My Science School

Bread and beer both come from grain. Bread was made from wild wheat and barley in the Stone Age. Beer-making may have started as a byproduct of early bread-making. And no one knows whether the first grain was cultivated because of a need for bread or a taste for beer.

Stone mortars, pestles and grinding stones found on ancient sites indicate that people in the Middle East were making, some form of unleavened bread or mash with wild grain even before they knew how to make pottery.

With wild grain, it is difficult to separate the edible seed from the chaff — the outer sheath. Archaeologists believe that early people learned to split the chaff by parching the grain on hot stones while they were threshing it. Mixing the parched grain with water would have produced an edible mash. Unparched seeds may have been moistened and left to sprout, like bean shoots. Natural yeasts could have fermented the liquor left from such sprouting retaking it into beer.

The first people known to have grown their own grain were the Natufians who lived around Mount Carmel in what is now northern Israel. Research by a British archaeologist, Dr Romana Unger-Hamilton. in 1988, showed that they were using flint sickles to cut wheat and barley they had grown themselves as long as 13,000 years. She found sickles with scratch marks caused by dust, showing that the plants were reaped in cleared ground, not among natural vegetation where ground cover from other plants keeps the dust down.

The Sumerians, who lived in southern Mesopotamia (now mainly modem Iraq) around 5000 years ago, used about 40 per cent of their grain harvest to make beer of eight different flavours. About 1750 BC. King Hammurabi of Babylon, in southern Mesopotamia. Issued laws regulating the quality of beer to be sold in taverns.

 The ancient Egyptians were the first people known to have made leavened brew:, in about 2600 BC. They used wheat flour to keep a store of sour, fermented dough (sourdough) that was added to each mix to make the bread rise. Sourdough has been discovered by accident, when airborne yeast entered dough that had been mixed and put aside before baking. Later civilizations, such as the Celts, used foam from — the yeasty foam from fermenting beer - to leaven bread.

 

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Microscopic grains of pollen are helping scientists to reconstruct the world's past. The tiny grains can explain how the environment has been changed by man, and how the climate fluctuated thousands of years ago.

One oak tree releases more than 100 million pollen grains into the air every year. Some smaller plants are even more prolific — the common sorrel of waysides and woodlands emits an incredible 400 million grains annually.

Most windborne pollen ends up on the ground and decays in the soil in the presence of oxygen. But some falls into lakes or bogs, where it is preserved because peat deposits and the sediment at the bottom of lakes contain no oxygen. Some of the grains last for many thousands of years and fossilise. As new layers of sediment are formed, they trap pollen from plants growing at the time.

This fossil pollen provides a 'book' that enables palaeobotanists — scientists who study ancient plant life — to build up a picture of the vegetation, and hence the climate, of the past few thousand years. Pollen grains vary in size from 15 to 50 thousandths of a millimetre across, and have individual structures varying from plant to plant that can be identified under the microscope. The grains' tough outer walls are preserved because they contain a decay-resistant protein. Fossil pollen is counted by taking a core sample (with a hollow cylindrical drill) from an organic deposit such as a peat bog. Then specimens are taken at regular intervals throughout the depth of the deposit and dated by radiocarbon dating.

The amount of pollen recovered in this way is very large. Samples taken have ranged from 20,000 grains per cubic centimetre from deposits made 11,000 years ago, to 650,000 grains per cubic centimetre a few thousand years later.

 From this huge quantity a representative sample of about 1000 grains is analysed, and the proportions of the various plants are calculated. Scientists can see, for example, in what way plants colonised the northern lands after the last Ice Age about 12,000 years ago. One of the first trees found was juniper, which thrives in cold climates. As the weather became warmer it was replaced by birch, then oak and elm. A change to a moister climate brought alder.

 It is also possible to see how people have influenced the vegetation by cutting down forests and growing crops. Pollen analysis carried out in 1987 on sediments from the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinnereth), in northern Israel, showed that oak forests were cleared about 5000 years ago to make way for olive trees, grown for their fruit and oil. In the 3rd century AD the number of olive trees declined when the Jews left Palestine.

