Clivedurdle

A major theme of anthropology is different types of society, major demarcations being hunter gatherer, pastoralist and agriculture, farming, town and city based societies.

The moon for example is the symbol of hunting societies, the sun of farming ones. Stonehenge can be interpreted as a transitional symbol.

Monotheisms are city based religions, where hierarchy has been developed, and structures and need for rules of control, in contrast to the democratic tribal systems. There is a huge amount of mix and match - Marathon is a classic battle between priesthood of all believers and the king is priest with one god.

Xianity is obviously a religion of empires, Islam is very interesting though, as it purports to be a desert people's religion that spread like wildfire when the arab nations became united.

But is it really, or is it a classic imperial monotheism pretending to be democratic and free?

mountainman

christianity and islam both founded by military supremacists who executed satirists

The military supremacist Constantine founded the state religion of christianity in the 4th century at the point of the sword and sought the execution of the satirist Arius of Alexandria, for the authorship of anti-christian literature. Arius was reportedly poisoned in the City of Constantine.


Two centuries afterwards, capitalising on the success of Constantine's formula for domination of the Roman empire by the widespread publication of the christian bible and his personal appointment of christian bishops, the military supremacist Muhammad founded the state religion of Islam and the first thing he did was arrange for the public execution of two satirists.


Why were satirists singled out? Let's ask Mel Brooks:

Rhetoric does not get you anywhere, because
Hitler and Mussolini are just as good at rhetoric.
But if you can bring these people down with comedy,
they stand no chance.

-- Mel Brooks

Military supremacists and fascists (like Constantine) cannot stand being laughed at. They take things very seriously. If they catch someone laughing at them or their agendas, ideas and plans, then they dont like it one little bit. They seek out the authors of the satire against their agenda, and they arrange their execution.


When will the mentality of people see though this official book business? We are dealing with two instances where military supremacists enforced the canonisation of a Holy Writ by the sword, and then ruled their respective empires by the book.

The blueprint used by Constantine was the precedent set by the Persian warlord and military supremacist Ardashir in the 3rd century.

"According to the Zoroastrian tradition Ardashir I
caused a high cleric official Tansar, his chief helper
in the task of organising the Mazdean church,
to have the scattered texts of the Parthian "Avesta" collected
and to produce a new edition of it
which was authorised and made canonical."

Cambridge Ancient History
Volume XII
The Imperial Crisis and Recovery (193 to 324 CE)
Chapter 5: SASSANID PERSIA
The Sassanian Empire: Political History

Huon

I do not think that the tribal societies were so democratic, but it is not the subject of this thread. (This opinion has nothing to do with BCH).

The history of the beginnings of the Umayyad Caliphate and of the Abbasid Caliphate brings an answer to the question. The muslim empires were not centered on Mecca, but in Damascus and Baghdad. The Kharijites argued that any pious and able Muslim could be a leader of the Muslim community, which could be seen as a democratic opinion, but they were rapidly defeated.

Clivedurdle

Modern Islam seems to go out of its way to deny it has imperialist ambitions - one of its major attacks is against the crusader west.

What is it?

mountainman

Cult-followings of supremely victorious warlords
appear to be quite popular at various epochs:

334 BCE ... Alexander the Great (Hellenism)
260 BCE ... Ashoka (embraced Buddhism)
224 CE ... Ardashir (Zorastrianism)
324 CE ... Constantine (Christianity)
630 CE ... Muhhamad (Islam)