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Did ancient Egyptians believe in the One God
The masses of ancient Egypt believed in many gods. But there was another religion, known only in the elite circles, priests and educated.
The sacred texts, known only to the priests and to the initiated, taught that there was a single Being, "the sole producer of all things both in heaven and earth, himself not produced of any," "the only true living God, self-originated," "who exists from the beginning," "who has made all things, but has not himself been made." This Being seems never to have been represented by any material or symbolical form. It is thought that he had no name, or, if he had, that it must have been unlawful to pronounce or write it. He was a pure spirit, perfect in every respect—all-wise, almighty, supremely good. It is about him that the Egyptian poets use such expressions as the following:
"He is not graven in marble"
"He is not beheld"
"His abode is not known"
"No shrine is found with painted figures of him"
"There is no building that can contain him"
"Unknown is his name in heaven"
"He doth not manifest his forms; vain are all representations"
"His commencement is from the beginning; he is the God who has existed from old time"
"There is no God without him"
"No mother bore him, no father hath begotten him"
"He is a god-goddess, created from himself, all gods came into existence when he began"
The other gods, the gods of the popular mythology, were understood in the esoteric religion to be either personified attributes of the Deity, or parts of the nature which he had created, considered as informed and inspired by him.
Num or Kneph represented the creative mind, Phthah - the creative hand, or act of creating; Maut represented matter, Ra - the sun, Khons - the moon, Seb - the earth, Khem - the generative power in nature, Nut - the upper hemisphere of the heavens, Athor - the lower world or under hemisphere; Thoth personified the Divine Wisdom, Ammon - perhaps the Divine mysteriousness or incomprehensibility, Osiris - the Divine Goodness.
It is difficult in many cases to fix on the exact quality, act, or part of nature intended. No educated Egyptian conceived of the popular gods as really separate and distinct beings. All knew that there was but One God, and understood that, when worship was offered to Khem, or Kneph, or Maut, or Thoth, or Ammon, the One God was worshipped under some one of his forms or in some one of his aspects. He was every god, and thus all the gods' names were interchangeable. That's why in the same hymn, we may find a god, say Ammon, addressed also as Ra, and Khem, and Turn, and Horus, and Khepra; or Hapi, the Nile-god. In fact, any god could have been called by the name of almost any other, except for evil gods.
Doesn't this all sound a whole lot like the God of the Bible? Ancient religions descended from the original religion. The original religion of the human race is recorded most thoroughly in the Bible. But fragments of that religion entered into the ancient pagan religions, with various modifications and gradual deviations.
So is it a surprise that often times, biblical principles are found in ancient texts of pagan religions? It doesn't mean the Bible was copied from these pagan texts. It means that there were indeed revelations from God to the first people. As the original human race diverged into the different regions of the earth, they carried the religion they learned from Noah. But since they soon forgot the One true God, their religion gradually deviated from the original religion. Instead of worshiping the One true God, they created various smaller gods, from the qualities of One God.
Sources:
Ancient Egypt By George Rawlinson, M.A., print, London 1886
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Dimensions
Dimensions of the building: 228 ft. long X 101 ft. wide, X 64 ft. high.
The columns were each 34 ft. 3 in. high, and more than 6 ft. in diameter at the base.
The diagram to the right is a depiction of the floorplan of Parthenon.
The ornaments consisted almost exclusively of sculpture of the very finest quality.
About Parthenon
Parthenon can be considered as the highest achievement of Greek architecture.
The temple was a work of architect Ictinus. It was the temple of the Virgin Goddess Athene (Minerva). It was built in the city of Athens.
The Parthenon at Athens stood on the summit of a lofty rock. A series of columns surrounded this building, and at either end was a portico, eight columns wide, and two deep. The whole building stood on a basement of steps.
The building was made primarily out of marble. The roof, out of timber, covered with marble tiles.
Apostle Paul delivered his sermon to the Athenian intellectuals under the shadow of this very building.
Sources:"Architecture Classic and Early Christian" by Professor T. Roger Smith, and John Slater
An oft repeated statement(s) pertaining to History states something to the effect of: “If you do not know History, you are doomed to repeat it.” This quote presumes that one of the main purposes behind studying history is to not repeat the mistakes and pitfalls of the previous generations. However, this brings up an important question: What is history? Is it a collection of mere facts or is it more of a story and narrative?
In our current school setting, which is geared towards more and more standardized tests to measure progress, it seems that history is boiled down to nothing more than facts about who the sixteenth president was or what is the state flower/bird of California? This is especially evident in popular culture with trivia shows like “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” or “Jeopardy” and is sometimes given a funnier twist by late night hosts, as with the “Jaywalking” segment on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Even though it may be funny (and even at times sad) that people do not know certain simple facts, the question then becomes, will knowing these facts help in our quest to not repeat the mistakes from the past?
In order to not repeat a mistake done by another, it is not enough to know merely who or what was done, it is important to understand the background and reasoning why an action was committed or not. This understanding will not come by simply knowing the facts, but it requires knowing the story and narrative of the given situation, so that by knowing what led to a certain outcome, it would then be possible to not go down the same path as the previous generation.