 

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Stonehenge was built in three distinct phases over a period of about 1700 years. Professor Gerald Hawkins, formerly of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, has estimated that the entire monument would have taken a total of about 1,500,000 working days to construct, and involved about 1000 workers at a time.

Phase I was begun about 2750 BC, nearly 200 years before the Egyptians started work on the Great Pyramid It is a circle some 380k (11.5m) across consisting of a low outer bank surrounding a ditch, with another bank about Oft (1.8m) high inside the ditch. Inside the inner hank, the Stone Age Britons dug 56 equally spaced pits, called the Aubrey Holes alter the 17th-century antiquary John Aubrey, who first noticed them as slight clips in what they were for is not known.

There is an entrance on the side of the circle. Outside it block of rough sandstone about 16ft (5m) high, known today as the Heel Stone. The centre of the circle, you can see tile rise over it on Midsummer's Day.

Phase 11 of the construction began around 2100 BC, and was carried out by the Beaker Folk, who were so called because of the shape of their pottery. They erected 80 large bluish stones — known today as the bluestones — in two in-complete rings in the centre of the monument. They also built a wide road-way, now called the Avenue, leading north-east towards the River Avon about 2 miles (3km) away.

The bluestones came from the Preseli Mountains in south-west Wales, 130 miles (209km) distant, and were probably brought most of the way by water — loaded on rafts at Milford Haven and shipped up the estuary of the River Severn. By using a network of rivers, only a short overland journey was left, from Amesbury to Stonehenge along the Avenue.

Support for this theory was provided in 1988 when a bluestone block was discovered on the bed of the River Daugleddau at Llangwm in Dyfed. It is of similar size to those used at Stonehenge, and its position suggests that it could have sunk while being floated down the river to the sea. The pale green, broken Altar Stone, once standing but now lying flat among the central trilithons, came from the shores of Milford Haven, probably also by water.

Phase III, lasting from about 2000 to 1100 BC, was carried out by early Bronze Age people. They removed the bluestone circle and erected a ring of about 30 sandstone uprights (averaging 30 tons in weight), linked by stone lintels. The ring is 16ft (5m) high overall, and inside it they put up the five even taller trilithons. Finally they re-erected the bluestones in two groups.

The sandstones, or sarsens, came from the Marlborough Downs, 20 miles (32km) away. They must have been manhandled on sledges, with oak logs used as rollers.

Professor Hawkins has calculated that 800 men would have been needed to haul one of the giant 50 ton sarsens. Another 200 would have had to clear the route and continually move the heavy oak rollers from the back of the stone to the front.

The upright sarsens were shaped with a slight bulge in the middle so that when viewed from below they would appear straight. The workmanship of the sarsen circle, which is about 100ft (30m) across, is such that the top is level all round. The lintels were cut in a curve so that when fitted together they made a circle.

The stones were shaped by chipping away at the surface with other stones. Larger lumps may have been split off by heating the stones along carefully marked lines, throwing cold water on them and then hitting them.

 

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For more than 800 years, prehistoric people in southern Britain had used the exposed site on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire —today known as Stonehenge — as a place for their rituals. Over those eight centuries two circular banks of earth had been built and two incomplete circles of stones had been erected.

But in about 2000 BC, the most challenging task was still ahead. It was then that workers began the job of erecting the largest structures of Stonehenge — the five trilithons forming a horseshoe at the centre of the circle. Each consists of two 50 ton upright stones around 20ft (6m) high with a 7 ton stone resting across the top.

To set the first upright in the ground, the men dug a pit 8ft (2.4m) deep with one sloping side. They shifted the soil using deer antlers as picks and ox shoulder blades as shovels. Then they hauled the first 50 ton stone into position on wooden rollers, so that one end hung over the sloping wall of the pit. Dozens of men struggled to raise the other end of the stone. They levered it up with long wooden poles, and pushed logs underneath to support it and provide a fulcrum for the poles. As more and more logs were jammed under the stone, it began to tilt, until at last it slid off the logs and down the sloping side of the pit. The huge stone must have thudded with tremendous force into the opposite side of the hole, which had been lined with wooden stakes to prevent it collapsing.

