Throughout history many civilizations have believed in a God or Gods and also believed in a concept of an afterlife, be it a reward or punishment for what they have done in their lives. Death is the absolute truth about people's lives, whether we like it or not, death will come and many religions have created a way to see the afterlife and what comes with it. Hope for the afterlife is a universal instinct, whether it was 5,000 years ago or today. Despite advances in technology, it is still one of the most discussed topics. Scientists still can't explain the afterlife. On the other hand, almost all religions have a unique way of explaining the afterlife. For example, monolithic religions such as Islam, Judaism, and Christianity believed that in the afterlife people's souls exist in another world while other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism believed in reincarnation. And some civilizations had the idea of ​​burying important people with their valuables such as gold, swords, jewels and any other important items for the dead. Then, in the afterlife those people will be able to use them. Civilizations such as the Aztecs, Greeks and Romans, Egyptians, ancient Chinese or many ancient civilizations perceived the idea of ​​burying important objects together with people. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayThe Aztecs, thought to originate from a nomadic tribe in Mexico, settled in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. They developed a large and complicated social, religious, and political organization that affected many of the cities under their control. The Aztec religion, which flourished in Mesoamerica, earned a notorious reputation for their harsh, inhuman, and bloodthirsty sacrifice. For the Aztecs, sacrifices were essential because life would not have been possible without the offering of the blood of the Gods, those sacrifices above all so that the sun would rise again. We can say that their belief about the afterlife was very strange compared to today. Many people in the past and today believe that the afterlife is determined by how you lived your life but, in contrast, the Aztecs believed that how you lived your life is not important to the afterlife what is important is the fact is that how a person died. A person's afterlife was determined by the idea of ​​how they died. In their belief system the afterlife had 4 sections which were East, West, North, South and how people die determines where they go. For example, if you died fighting in a war, you would go to a paradise in the east where the sun rises in the morning or join to help the war god Huitzilopochtli in a battle. Or women who died in childbirth were considered as honorable and glorious as men who died in war. But the women went to heaven, which is in the west, where the sun sets every day. These heavenly ideas are very different from our modern world religions according to which people will go to another world where there will be everything they want. In contrast, people who died of diseases, insignificant deaths, or things like dying of old age are not considered a heavenly thing. Those who died from such things went to the underworld, and these people had to face eight levels of challenges to finally find peace for their souls at the ninth level. This is one of the most divergent examples between the Aztec religion and modern religions and how society views death. Whereas in the Aztecs if you die of old age and common things people won't see you the way they see warriors and people who died that way ended up in the underworld. The Aztecs mostly expect people to die prematurely but honorably. Butin modern religions if you die of illness or old age it will not affect your afterlife because that is not how you die; It's how you live that determines whether you will go to heaven or hell. For the Aztecs the sun was very important for their daily life. And that greatly influenced their beliefs about the afterlife. Their entire belief system was actually based on the Sun. In the Greek and Roman civilizations, they believed in the existence of the afterlife. Even though both civilizations have no religious background in afterlife belief, their myths have shaped their concepts of afterlife. The Greeks believed that when one dies, a person's soul and body separate. After death and burial is done. Souls free themselves from the body and begin a journey to the afterlife, to the river that separates the underworld called Hades and the world. Hermes or Charon assists the dead as they cross the river to reach the underworld. This river is guarded by the famous three-headed dog called Cerberus. The underworld ruled by the god Hades. In Hades people were judged based on their past actions and how they lived their lives, what they did that was good or bad. If one did a bad thing he was not punished, but he was not rewarded either, he will simply wander in the underworld while the person who did an evil thing will be punished. In the early days, the Greeks thought that only the underworld existed in the afterlife. But some people believed that heroes and other great characters do not wander around Hades and secretly go to Elysium which is like a heaven where only the best among people like heroes and relatives of gods can go. The Romans influenced by the Greeks very great afterlife concept, believed in things like immortality of the soul and reincarnation like the later Greeks. The Romans believed that the dead influenced their daily lives, so they kept in touch with the dead through rituals and festivals. They honored the dead each year during Parentalia (February) and Lemuria (May). During Parentalia people visited the graves of their ancestors and the deceased and offered them wine and food. While in May during Lemuria rituals were performed to keep souls away from their homes and keep one's family away from the souls of the dead. The Romans believed that when a person dies, their soul travels to the place where, if they do good things throughout their life, they go to a place where it is as if a paradise contains great joy. Conversely, if someone has done bad things, they go to a place where they are tortured and punished. This place had 3 parts according to the Romans, the first where people received neither punishment nor reward, the second is Tartarus where people suffer for the rest of their lives and the third is where people with lesser deeds go, where they dwelt temporarily before their reincarnation or departure. to the Eligi. This idea of ​​an underworld is close to the idea of ​​Hell in modern world religions such as Islam or Christianity. Both religions have such a narrow idea of ​​hell and heaven that if someone suffers enough from their actions, they can then go to heaven. But there is no reincarnation involved in Christianity or Islam. Furthermore, the Romans actually replaced pagan beliefs with Christianity some time later. The idea of ​​the afterlife also spread considerably throughout the Roman people. Before Christianity the Romans had no organized religious system or anything. Some people believe in the idea of ​​an afterlife, others don't. At that time there were cults dedicated to particular gods or goddesses, who promised people a happy and peaceful afterlife. But after Christianity most people believed in the afterlife and since they already believed in a very strict faith, the transitionfrom Roman beliefs to Christianity was not that difficult. The ancient Egyptians believed in immortality, so this greatly influenced their idea of ​​the afterlife the way they see and perceive it. They think that death was a brief moment, an interruption to their life. They believed that death was not the end, but rather a new beginning to another reality. According to the ancient Egyptians, after death you would be judged by Osiris who is the god of the underworld, the afterlife and death. The Egyptians prepared the bodies of their dead in a complex way for their time, called mummification, built large tombs and performed many rituals. They buried important and valuable objects together with the dead, but they also buried objects from everyday life, because they believed that the dead people in the afterlife remained their everyday life. But these rituals were mainly for important and wealthy people, for example, pharaohs, because the poor of Egypt could not afford to bury their relatives in a harsh hierarchical system even in death. Hinduism, which is considered the oldest religion according to most scholars, is estimated to be around 4,000 years old. Hinduism believes in the reincarnation of souls. They think souls are immortal and last forever. Hinduism does not see death as a bad thing. It's not an end, rather it's a natural thing to happen. The afterlife is like a period of rest where people's soul rests and prepares for the new journey of life when people return to earth. Death is only the temporary cessation of physical activity. Hinduism believes that each incarnation of the soul is like an opportunity to overcome one's shortcomings. They believe that one cannot have likes or dislikes, preferences, attachments to be liberated. The soul needs to overcome these disappointments to achieve wholeness. But what happens to the soul when someone dies? It depends on many factors, for example what he did in his life or the time of death, his state of mind, his children's activities. There are two paths to take in the afterlife: the path of the Sun or the path of the Moon, these factors determine where you will go. When the soul actually reaches the path of the sun it is a good thing like heaven, but when the soul goes to the path of the moon it is more like a hellish path. It is difficult to completely reach the path of the sun. For example, if someone has done evil deeds, he will go to the path of the moon and suffer there. On the contrary, if someone has done good things, he will go to the path of the sun and enjoy life. The time of someone's death is actually important too: if someone dies on a festival day while performing puja or bhajan, he or she will go to heaven regardless of his or her previous actions. There is also another important thing, it is that someone's state of mind, at the time of death if he only thinks about money he will return to live as a trader or merchant or if he thinks about his children, wife etc. It will return to that exact family as a new member. Furthermore, if he thinks of evil things he will go to the lower worlds and suffer, or if he thinks of Gods he will go to the upper worlds. In Hinduism the purpose of hell and heaven is not to reward or punish people, they are there to remind souls of the true meaning of life and existence. Whether one goes to hell or heaven, it will not last long, they are there to teach the soul a lesson, punishing or rewarding it. Throughout history Hinduism has influenced millions of people and civilizations, for example the Harappan civilization or the whole of India. Hinduism is still believed by millions of people and people live their lives according to Hinduism in this religion. The afterlife is not a feared thing, rather it is where people learn from their mistakes and their soul becomes more mature with each death. Because of.