The esteemed Russian writer Solzhenitsyn had a great deal to say about not committing blunders from the past. So it is very appropriate to close with one of his quotes:
“Today, if one desires to read anything at all, one wants it to be brief, as brief as possible, and only on the subjects of the day. But every moment of our history, including today’s, is but a point on its axis. And if we wish to identify feasible and sure ways out of our menacing misfortunes, we must not lose sight of the numerous blunders in our past. Our plight today in many ways stems from these mistakes.”
Sodom and Gomorrah were some sinful cities. There was actually three more cities, which were part of a coallition called the Pentapolis. Adamah, Zeboim, and Zoar where the names of the other cities.
The book of Genesis tells us the people in these cities were extremely sinful in God's eyes. And it wasn't just a part of the population there that was sinful. The entire way of life in the cities was very vile. When God told Abram that he was going to destroy the city, Abram petitioned God to spare it. He pleaded God to not destroy the cities if there were 50 righteous people there. God said he wouldn't do it if He found 50 righteous people there. Both Abram and God knew there is no way those cities would reach the 50 righteous people mark though. So Abram kept lowering the number. He got God to promise to not destroy the cities if He could find 10 good people there. But it turns out the cities didn't even have that. The only righteous person God could find in the city of Sodom, was Abram's relative Lot, who moved out of Abram's house a few years back.
The reason Lot chose to move there, was because it was a prosperous place to live. The book of Genesis tells us the area had a good amount of percipitation. It was a land full of lush vegetation like the garden of Eden, or the land of Egypt, in the ancient days. And good percipitation leads to good economic conditions for the people.
So the residents of the Pentapolis knew little worry. And they spent a lot of time partying.
Here's what the book of Jasher has to say about Sodom and Gomorrah.
A few times a year, the cities held region-wide festivities. This was a big party spanning several days, where everybody got drunk, and slept around with everybody. Fathers and husbands looked at their daughters and wives with another man, and didn't care. They were too busy doing the same thing.
A lot of people say the Sodomites were homosexual. This is deduced from the passage in Genesis when the angels came to Lot and the inhabitants of Sodom came and wanted to "know" the men who came to his house. But homosexual is not even an accurate description for their sexual orientation. It wasn't just a few grown men who came to molest Lot's guests. It was an entire city from old to young. It was like hippies from the American 60s walking around with constant perverted thoughts, (God bless the hippies), except it didn't matter what gender they were attacking, and everybody was a hippie.
When archaelogists dig up stuff around the Sodom area, they wouldn't show it on TV, because it wouldn't be appropriate for all audiences.
Besides their perverted lifestyle, the cities were simply a physically dangerous territory for the surrounding peoples. What Lot did by inviting weary strangers into his house and providing them food and rest, was actually against the law in those cities. Anybody who was found to show any kindness to a stranger was punished by death. If a stranger tried to appeal to court, the court found the stranger guilty of traspassing, and officially ruled in favor of execution.
When a stranger entered the city, the Sodomites would greet them and kindly welcome them, even give them a sum of gold to spend on buying things in their city. But they would not let them leave the city. Nobody was allowed to sell anything to them, or give them food or water. So the visitor would roam around the city until they starved to death. Then the Sodomites would take their gold back and steel all valuables the visitor may have brought with them.
There's a story about Lot's other daughter, who did not leave the city with Lot. One time she saw one such stranger walking around the city and nobody would give him anything to eat or drink. She felt sorry for the fellow, and started to secretly bringing him food and water during the night time. The inhabitants of Sodom kept watching the man, and kept wondering how come he's alive for so long. Then they figured some traitor must be secretly feeding the guy. So they notified everyone to keep a watch out for that traitor. Somebody found out it was Lot's daughter doing the crime. So they caught the girl, poured honey all over her body, and unleashed a colony of bees to sting her to death. This was supposedly the cry that went up to God, after which He decided to put an end to this.
The book of Genesis says that in the valley of Siddim, there were a lot of asphalt pits. When Chedorlaomer of Elam and 3 other kings with him came to reconquer the residents of Pentapolis, they fought in this valley of Siddim. Chedorlaomer defeated them, and soldiers of Pentapolis ran. As they ran, many of them fell into these pits. A good analogy for these pits would be the areas of Yellowstone and Mount Lassen National Parks in the US with sulfuric pits and geysers. So there was some sort of underground geothermal activity going on in that region.
The book of Genesis says God destroyed the four out of five cities by reigning fire and sulfur onto them. (the 5th city was spared thanks to Lot). I don't know what exactly that was. Some people say it was a volcano. I've talked to an archeologist who visits the Jordan area every year to do digs there. They found material in the region which can only form at extreme temperatures. Temperatures beyond what a volcano can produce, or anything else on Earth for that matter. Today, such material is found in regions where nuclear bombs were tested. So it's very likely that the cause of that desctruction was extra-terrestrial. But whatever it was, it is responsible for the existance of the Dead Sea in that area. The Jordan river flows into that region. It flows in, but nothing comes out of it. So if we have an area filled with sulfur, with water flowing into it, over time, a lake full of sulfur would form in the region. And that is what we find there.
Incas were the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, with its boundaries stretching much farther than Peru today. 
Here are some differences between the ancient religious writings and Genesis, which hopefully answers the question whether Bible copied fr
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