Ropes made from strips of animal hide and plant fibre was used to haul the stone upright. These ropes were not of uniform strength and probably broke quite often, so to prevent the stone crashing back down, it was supported with wooden props fitted into rope 'collars' lashed round its top. As soon as the stone was upright, workers packed soil, logs and stones round the base. On the flat tops of the uprights, the stonemasons had left small protruding knobs These were for fitting into a hollow ground out of the lintel (the crosspiece), to create a mortise-and-tenon joint. Raising a 7 ton lintel some 20ft (6m) to onto its pair of uprights was probably the most dangerous and demanding job in building Stonehenge. Most likely, each lintel was raised on a bed of logs, each end of the lintel being levered up alternately while logs were pushed under it.

 In this way, a wooden tower was built up under a lintel until it was level with the top of the upright stones and could be levered into position. At least 250 logs, each 6m long, would have been needed for the tower's construction.

 

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The Shanhaiguan Pass is the gateway from north-east China to the central plains. The three-storey gate tower of the Great Wall is over 30ft (9m) high, and a tablet over the gateway reads 'First Pass under Heaven'. The sign is a replica of the original, kept inside, which was inscribed in 1472 by Xiao Xian, the most successful scholar in the year's imperial examination.

The Jiayuguan Pass controls the corridor through Gansu province in the north-west, much of it arid loess (clayey yellow soil) and desert. The fortress, built in 1372 to guard the pass, is made of rammed earth and has walls about 30ft (9m) high, 22ft (6.7m) thick at the base, and just over 6ft (1.8m) wide at the top.

The wall's height and width varies. In the Badaling section north of Beijing, it is about 26ft (8m) high, 22ft (6.7m) thick at the base, and about 20ft (6m) thick at the top —wide enough for five horsemen or ten marching men abreast. At the Jiaoshanguan Pass in the Yan Shan mountains, from where you can see the sea, the wall is only about 16in (400mm) wide in places.

In the wider parts, battlements about 6ft (1.8m) high line both sides of the wall, and there are towers at roughly 200yds (180m) — two bow-shot — intervals. Some towers are just weather shelters, others have sleeping quarters or storerooms. Beacon platforms for signal fires, some away from the wall, were sited at about 9 mile (15km) intervals, and a signal could be sent across country within 24 hours.

Smoke signals

Beacon signals were sent as smoke during the day or fire at night. According to folklore, smoke signals were often made with wolf dung, because the smoke hung in the sky for a long time.

The number of smoke columns, or fires, lighted at each beacon depended on the message. One column meant the area was being attacked by a small force (under about 500 men). For a large force, such as over 10,000, four separate signals were lit.

 

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Much of the Great Wall standing today was built 300-600 years ago during the Ming Dynasty — mainly as a defence against the scattered armies of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty, who had fled beyond the wall after being over-thrown by the Ming. Much of it is a massive wall of stone and brick, at its most magnificent between Juyongguan Pass north of Beijing and Shanhaiguan Pass near the east coast.

The construction of each section was organised from one of H fortress towns. From Liaodong in the east to Zhangve in Gansu province in the west. The total garrison numbered nearly 1 million men and even more conscripted labourers. Soldiers guarding the wall wore identity tags, and orders were inscribed on discs, or tallies, for runners to carry between sub-commanders.

Where possible, bricks and lime for building were produced in kilns alongside the site. But they still had to be carried to the high ground — mostly by men, although some donkeys were used. Huge slabs of stone were also used, some weighing about a ton. How they were hauled to the heights no one knows. Some may have been hoisted with windlasses —rope wound round a drum with a cranked handle. Cornerstones were sometimes fixed in place with iron tenons, the molten iron being poured into cut-outs in the stones.

