. Firstly, religion serves as a catalyst further unifying homogeneous civilizations such as the Greek, Kushite and Egyptian societies, secondly, religion ...

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The Kushites had a central belief system that revolved around the ka or "soul" as Miriam Ma'at Ka Re Monges explains in her book entitled Kush: The Jewel of Nubia. The ka was "used as a term for the creative and sustaining power of life" which every human being shared by entering the world. Another important factor in explaining how religion within homogeneous societies serves as a bonding force is the Kushite custom of regicide. In Meroe as well as other Kushite kingdoms, the killing of the king was an accepted custom. The religious belief is that the King's physical well being was directly tied to the gods and to the fertility of the lands. Monges, in her book, further ...

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