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Enlil, Enki and Inana. They are Mesopotamian gods and the first chapter of Genesis is largely based on their creation myths. Genesis uses the word "Elohim", which is the plural of "El", another name for Enlil and his relatives. It was only later that theologists decided that Elohim and YHWH are...

How old is Sherlock Holmes? - about 40 years, the age of his character? - about 120 years, since AC Doyle created him? How old is the universe? - about 13 billion years, its age according to scientists? - about 4000 years, since Enlil, Enki and Inana created it? To understand the beginning of...

1 Elohim is the name of the creator in Genesis. Elohim is a semitic plural and should be translated "the gods". 2 YHWH didn't say: "I'm the only god". He said: "I'm a jealous god and I don't want you to worship any others". 3 There is a theory that YHWH ("He is who is") was really Seth. This...

I'm sorry, I was confused with jainism! Sikhism is a kind of compromise between hinduism and islam. It's monotheistic.

There's a funny African myth about the origin of the scapegoat. Something was stolen and the owner said: "whoever did this will pay for it!" There were two suspects: the elephant and the goat. The elephant had left his footprints all over the place, but when the owner saw how big the elephant...

Here are some hypotheses: 1 Eden has never existed, it's meant symbolically. True, but boring. 2 Eden was in Mesopotamia, around the Tigris. A literal reading of the Bible seems to confirm this. It also says that Adam and Eve were expelled to the east. Ur is east of the Tigris. 3 Eden was in...

There is no written evidence, since the Africans didn't have a writing. However, there are lots of polytheistic myths in the oral traditions of all Africa. Here's a link: http://www.pantheon.org/areas/mythology/africa/african Animism and shamanism are elements within African polytheism, they...

Purgatory is mostly a medieval concept. It's best known from Dante's Divina Commedia. Sinners go directly to hell, saints directly to heaven. For average people, there's a place inbetween heaven and hell: the purgatory. It's a mountain you have to climb, where you have to pay for your sins. When...

The concept of the trinity is a theological answer to the following question: "How can you call Christ divine and still consider christianity a monotheistic religion?" In the first centuries AD, there were a lot of different answers to this. Some saw Christ as a prophet only, others said that he...

No, they don't. I don't think they have a god, like in buddhism.

There were proofs like that by Aristotle, Thomas of Aquino etc., but they didn't make sense. You can't proof that God exists, but you also can't proof that He doesn't.

This is an eternal theological discussion. It was a basic dispute between Luther and the catholics. The catholics said that you can buy a place in heaven by giving money to the church, Luther denied this. I think it would be a pretty lame excuse to rob a bank and then say: "I'm sorry, but God...

1 Vertigo (Hitchcock) 2 Psycho (Hitchcock) 3 Modern times (Chaplin) 4 The great dictator (Chaplin) 5 Deconstructing Harry (Woody Allen)

This is a tough question, but I found something: Lilith was the first wife of Adam. Later she was replaced by Eve and became a kind of demonic figure. Lilith had many names, which probably means she often came back in history with a different, demonic identity. One of her identities was "Queen...

Menelik was born in Sheba, but visited Israel when he was 21. Solomon tried to persuade him to become the next king of Israel, but this made his other son Rechabeam jealous. They came to an agreement: Menelik would leave Israel along with all the eldest sons of Levi (=priests). Menelik reminded...

Just read the story symbolically: "Adam" means "man" and "Eve" means "woman". I believe in Darwin's evolution theory and I think that up to Abraham or maybe even Moses, the Bible shouldn't be read literally.

There are no archeological remains found from the time of Solomon, but they could be under the ground in Jerusalem. The problem is that it's hard to get permission to dig there: it might be under muslim territory. The second temple was built above the first, so there must be something.

What a coincidence! She's my idol, I wrote a short story about her. I mainly follow the Ethiopian version, based on the "Kebra Negast" (=Glory of the Kings, 14th century AD) No, but she had a child from him: Menelik I, king of Sheba. According to the Ethiopian version, he stole the Ark of the...

Plato already didn't believe in the Greek gods anymore. Christianity was rather influenced by neoplatonism and Coptic religion. E.g.: The gospel of John begins with a reference to the "logos" or word. Plato saw "logos" as the basic principle in the universe. John related those two by saying "and...

Everything started with African polytheism, then it went to Egypt and Mesopotamia. Those influenced judaism and Indo-European religions.