 Almost every section of the wall has an inscribed tablet naming the engineers and construction chiefs. But for the many men who died on the job, the wall itself is the only monument.

 

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General Meng Tian, in charge of constructing the wall for Qin Shi Huang, had 300,000 troops for the job. Sub-commanders were responsible for different sections, and all had to build with local materials. It took nine years to complete the task.

Nearly 1 million labourers were con-scripted, many torn from their wives and families. There were also convicts with shaven heads and iron collars, sentenced to years of hard labour on the wall. Some of the convicts were scholars who had disobeyed an imperial edict forbidding the use of books considered 'unsettling', and some were negligent civil servants. They had to work in difficult terrain in extremes of weather — temperatures plummeted from 95°F (35°C) in summer to —5°F (-21°C) in winter. They were pushed to exhaustion, and often left without food.

Although Meng Tian built a road as a supply route for garrisons and workers. Food often did not reach the outlying places — it was sold or eaten by the carriers on the way_ Thousands of men died. And were buried in the wall foundations_ Traditional poems and folk songs tell of their anguish, and name the wall as the longest graveyard in the world.

Although oxcarts or handcarts could be used on flat ground or gentle slopes, in mountain areas where the wall was built along the top of steep cliffs the building stones had to be carried on men's backs, or on baskets slung from a pole — loads of about 1cwt (50kg) per man. On narrow paths, loads were passed from hand to hand along a human chain. Large stones were manhandled by gangs, who rolled them on logs and pushed with levers to inch them up slopes.

In areas where there were no stones, the wall was made of layers of hammered earth, built up between boards supported by wooden posts. In the sandy areas of the Gobi Desert, it consisted of 8in (200mm) layers of sand and pebbles alternating with tin (50mm) layers of desert grass and tamarisk twigs tied in long bundles.

Because of the difficulty of transporting food, Qin Shi Huang began a policy of growing crops on wasteland beside the wall, a policy continued by successive dynasties who repaired or rebuilt the wall. Peasant farmers who resettled in the area doubled as farmers and militia, standing guard or fighting as required. The garrison soldiers were also allotted small plots.

Among the water conservancy schemes organized to irrigate the crops was the Han Qu Canal, fed from the Yellow River near Yinchuan in the central area of the wall. Farmer-soldiers were obliged to grow not only grain but fruit trees as well, so there were other crops to fall back on if one harvest failed.

 

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The island where Columbus landed in 1492 was called Guanahani by the Indians who lived there. Exactly which island it was has puzzled experts for many years.

Until the 1980s. Wading Island in the Bahamas renamed San Salvador in 1926, had long been the favourite — with three monuments marking the event. Then a group of experts began to re-examine the evidence. They plotted the route across the Atlantic, using computers to take account of wind speed, currents and magnetic variations.

Their conclusion was that Guanahani could only have been one of two places — Wading Island or Samana , miles (100km) to the south-west. They claim that Samana Cay’s landscape and surroundings fit Columbus's description better than San Salvador, but the controversy continues.

 

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In very early times, people probably lived in caves, moving from one cave to another as they roamed around, hunting for food. It is thought that some of the first people to settle down in one place did so in what is now Palestine, around 13,000 years ago. The Natufians, as they are known, built circular huts made from mud, reeds and wood. They lived in these and used them to store grain.

Ice age humans lived in caves some of the time but they also made tents from mammoth skins. Mammoth bones were used as supports. They wore boots, trousers, and anoraks made from animal skins. When the ice age ended a new way of life began. By 8,000 BC people in the Middle East had begun to farm. Food was cooked in clay ovens. The people of Jericho knew how to make sun-dried bricks and they used them to make houses.

