Blog 4

This week in history, we read Discovering the Global Past chapter 2. In this chapter, it was discussing how the world developed the skills of writing and how historians can gather information about the writers and their lifestyles. Specifically, the chapter mentioned five civilizations and described each of their first writings in precise detail.  The five evidence include: Experts from Atra-hasis, Experts from Book 10 of the Rig Veda, From the First Book of Moses, called Genesis, From Yijinga Commentary on the Appended Judgements, and From Popol Vuh, “ The Book of the People.” In my bog this week I want to discuss two of these civilizations. The two are “From the First Book of Moses, called Genesis” and “From Popol Vuh, ‘The Book of the People.’ ” I picked these two to converse about because out of the five they seem the most realistic evidence of the beginning. In “From the First Book of Moses, called Genesis,” it is the first chapter in the worldwide known book, the Bible. When historians read the scriptures from this piece, they get a real sense of how the Isrealites believed their life’s began. For instance, God, the creator of the world, first created the heavens and the earth. He did this by speaking out Lord. He had power to direct everything, since he is the one who spoke it into existence. Like many of the other evidences, they all had a Holy One or a Mighty One (one who was above all), for this purpose I think it was because they all knew they were not perfect. We, humans, all are sinful, and we need a leader or a higher one to keep us on track. The Isrealites were alike with the Mayans by believing that God created the world.

            One fascinating fact I read about was how the Mayans believed that the Creator and serpent discussed how they would design a world out of nothing. I found this amusing because why would a great so called, Creator, and a serpent (someone who resembles evil) converse about creating a world together. Maybe it was because in their civilization, everyone was equal. Each person had the same opportunity- just like how the Creator and serpent did. Usually a sinner (serpent) has the last choice, but for them, they had the same chance as a righteous man. I thought this would be odd because how can one ever improve them selves if they had no one to look up too, since the Holy one would be in the same boat as a sinner. We all need one who can save or forgive us- just like how the Israelites had God to tell them how to live their lives’. We see an example of this when God directed Adam to name each one of the animals. He gave Adam an order and he followed through with it. Just like every human, we also have evidence of selfishness. It is here where the first example sin. Happens.  It is when Adam ate of the tree, which he knew he was not aloud to, but did anyway. This was the first human sin, and upsetting the start of it all.  The two civilizations have several similarities but also very different ways of life, or so I interpreted it. However the case, each society just like each human all live in a unique way, none of which have exactly the same view in life. This is what I love about our world- Diversity, the ever-changing world.