Question On Books

Can anyone tell me what some good books are to read up on ancient religions.... Such as Egyptian, Greek, etc. I want to go to the source of all religions and start from there. I don't like organized religion (someone telling me what I should and should not believe). I want an unbiased view of different religions to gain a better understanding of our history as a people. I don't want to read 'history text books',,,,for those are seldom ever fully truthful. Any thoughts are welcome!

Thanks!

Try Gurdjieff's "All & Everything: An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man" (aka Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson). It is classified as science fiction but has an underlying philosophy and discusses the history of mankind and their religions as perceived by an outside observer. That's my suggestion...and I'm interested in others' suggestions as well, good topic!

reply to post by kalunom


Thanks for the suggestion! However, I just looked it up on amazon.com, and it says that it is $110....sounds pretty steep. Any chance I can find it cheaper?

reply to post by PoePhotMusiArt


never mind....with some more perusing...i found it for $19.00 Thanks again!

reply to post by PoePhotMusiArt



Try the below link, it has a LOT to read and all free.


Sacred Texts

reply to post by PoePhotMusiArt


Yeah, the first editions are spendy. I would suggest getting a facsimile reproduction of the first print though (they can be found cheap)...the revised edition (1993 I think), is not so good in my opinion.

reply to post by _Highlander_


Thanks...it looks very interesting. I have it bookmarked.

Fingerprints of the Gods is a good book, not exactly about religion through the whole book, but it has a lot of interesting facts and tidbits about Egyptian mythology/religion.

the upanishads- ancient scripture from India. i wouldn't really call it hindu or anything, because they dictate more or less universal principles of living, and not necessarily rituals to live. very short in itself, but commentary tends to take the single page that the entire upanishads would fill and expands it to 1000's of pages. therefore choose wisely whose comments you are reading. good neutral commentaries are those from Osho. just search Osho Upanishads and start with Atma Pooja ( Woriship of the Self/Soul)- The Ultimate Alchemy.

another good one that isn't really so religious but offers up a sensational theory to the development of religion would be Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung. It was the first book i read by him (and last) and it completely changed my entire world view of religion, society, human behavior, and the potential power of the human mind, all in one book. i can't wait to buy more of his works, once i can collect enogh money!

another great book is the Philosophy of Economics. I know, it has nothing to do with religion. But it chronicles human behavior and the forces that drive economies and commerce, and i think these same forces are parallel to the development of religion. just change any word related to money or commerce or trade into a word relative to religion or spirituality. i forget the author, some lady, and it is a small read, but very interesting nonetheless.

Here you go! This probably has been posted before but here it is again. Free online!
Sacred Text site
Use stumble upon as well to find more great and better explained sites.

No problem

'Sophies world' may be a good start, easy to read and covers a lot of the topics.

Here is the wiki link so you can see if it meets your specs;

Sophies World

One other note, often these books can be found in PDF version for free online, it's always good to have a look before forking over the hard earned.

Thanks everyone for your recommendations! I greatly appreciate it.

I am trying to find something that explains more in depth about what the egyptians believed in. The stuff they teach in school...can't always be trusted once you mature and start to open your eyes...and in all honesty, I probably slept through most of those classes.

I have some basic knowledge of Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, etc. The main, front runners in religion, I guess.

I want to read up more on the religions of Native Americans also. We recently found out from my grandmother that her grandmother married into a Native American tribe in North Carolina, USA....and her name appears on the Baker Scrolls.....not exactly sure what that means. Anyone have any ideas?

I have found more and more websites. Hopefully you would like them.
Philosophy
Philosophy (1)
Philosophy (2)
Philosophy pages
Philosophy (3)
Squashed Philosphers
Buddhist Philosophy
Plato
Taiosim
Taioism Portal
Taioism Virtual Library
Ancient Cultures
Mesopotamia
Epic of Gilgamesh

reply to post by PoePhotMusiArt

I am trying to find something that explains more in depth about what the egyptians believed in. The stuff they teach in school...can't always be trusted once you mature and start to open your eyes...and in all honesty, I probably slept through most of those classes

I can relate to this. All I have read and heard of ancient Egypt is how they built these amazing structures as tombs and temples to the 'gods' and such. Such explanations strike me as being condescending. I see the ancient culture of Egypt as being much more connected to the world and the things outside of our world, and that they (and other ancient civilizations) had a much deeper understanding which we have lost with time.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


Ancient Egypt
The British Museum Ancient Egypt
Eternal Egypt
Discovering Ancient Egypt
Egypts Golden Empire
The Ancient Egypt Site
The 42 commands of Ancient Egypt
Greek Gods and Goddess
Greek Gods and Goddess
Native American
Indian culters from Mexico to South America
First People
Native American Code of Ethics

reply to post by kalunom


I could not agree with you more! I think that possibly, they are what started the 'movement', if you will, into religion. Whether they were of that religion in itself or apart of it, or whatever.

It's so hard to read up on stuff like this, because it happened soooo many moons ago. My thought is that it's hard to read 'stories' that someone is translating to my native language. How did they decipher what the hieroglyphics actually said? Kind of like, who decided to name the color blue---just some random person?

I just have a million thoughts, as I get older, and it's crazy to try to get the right answers.

The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall is a good overview of the various mystery schools and secret societies throughout history up until the early 20th century.

reply to post by PoePhotMusiArt


Absolutely. Many religious stories, I believe, are useful means to help us get back to the 'source', where this deeper connection to our lives and world once existed. Ancient peoples were much closer to that source.

Definitely check out Gurdjieff, I am certain you will be interested in his writings.

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


Let me ask a question (probably a dumb one at that)....

the Gods and Goddesses that ancient Egyptians/Romans worshiped...were these once humans that had passed....or were they like that of what modern day Christians would think of when they are talking about 'God'

reply to post by PoePhotMusiArt


Well I can never quite so sure. I see a lot of these deity figures as influencing one another.
Ishtar has a lot of similarities with Goddess figures who are known for sex and love.