About 7,000 BC a new people lived in Jericho and they had learned to make mortar. They used it to plaster walls and floors. Catal Huyuk was one of the world's first towns. It was built in what is now Turkey about 6,500 BC not long after farming began. Catal Huyuk probably had a population of about 6,000. In Catal Huyuk the houses were made of mud brick. Houses were built touching against each other. They did not have doors and houses were entered through hatches in roofs. Presumably having entrances in the roofs was safer than having them in the walls. (Catal Huyuk was unusual among early towns as it was not surrounded by walls). Since houses were built touching each other the roofs must have acted as streets! People must have walked across them.

In Catal Huyuk there were no panes of glass in windows and houses did not have chimneys. Instead, there were only holes in the roofs to let out the smoke. Inside houses were plastered and often had painted murals of people and animals on the walls. People slept on platforms. In Catal Huyuk the dead were buried inside houses. (Although they may have been exposed outside to be eaten by vultures first).

By 4,000 BC farming had spread across Europe. When people began farming they stopped living in tents made from animal skins and they began to live in huts made from stone or wattle and daub with thatched roofs. Bronze Age people lived in round wooden huts with thatched roofs.

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The Sikh faith is a relatively new religion, which began in about 1500. Its founder, Guru Nanak, came from the Punjab region of Northern India. He and nine other “gurus” set out the basic beliefs of Sikhism in the Guru Granth Sahib — the religion’s sacred book. Sikhs believe that God is found in all things.

Sikhism (Sikkhi), pronounced, from Sikh, meaning a "disciple", "seeker," or "learner"), is a monotheistic religion that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century. It is one of the youngest of the major world religions and the world’s fifth largest organized religion, as well as being the world's ninth-largest overall religion. The fundamental beliefs of Sikhism, articulated in the sacred scripture Guru Granth Sahib, include faith and meditation on the name of the one creator, divine unity and equality of all humankind, engaging in selfless service, striving for justice for the benefit and prosperity of all and honest conduct and livelihood while living a householder's life. As of the early 21st century, there are c.?25 million Sikhs.

Sikhism is based on the spiritual teachings of Guru Nanak, the first Guru (1469–1539), and the nine Sikh gurus that succeeded him. The Tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, named the Sikh scripture Guru Granth sahib as his successor, terminating the line of human Gurus and making the scripture the eternal, religious spiritual guide for Sikhs. Sikhism rejects claims that any particular religious tradition has a monopoly on Absolute Truth.

The Sikh scripture opens with Ik Onkar (?), its Mul Mantar and fundamental prayer about One Supreme Being (God). Sikhism emphasizes simran (meditation on the words of the Guru Granth Sahib), that can be expressed musically through Kirtan or internally through Nam Japo (repeat God's name) as a means to feel God's presence. It teaches followers to transform the “Five Thieves” (lust, rage, greed, attachment, and ego).  Guru Nanak taught that living an "active, creative, and practical life" of "truthfulness, fidelity, self-control and purity" is above the metaphysical truth, and that the ideal man is one who "establishes union with God, knows His Will, and carries out that Will". Guru Hargobind, the sixth Sikh Guru, established the political/temporal (Miri) and spiritual (Piri) realms to be mutually coexistent.

Sikhism evolved in times of religious persecution. Two of the Sikh gurus – Guru Arjun (1563–1605) and Guru Tegh Bahadur (1621–1675) – were tortured and executed by the Mughal rulers after they refused to convert to Islam. The persecution of Sikhs triggered the founding of the Khalsa as an order to protect the freedom of conscience and religion, with qualities of a "Sant-Sipahi" – a saint-soldier. The Khalsa was founded by the last Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh.

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Buddhism began in northern India about 2500 years ago. It was founded by an Indian prince called Siddhartha Gautama, who had become upset by the suffering of the world. After travelling and meditating for three years, he adopted the name Buddha, which means “Enlightened One”. Buddhists, like Hindus, believe in reincarnation and karma. The ultimate aim of all Buddhists is to achieve Nirvana — a state of absolute peace.

