Why are ancient religions gone?

Why are ancient religions gone? I ask this as a rehtorical question to see what u'll all say about it, but do any of you pay attention to that kinda stuff? just asking, so don't nobody freak out on me ( i'm primarily talking to athiest there, because u guys tend to do that on religious topics, so take a chill pill^__^).

 

'Cause Christians forced most people to believe in Christianity so that's why.

 

Another reason is that empires collapse and civilizations disappear, and their religion goes with them. Though there's still people that believe in some older teachings. I want to be Shinto one day, though I don't really know how that'll work out with my heritage. ._.

 

I think you can pretend to worship one religon, but worship another one for real. Thus bringing back ancient religons. And what DPwolf said.

 

Or people just don't believe them anymore.

 

@ bolded: lol wtf?

Anyway, not all ancient religions are gone. Judaism is still around. That's been around since before the common era. =) We create new religions, and thus we can shed the old ones that are no longer able to explain things as in depth.

And I think ancient religions ended because they become obsolete over time. We are constantly seeking truth, and different theisms are started to try and explain these things profoundly. And also, because our technology, via telescopes, satellites, and the like, has shown us the Earth and the universe from a broader perspective. We no longer need to just "look up at the sky" and make up a hypothesis about how everything started. In a way, theism and ancient religion (and religion in general) has become obsolete.

 

People find logical, more practical answers in experimentation and science. So, they shift away from the illogical answers that religion gives to them, and find more acceptable ones in science.

=| Also, you do know that ancient religions were tyrannical, and would execute you if you didn't believe in them, right?

 

Name a large organization, belief system or group that really follows its doctrine or creed wholly and doesn't discriminate outsiders in some way, shape or form. (The very existence of Hell or damnation is a good example of this, even if you are still a good person you are promised an equal fate to the "truly evil" just because you didn't follow the same divine being.) So to say that ancient religions were tyrannical and execute you if you didn't believe them, although true in some cases would be a far cry from saying it as the whole truth of all ancient religions. Technically Buddhism is an ancient religion and they never killed anyone, nor was it tyrannical.

In other news, Religion in general is a beautiful and complex device often used in ancient times to unify, stupefy and keep the general populous controlled as well as have a healthy economy due to an availability of being able to exchange money for keeping the local faith healthy! (Polytheistic faiths would have sacrifices, charms and other such things, Monotheistic would be donations, text purchases, "investments" and other such purchases!)

People also change religions due to Paradigm shifts in culture and social changes. If you haven't noticed the current trend is simplicity in terms of religious faiths. I also wonder what the next trend of religions will be when our current "top Five" are replaced with new doctrines if they come about in our lifetime.

 

im guessing no boday believes in them anymore... because people want to go there own way now

 

Because back in olden times, freedom of worship was not a common concept. The Roman Empire converted most of Europe/Asia Minor to Christianity at fear of death.

 

Not gonna lie; I haven't got much to offer on this subject.
What I will say is that they obviously didn't work for whatever reason. So, there must've been large flaws in them overall. Also, as times change, certain ways of thinking fall in & out of style so I imagine this would be another reason for it.
Interesting thread...interesting replies thus far.

 

I think another reason is probably that over time, religions got sort of "mixed" together over time. The religion that had more people following it overtakes the other religion and it sort of fades away.

 

The reason for many religions being gone is Christianity, though other religions such as Islam and Judaism and Egyptian mythos also absorbed many groups or squashed them out. This is always a controversial topic since many people either aren't informed and believe less happened or some people believe it is far worse than what I post here so if I offend anyone, I apologize ahead of time. It is what I've learned over the years being a history buff and I'm really shortening a lot of it but trying to give the main ideas on what transpired through records.

Egyptian religion early on was highly adaptable and blended with other groups that were local in areas as the Egyptian Empire took many territories. Many Polytheistic faiths would as seizing territory take in the local deities of the regions as well to worship and use the new names as well as former ones of deities that had the same functions so some deities just blended or merged in. Those with different functions were also taken for the whole groups. Hinduism, Egyptian, Roman and Greek mythos did this often. Also, some areas in the Mesopotamian regions collapsed and rose on their own or through wars and catastrophes which wiped out local beliefs. Jewish followers of the times also wrote the Bible and collected, finishing it in Babylon and took some ideals from the areas such as Ziggurats, making events different from the local religious beliefs. Then comes Christianity, which either absorbed religious ideals and traditional holidays etc or deleted them, killing off those who were extreme in other beliefs to quell others and take over as the religion and land requirements grew. Egyptian, Celtic, Norse, Germanic, Roman etc Mythos all went the way of the dodo pretty much because of Christianity, inspired by the Romans that had converted. Islam is another radical religion that duked it out with Christianity and these other groups too. However, the Muslims of course fared much better and are the second most powerful religion today.

Wars and expansions happened all through the Dark Ages and prior. When Rome converted to Christianity, the old habit of expansion was still in progress. The only difference between the Roman Empire's expansion is that they did not particularly care as much what religions or traditions people had. As a matter-a-fact, a lot of these religious ideas even ended up in Rome and colored up their own beliefs or non-beliefs, for they had non-religious too and philosophers. Christianity changed a lot of those ideals. So with the Roman way of life and territory claiming coupled with the Christian opinion that there is only -one- true religion, other religious groups suffered that were already under Roman rule and then after that nations began doing their own spreading of the religion after it was embedded into them when the Roman Empire had fallen.

