Creation
The Genome project tells us, that about 100 thousand years ago there was a group of about 10 thousand humans that lived in Africa. In Sudan near the headwaters of the Nile river, just South of where Egypt is today. They can tell from genetic markers that they migrated east from there and became the people of the world we have today.
The biblical creation story that we know is most likely an Egyptian invention that was given to Israelites. God is of course the creator of the story, an Egyptian Pharaoh God , Amen.
So in this little story of mine... Adam and Eve lived in this perfect land we will call Eden. It was never too cold, good water, and it had plenty of food just waiting to be plucked from the trees. No need for clothes, no need for work, it was a good time.
They grew and multiplied. Over time many would leave Eden and go east. These people that left suffered the consequences of leaving Eden. They had to wear clothes to protect themselves from the cold. They made tools to work the land and have dominion over the beasts. Life was a bit more difficult for them, but they prospered as well.
They worked in communities, they had language, and could talk to each other. They stood upright on two legs. They could out run all the other beasts and could travel to far off places.
They were the cleverest of all the creatures on earth. Some would bully, some were meek, and others were curious and would examine things. Those that looked at the stars would learn when to expect the seasons and could predict when the times of hunger and cold would come.
They would study the motion of the heavens. The wise men would keep their knowledge secret and pass it on from generation to generation. They discovered that knowing when the seasons would come to plant would feed the people. They could with their knowledge calm the fear of starvation. They would gain the trust of the people. These early mathematicians and astronomers were the only ones that understood what the stars would say. With these secrets they would create our first religions and govern our early societies.
Your knowledge and associations would make the difference between slave and master. The aristocratic ruling class would become God-like to all the others.
In the first 100 thousand years of human life, we had learned how to read the stars, the seasons and plant our crops. We had also learned that we could create a "reality" for the people we fed. You see even though we know we come from something in the past we can only remember the past we personally live. When each of us is born we start afresh… we have no idea who we are or where we came from. You can tell us any past or reality you wish and we will believe that reality.
Our rulers found that if they kept the truth of history secret, they could then create almost any reality and pass that on as truth... even a lie would become truth and then defended. Imagine that your parents never told you Santa Claus was not true, and made certain you were always fooled. Just like children we want to keep believing.
Well... those that knew this trick would be the most powerful of all... they would hold the truth of the past secret and would keep it to themselves. They would create an illusion of reality for the others, a reality tailored to make them willing servants and slaves. Entire civilizations could be put in their hands. They would keep their civilizations in an illusion. Like Plato explains in his allegory of the cave, we would become so trusted in our illusion that we would kill any one that would bring us the truth.
The ruling class would forever be very cautious as to whom they would tell the truth to. Whom they would teach truth and knowledge would be kept very close.
The people from the land of Eden were the Egyptians and their river the Nile. Further east of Eden they would the Sumerians, and Babylonians of the Tigris and Euphrates.
A calendar of the cosmos that made Gods from the celestial bodies was the central hallmark of all early civilizations. A calendar that had some 26,000 years that repeated on the anniversary of the first observations. Divided into 12 parts of a zodiac each to be 2166 years. 26,000 years that marked the complete precession of the stars. The wobble or precession of the earth only they knew. The God/Stars they believed controlled the universe and themselves.
The Chinese, the Indians of India and the Indians of America. No mater where these wise men would go they would take their knowledge given to them by the ancients. They would govern their peoples as slaves and their people would love them as Gods. They would prosper from the ignorance of others. They knew they only had this power because of the ignorance they could enforce. They must enforce ignorance, or they would loose all power... the truth would be their enemy.
The most powerful early civilization was from the river where all humans had come, the Nile, in Egypt, they were the Egyptian Pharaohs. The High Priest-Pharaoh would be created in the image of his particular reality and given to the slaves for them to live in his reality and to worship him. Time would begin with the Pharaohs reign. Then the slaves would be told a great mythical heroic reality. The slaves would love the greatness of the Pharaoh and call him God. They would till the soil for him and they would fight battles against other rulers from far off lands.
Although these Pharaohs were Gods to the slaves they governed... they knew that they did not create themselves. The Pharaohs had their own private belief. To them order was life and chaos was what opposed life. They believed the greatest and most heroic of them were the personification of order and must surely be touched by the Gods. Given this time and place all this would make perfect sense, great men were Gods. Even today its not difficult to feel superior when you are more educated or have more money, you can tend to see yourself as a superior breed. Great civilizations arose and the leaders would have been the cause of civilization. Their domination of others would of course show to themselves they were God. The greatest of them even given birth by God. The fathers of heroes must have been Gods and not mortals. A virgin birth, the fathers of these heroes were certainly Gods that came down and mated with women. This meant that all great rulers were divine, and God had put all the other people on earth to serve them.
This will be the standard by how the world works until the time of the Greeks. We don't know why, but, in about 500 BC, throughout the world there is a radical new change in thinking. In Greece the first thinking of democracy begins. Confucius in China teaches kindness and equality to others and places family above the state. Buddha teaches moderation and asceticism.
A transition in thought is occurring yet never really takes hold. Advocates of freedom like Jesus Christ and Socrates are killed. Democracy, or freedom never really takes hold. The old moral code never changes... harm to others, defend your allies, defend the crown and its empire!