The evidence of the early texts suggests that he was born as Siddhartha Gautama in Lumbini and grew up in Kapilavasthu, a town in the plains region of the modern Nepal–India border, and that he spent his life in what is now modern Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother was Queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. However, scholars such as Richard Gombrich consider this a dubious claim because a combination of evidence suggests he was born in the Shakyas community – one that later gave him the title Shakyamuni, and the Shakya community was governed by a small oligarchy or republic-like council where there were no ranks but where seniority mattered instead. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, and claims about the society he grew up in may have been invented and interpolated at a later time into the Buddhist texts.

According to the Buddhist sutras, Gautama was moved by the innate suffering of humanity and its endless repetition due to rebirth. He set out on a quest to end this repeated suffering. Early Buddhist canonical texts and early biographies of Gautama state that Gautama first studied under Vedic teachers, namely Alara Kalama (Sanskrit: Arada Kalama) and Uddaka Ramaputta (Sanskrit: Udraka Ramaputra), learning meditation and ancient philosophies, particularly the concept of "nothingness, emptiness" from the former, and "what is neither seen nor unseen" from the latter.

Finding these teachings to be insufficient to attain his goal, he turned to the practice of asceticism. This too fell short of attaining his goal, and then he turned to the practice of dhyana, meditation. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in the Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He gained insight into the workings of karma and his former lives, and attained enlightenment, certainty about the Middle way (Skt. madhyam?-pratipad) as the right path of spiritual practice to end suffering (dukkha) from rebirths in Samsara. As a fully enlightened Buddha (Skt. samyaksa?buddha), he attracted followers and founded a Sangha (monastic order). Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his life teaching the Dharma he had discovered, and died at the age of 80 in Kushinagar, India.

Buddha's teachings were propagated by his followers, which in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE became over 18 Buddhist sub-schools of thought, each with its own basket of texts containing different interpretations and authentic teachings of the Buddha; these over time evolved into many traditions of which the more well-known and widespread in the modern era are Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism.

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Hinduism is one of the world’s oldest religions. It began in India some 5000 years ago and developed gradually from various early beliefs in the region. Those who follow the Hindu religion worship many different gods, and there are lots of different Hindu sects. Most Hindus believe in reincarnation — that a person’s soul moves to another body after death. Those who lead good lives are reborn in a higher state; those who do not may return as an animal or insect.

It has complex roots, and involves a vast array of practices and a host of deities. Its plethora of forms and beliefs reflects the tremendous diversity of India, where most of its one billion followers reside. Hinduism is more than a religion. It is a culture, a way of life, and a code of behavior. This is reflected in a term Indians use to describe the Hindu religion: Santana Dharma, which means eternal faith, or the eternal way things are (truth).

The word Hinduism derives from a Persian term denoting the inhabitants of the land beyond the Indus, a river in present-day Pakistan. By the early nineteenth century the term had entered popular English usage to describe the predominant religious traditions of South Asia, and it is now used by Hindus themselves. Hindu beliefs and practices are enormously diverse, varying over time and among individuals, communities, and regional areas.

Unlike Buddhism, Jainism, or Sikhism, Hinduism has no historical founder. Its authority rests instead upon a large body of sacred texts that provide Hindus with rules governing rituals, worship, pilgrimage, and daily activities, among many other things. Although the oldest of these texts may date back four thousand years, the earliest surviving Hindu images and temples were created some two thousand years later.

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Mohammed was a 7th-century prophet who founded the religion of Islam. Islam’s followers — Moslems (or Muslims) — believe that many prophets, including Jesus Christ and Moses, have carried the word of one God, named Allah. For Moslems, Mohammed was the greatest prophet of them all. His word is revealed in the Koran — the sacred book of Islam.

Muhammad, known as the Messenger of God, founded Islam and revealed the Qur’an. Few men have had a greater impact on faith and world events than Muhammad, the prophet of Islam. Today, 1.6 billion Muslims around the world view him not only as the seal of the prophets, but as the perfect example of an honest, just, merciful, and compassionate human being. Viewed by followers of Islam as the “Living Qur’an,” his life is considered an example to be emulated by all.