Then you have eras like the Crusades and Inquisition periods and laws made in places pertaining to 'disbelievers'. The religion traveled through Russia, north also into England, Norway, Sweden, etc and again there was resistance. However, since some of these groups were more strong at resisting and the weather conditions made hard for war but for some of these groups and other reasons, people tried new techniques. It went back to the 'Romanizing' ways of thought with Monks and others who traveled north and did not consider 'war' a viable option since they were more peaceful. There was war so don't get me wrong there, but often monks would go to these areas and convert some groups more peacefully. They absorbed holidays to work along with Christian days because people were very adamant on not giving these up. The north was cold in winters and needed something to do than be grim. So Easter and Winter Solstice/Yule ended up being accepted in Christianity but with Christian overtones instead of the northern Celtic and Norse beliefs amongst some others and days were shifted around to be compliant. This is why we have additional holiday festivities that originally were not Christian such as the Yule Tree, Yule log, mistle toe, easter eggs, giant festive meals, etc.

Also Christian monks did write down some tales such as Beowulf which were told by mouth for generations, albeit adding Christian undertones again to them so they would endure and not be destroyed by the Church. Some monks really took chances doing this because they were more benevolent than the churches they associated with and took up causes of some of the less violent Saints. The Christian movement by the monks was not so hard to accept as the message the people would bring was one of peace and hope for people some of the time by monks after military had seized areas. Adaptation was a big thing that was kind of forced on people and at the same time incorporated days and local events of each area so they could still have some of their cultures.

So, all in all it comes down to the basics that land was taken and seized by powerful people who had beliefs in Christianity often back when it was a very violent religion. Islam had its influence too and some places that did not want to convert to Christianity went that way instead and rebelled against it. This sometimes also caused wars and skirmishes because the Muslims were also violent. Influence of the 'West' was a big thing to the countries to the east as well. When the church split to Protestant and Catholic ideals, many Protestants came to the Americas and the same process transpired there with the Native Americans as the Europeans sought to expand land and spread the word of their beliefs. So land and then settlement to regions with people of solid beliefs motivated change.

Again, I apologize if I offended anyone because I realize it's a touchy subject.

 

i'm not entirely sure and i dont' claim to be an expert or anything on religion (heck, i couldn't care less about it) but i would guess that they just died out becuz they either found their beliefs to be disproven or false. or no one really accepted it and it just died form lack of interest.

 

Or hostile takeovers. As people have said, Christianity has its hands stained with blood of a LOT of people.
Another example is the Spanish invastion of the Aztecs. No more sacrificing people after they took over. D=

 

Dun know if this was already said, too lazy to read Repliku's post.

The victors write the history books. Plain and simple. When Christianity began to come about in force, (mostly because of their belief in one true God) it began to "rub against" the other religious communities. Some of those communities believed that there were many gods, or none at all. It infuriated the Christians. Back then, they didn't have a television, or a computer to distract them from what was going on around them. It was hard work, and good faith that kept them going. So everyone was very devout to whatever personal beliefs they had.

Now, if someone who didn't believe in "God" walked up to these dudes and said "Pfft. One God? I piss on your God!" (I'm a free thinking Christian. This is all theoretically said, I don't feel like starting a flame war on my first day here. . .), then I could understand why they suddenly became filled with religous fervor, and then ran about converting nearby people, eventually threatening those remaining, and then finally attacking them.

Christianity in general easily has one of the most bloody histories. It was their way, or you get burned at the stake/decapitated/stoned/if-your-lucky-you-get-exiled. . . You get it. Several someones wrote down stuff, but most of the people who could read and write back then were clergy! So, let's say they sugared the events a bit, emphasizing and exaggerating on "the fact" that they were all heathens, with demonic gods and primitive customs. I guess burning people alive isn't primitive.

Others outside the range of this spreading violence heard news of it, and either ran, or converted on the spot when those missionaries showed up. I'm in no way saying that there were no genuine conversions, but compared to the amount of people who were forced... And, its rather ironic. "Back then", Islam was coming about as well, and compared to what the radicals are doing today, they were saints. Very few kings who followed Islam forced their people to convert (the people they conquered). Now, within their own kingdom, they were to either convert, or get exiled for the most part. Islam was very appealing to the lower classes (as was Christianity), promising a better life after you die, and the lower class in all societies had the biggest population. ****, another thunderstorm in Florida... I;ve gotta get off. I like this topic, I'll edit this later with more stuff.

 

I'm still forced to follow christianity the old school.

 

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skimmed over both quotes a bit, but your both right. History is written by the victors, and thats the problem with our historical records. Thats why peole need to look outside there little box of info, and find the truth. But, i'd have to say, bravo to both of you.

 

This has probaly already stated by now, but...
Most of those people have converted to Christainity (forgive my spelling. It's 7 am here, so I'm sleepy) due to peer pressure. Almost EVERYBODY I know is Roman Catholic now.

 

Because the civilizations that practiced them are almost entirely destroyed, or radically reformed.