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The cult of YHWH as god of metallurgy originated among semi-nomadic copper smelters between the Bronze and Iron Age, suggests biblical scholar: And he was not worshipped only by Jews.  A Short History of God Yahweh  TIMNA – Around 3,200 years ago, the great empires around the Mediterranean and the Middle East suddenly imploded. The Egyptians retreated from Canaan and the copper mines of Timna in the Negev, skulking back to the banks of the Nile. And in the arid wastes of southern Canaan, a new power arose.  The Timna mines were taken over by semi-nomadic tribes, which  set up a mining operation that dwarfed  the previous Egyptian industry.  This new desert kingdom would leave its mark on the main building at Timna: the  Egyptian temple of Hathor , protector of miners. The new masters smashed the effigy of the Egyptian deity – leaving the fragments to be found by archaeologists more than 3,000 years later – and set up over the ru...

Prohibition of Idol Worship in Upanishad   "There is no likeness of him" (Svetasvatara Upanishad, Chapter 4, Verse 19)  "His form cannot be seen, No one can see him with the eyes" (Svetasvatara Upanishad, Chapter 4, Verse 20)  All through the vedic texts, we see that, the aryans never used idols for their poojas/worship but used yagyas to please their gods. When I say Aryans, they are not people who came from outside India but people who followed Vedas. Hindu spiritual studies can be broadly classified as Vedic and Tantric. Some say that Vedic studies came from Brahma and the tantric science came from Rudra.  During the ancient times, Brahmins did upanayana ( wearing of sacred thread ) and started their spiritual life with yagyas in which they offered ghee and other yagya components into the fire. The fire acted as the interface or medium of exchange between the mortals and immortals devatas.  One must not wonder as to how the oblations...

Sumerian religion has its roots in the worship of nature, such as the wind and water. Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was a complex one comprised of hundreds of gods. According to the ancient texts, each Sumerian city was guarded by its own god; and while humans and gods used to live together, the humans were servants to the gods. Here is the sequence of the Babylonian version of the Sumerian creation myth which Roux presents: 1. In the beginning, there was only a primordial sea of saltwater. This living sea was named   Nammu ,  described as female, and was the sole element in the universe. 2. Nammu created the sky and the earth, intimately joined together. The earth was flat with an underground aquifer named   Abz...