But Muhammad was not just a religious leader; he was a politician and statesman who united the warring tribes of Arabia and organized a community around belief in the “oneness” of God. His impact on the region of Arabia was so profound that the time prior to his calling as “God’s messenger” is referred to as the Time of Ignorance.

Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. in the city of Mecca in Arabia. His early childhood was filled with tragedy. His father, Abdullah, was a trader who died before he was born. In accordance with local tradition, Muhammad’s mother gave over the infant Muhammad to the care of Halimah, a Bedouin wet-nurse, to be raised in the desert of Arabia until he was five years old. However, Halimah returned him to his mother when he was only two because her husband was afraid that Muhammad was possessed by an evil spirit.

More tragedy followed. When Muhammad was six, his mother, Aminah, died and left him in the care of his paternal grandfather, Abdul Muttalib. Two years later, his grandfather died and Muhammad was given into the care of his uncle, Abu Talib, who raised him and played a prominent role in his life.

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Judaism, the religion of the Jewish people, was the first to have only one god. Jews believe that Judaism began in the Middle East 4000 years ago when God’s word was revealed to Abraham, the father of the Jewish people. God told Abraham that the Jews would be his chosen people in return for obeying his laws and spreading his message. Throughout their history, Jewish people have suffered persecution in many parts of the world.

Judaism is one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world, although some scholars have argued that the earliest Israelites (pre-7th century BCE) were monolatristic rather than monotheistic. God in later Judaism was strictly monotheistic, an absolute one, indivisible, and incomparable being who is the ultimate cause of all existence. The Babylonian Talmud references other, "foreign gods" as non-existent entities to whom humans mistakenly ascribe reality and power. One of the best-known statements of Rabbinical Judaism on monotheism is the Second of Maimonides':

God, the Cause of all, is one. This does not mean one as in one of a pair, nor one like a species (which encompasses many individuals), nor one as in an object that is made up of many elements, nor as a single simple object that is infinitely divisible. Rather, God is a unity unlike any other possible unity.

Some in Judaism and Islam reject the Christian idea of monotheism. Judaism uses the term shituf to refer to the worship of God in a manner which Judaism deems to be neither purely monotheistic (though still permissible for non-Jews) nor polytheistic (which would be prohibited).

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A religion is a set of beliefs that attempts to make sense of the things in life that are difficult to understand, such as why we are here. Human beings have always sought explanations about the world, and various religions have developed in order to provide some answers. Most religions are based around the teachings of one God or several gods — a supreme being who created the world and determines what happens in it. Religions have been an extremely powerful force in human history, inspiring art and culture and shaping countries and empires.

There are many definitions of religion.  It is not that easy to pin down exactly what religion is and then to insure that the definition distinguishes religion from magic and from cults and sects.  Many people offer definitions without much knowledge of the wide range of religious phenomena and the many different cultural manifestations of religion.  It is a rather common misconception to think that religion has to do with god, or gods and supernatural beings or a supernatural or spiritual dimension or greater reality.  None of that is absolutely necessary because there are religions that are without those elements. 

 In this millennium there are over 6.2 billion people on the planet earth.  Most of them would declare that they are religious in some way.  Rough estimates are made that place people in the various traditions.

This has implications. For one, it means that the term “organized religion” is redundant. We often hear people say they are critical of organized religion (as if disorganized religion would be any better). But if a religion is not ordered (organized) then it’s not really a religion at all, as it does not expect its practitioners to live according to any rule. Indeed, they can hardly be considered “practitioners” if there is nothing for them to practice. They are merely “believers” at that point; those whom we might call spiritual, but not religious.

I’ve often heard that phrase criticized as being code for, “I like to think of myself as a spiritual person, but don’t actually do anything about it.” Which may be true, as far as it goes. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an accurate description. Someone who is spiritual is aware of certain spiritual realities. They believe that there is more to this world than the material. But being spiritual alone doesn’t make any demands on us. It is when our spiritual beliefs motivate us to live in a certain way that spirituality becomes religious.

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