Agriculture in India

Agriculture is very important in India within the country and outside the country. Agriculture takes up 2/3 of the labor force in India. Than means it employs 2/3 of the Indian population. Without the agriculture industry India would be in a lot of trouble economically. Lots of people would not have jobs which would put the economy to a stand still. Agriculture in India is also important around the world. India is the number one exporter of Tea, Jute, Sugar cane and Cashews. This means other countries depend on it for food.
Agriculture in India could not be complete without its use of the monsoons. Farmers in India mostly depend on monsoons to farm and they stand on the edge of a knife when it comes to wether there is too much water which will drown the plants or too little which will kill the plants. Using innovations in irrigation technology though they have softened the blow that extreme monsoons have on plants.

The Ganges River

The Ganges is India's largest river. It flows from its origins in the ice capped Himalayas eastward until it flows into the bay of bengal. It is about 1,554 miles long. During its long journeys it passes through several cities which believe it to be sacred. Actually eighty percent of the Hindus who live in India think its sacred.  They believe that it is the home of the Godess Ganga. It has been considered important for centuries. It is believed that if you drink it good things will become of you. You can also throw the ashes of the dead into the river which will give you better karma for the next life. Bathing yourself in the river is also helpful. It is believed that when you bathe in the river you wash away all your sins. The Ganges river is a symbol of Indias spirituality and without it hinduism would not be the same.

Taoism and Confucianism

People act usually act differently according to what religion they believe in. Different religions create different kinds of behaviors. In this post I am going to write about the difference in the ways people acted according to wether they believed in Taoism or Confucianism.
For both religions, people would behave non violently. In both religions violence is frowned upon. There is a universal message in both religions that one should only do good and never harm anything.
In confucianism, one always is supposed to try and help others. You are supposed to be a force of good. Unlike Taoism where instead of helping people you should try and become one with nature and have peace with yourself. So if a person believes in Confucianism, they would probably be feeding the poor or sheltering them. They would be very community oriented. Now if a person was a Taoist they would act a little differently. Instead of being so pro community they would be pro nature. One would expect that they would be the more hermit type. Living in forest becoming one with nature instead of becoming one with the community.

Constantine and Christianity

Before Constantine, Christianity was a fairly underground religion. It had much less followers then other religions in the area and it was fairly new. This made it look like a cult. If you were Christian it was mostly frowned upon. Especially in Rome. Soon news of this cult had reached Constantine. He probably knew a little bit about it but he probably did not care. Until that fateful day. He was leading an army into a battle but he wasn't sure he should pull through and fight. Then he looked into the sun and apparently saw a cross. He ordered all his men to nail crosses to their shields and start attacking. He won the battle and took it as a sign from God. He made Christianity the official religion of rome. 

There is some controversy though if Constantine was fully behind Christianity. He did not attempt to wipe out the old religion. He said that if people wanted to worship old Gods then they could. Also he did not convert until he died. This could mean a few things. He did not fully believe in Christianity or he wanted to remain neutral until he died so he could prolong his rule. 

Religion: A tool of the powerful?

In some areas around the world, religion was used as a way for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. For example, in India, the rich used hinduism, to separate themselves from the poor. Over time they developed a caste system. A caste system is a social grouping system where the rich are on the very top of the system while the poorer or less important you are the lower you stand. Then there are the untouchables. These people were unfortunately born into a group which is so unimportant and so, well, "untouchable" that they don't even have a cast. This system developed over a long period of time. During the birth of this social structure people were fairly divided already. Everyone wanted to be rich but in the end only the rich stayed rich. People on the bottom just struggled. Soon the rich had enough power to convince people that staying in there place was the right thing to do. They used hinduism as an argument, and said that if you were the best person you could possibly be at your cast level then when you died, you would be reincarnated as someone rich or important.

Why was Christianity so appealing?

So exactly why is Christianity so appealing? There are two major answers to this question. The draw of the promise of having eternal life and the sense of community. In the early days of Christianity one usually had a very short life expectancy. So when they heard of Christianity and that if you love Jesus, you will go to an after life of happiness when you die. This would sound very appealing to a peasant for example who would probably live up to only forty or fifty years. One of the popular religions at the time was the Greek Gods one. In that religion, if you died, you would end up in the under world no matter if you were a good or bad person. In Christianity you supposedly have a choice.
The second reason Christianity was appealing was the sense of community. God already loved you no matter what and if you loved Jesus you were automatically part of a community. You and everyone else in the village or city would all congregate at the local synagogue and would talk and pray and love Jesus. It was all friends and everyone was very accepting.

Cults, Religions, Prophets and Missionaries.

Cults and Religions are more or less the same (with a few differences here and there). They both have something to do with a higher power. For example in its beginning years Christianity was considered to be a cult while the most popular religion in greece which was the one where there were many Gods who were responsible for different things was not a cult. Both believed in a higher power and both required devotion yet Christianity was a cult. Now we have to look at the differences. The orignal greek religion had been around much longer than Christianity. This could mean that since Greeks were so used to having the same religion that they could reject the idea of a new monotheistic religion by thinking that Paul, one of the first missionaries was crazy. I mean if someone tells you that your whole religion is false you'll think that they are crazy and consider them from a cult.
Now there about the same amount of differences between a prophet and a missionary. They are similar because both are related to the same religion. They are also usually very dedicated to the religion as well. They are different in several ways. Missionaries basically spend their whole life trying to convert other people to their religion. They are basically service workers for the religion. They would sacrifice their lives for their religion. Sometimes, missionaries would even be crucified by the romans for trying to convert people. Prophets are almost like idols in religions. They are usually just key figures in religions.

Historical Diffusion

What exactly is historical diffusion? There is no short answer to this question. Historical diffusion itself takes a very long time on its own. It all starts when there is an innovative idea that reaches a different country from which originated. Soon a small population of the whole country for example uses that idea to improve there lifestyle. Only a few people used the idea because it was from a different country. But the idea was so good that it caught on with more and more people. Soon the culture that is using the new idea has some influence from the other culture from which the idea came from.