In the ancient world, gods and religions spread through the interaction of different civilizations.

Ishtar was imported from Mesopotamia to the eastern Mediterranean and became the Canaanite goddess Astarte.

As the Canaanites splintered into various groups, their gods were further transformed.

The Phoenicians brought Astarte to the Greeks in which she became Athena.

They also gave the Greeks Melchart, their protector deity, who first became Heracles and then Hercules, once the Romans took over the Greeks. The Canaanite gods of Baal, El, and Yahweh represented different tribes that either merged or splintered.

We know the storm god Yahweh came from Mesopotamia and merged with the storm

god L, while the Phoenician storm god Baal became a false deity according to other Canaanite tribes.

Interactions like war, politics, trade, and immigration determined which religions continued

and which would die out. Have you even read your holy book or wondered where your

religion comes from, how you were born into the right religion and everybody else is wrong?

Do you know where it comes from? Whether it's Yahweh and his son Jesus, Zeus and Heracles,

Osiris and Horace, Bal and Melchart, why did so many gods have children who often traveled

to the underworld or represent seasonal chains, fertility, and agriculture? Equally fictional and not

all unique, these fairy tales have much in common because they were created by the human

mind that was trying to explain life and order society. As people spread, so did their ideas. As people

changed, so did their stories. We are all connected through our human experiences, and we should not

complicate that with mythology. Did you know that Israelis and Palestinians both come from the

Canaanites, or that people in North Africa and Southern Europe are genetically linked to one

another? None of us are genetically linked to one another.

None of us are special because of our religions.

We are all simply the same.

Do you disagree with what I'm saying?

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