Histomap of Religion by John B. Sparks

[@UsefulCharts]

Sign up for a 14-day free trial of MyHeritage now: bit.ly/UsefulChartsJanuary24

[@nosgee]

ill think about it

[@thelovingguy1449]

i like your content very much

[@agniswar3]

Does 'MyHeritage' do services for people from Asia?

[@UsefulCharts]

@@agniswar3 Yes. Although they don't have as many documents and users from Asia, their database is growing all the time.

[@Krityat]

@@UsefulChartscan you do Albert Einstein family tree

[@samwallaceart288]

Prejudices in the text aside, you can't deny these charts are the perfect balance between groovy and functional.

[@theshenpartei]

The designs are awesome and interesting

[@DZeiGaming]

What type of prejudices?

[@adzard-wd1pj]

​@@DZeiGaming The video will tell you.

[@samwallaceart288]

@@DZeiGaming The extra commentary on the aborigines beliefs being less civilized when a simple description would suffice. You can describe Australia without putting it in terms of how un-European it is. Not mad at it or anything, it's just not very objective is all.

[@DZeiGaming]

@@samwallaceart288 oh ok makes sense

[@hakonstaxrudholmgren35]

John B. Sparks, that might be one of the best last names for a chemical engineer I have heard.

[@infernousgaming1393]

It's still not as good as John B. Goodenough! He won the Nobel Prize for inventing lithium-ion batteries.

[@theshenpartei]

@@infernousgaming1393wait his last name was goodenough lol

[@infernousgaming1393]

@@theshenpartei Yep! It's amazing, isn't it?

[@melissareohorn7436]

it would even cooler if he was an electrical engineer instead

[@leontrotsky7816]

John B. Sparks was also the name of the bass player in 70s British band Dr Feelgood. I always thought it was a stage name, but apparently not.

[@mrmoshesh]

On totems and modern culture: South African culture groups still find significance in totems and izithakazelo (praise poems recounting ancestry). My wife nearly fainted when my mom mentioned a "cousin" whose surname belonged to her clan. My mother clarified that this was an adoptive (rather than blood) relative. I'm glossing over a lot of nuance in my comment. Still, fundamentally, totems, clan names (across language groups), and praise poems are often sought out by potential partners before marrying into a family to avoid incest.

[@paperbackwriter19]

are these writing systems that predate latin script?

[@mrmoshesh]

@@paperbackwriter19 Totems and izithakazelo are part of oral tradition. They are primarily spoken and passed down from generation to generation, and added to include significant clan-level events, in telling the personal history of a clan. I'm not sure how that might be relevant to your question about writing systems.

[@paperbackwriter19]

@@mrmoshesh that more than answers it. thanks

[@SuperExtremeTNT]

I don't know of any charts personally, but I would love to see you go over modern-ish charts from the 00s 90s, 80s, 70s etc that the teachers of today likely grew up with. I imagine they are outdated in more subtle ways but still enough to bring up in videos.

[@RedheadDane]

That actually made me wonder; do teachers still use those old maps they'd pull down in front of the classroom? Because I vaguely recall going to school in the 90es - damn, I'm old! - and the map of Europe would show Germany as being two countries. But now, lots of classrooms have smartboards, so teachers can find a 100% up-to-date map, and even zoom in on the important parts. I suppose the same thing can be said about charts.

[@JPatterson61586]

@@RedheadDaneOur pull down map when I was in elementary not only had E&W Germany, but the USSR and Yugoslavia were still on the map. And I'm pretty sure Yemen was split.

[@TheAlexSchmidt]

I imagine the reason why he doesn't is that those charts are still copyrighted so there's a limited amount of discussion he could do which would be considered fair use.

[@linktv7979]

​@RedheadDane we had a globe and a world map however the teachers taught us that its all inaccurate due to the geography stretching to fit the map and on the smartboard showed us the real sizes of each land mass starting with greenland ontop of africa. That was in 2013 id assume its the same.

[@joeldick6871]

Religions surrounding death and burial aren't necessarily the oldest. They are simply the oldest we find in archaeology, because they are the most easily preserved, as most burials are done underground. It reminds me of the person who asked why is it that ancient people built most of their structures as pyramids. The answer is that they didn't; it's just that the structures that were built as pyramids are the most easily preserved, so that's the ones we find surviving today.

[@PluetoeInc.]

i.e survivor's bias

[@BasileosHerodou]

Yeah but they are the oldest we can talk about. Anything else would be more speculation to already do

[@aaronlewis9609]

Please do an updated histomap of religion. After watching your other religion chart episodes, I'd feel I'd be blessed to hear your personal take on this topic. Be well.

[@Ezullof]

I'm not sure it's really possible to do that. Not all religions have this kind of history. All religions have various practices (they aren't exclusively "magic" or "tribal"). Lots of stuff is socio-cultural and isn't easy to establish as a religious belief or practice. This chart isn't just eurocentric, it's also extremely theoretical and doesn't account for the reality of religion in people's lives. It posits that new beliefs and practices have to come from previous concepts, as if it was always progressing forward... but that's just not how humans work.

[@Rain-Dirt]

@@Ezullof Still.. I'd like to see him try :)

[@elsadiora_]

Yess pleaseee. I promise I’ll setup an international payment for this “updated histomap” if you create one. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

[@ObjectiveEthics]

I ordered your book 'the Timeline of the Bible'. Absolutely an amazing addition to my library. Thank you for your hard work, honesty and unbiased scholarship.

[@RubelliteFae]

IDK this existed. Glad you commented so I could find out!

[@ObjectiveEthics]

@@RubelliteFae I highly recommend the book. I ordered one for myself and a copy for a friend. We are going to do a book club type of thing where we both read a section and then get together and discuss or ideas about what we read. I know it's a bit 'nerdy' but I am really excited about it. I am an agnostic and my friend is a Christian so it should make for some interesting conversations. I would also point out what an incredible value the book is. It has four of Matt Bakers charts included and I estimate the value of the book plus the charts runs about $100 but the cost of the book when I bought it was only about $27 + shipping.

[@RubelliteFae]

@@ObjectiveEthics Yo, that's sounds like a blast, TBH! I can never find people IRL interested in discussing my special interests (of which religious & philosophical studies has been a life-long one).

[@ObjectiveEthics]

@@RubelliteFae I feel you sister. I love to study theology, history, philosophy, science, biology, astronomy, astrology, and social evolution but finding people to have intelligent or meaningful discussions is very difficult 4 sure. I think my problem (as an agnostic and politically independent) is that I try to look at everything objectively with an open mind and most people are so extreme in their points of view. If you don't agree 100% with their world view then they just crumble like a cookie. I agree with some things from the far right and some things from the far left but generally I reject the extremists position. Currently I have been studying the Zoroastrian influence on 2nd temple Judaism. If you have any interesting insights on this please feel free to hit me up ✌

[@RubelliteFae]

@@ObjectiveEthics I think the issue is people looking at conversation as a competition. Just because I'm passionate, doesn't mean I'm attacking the person. Just challenging an idea (which I enjoy doing even for ideas I agree with to get fresh perspectives on it). But also, a lot of people act as though thinking is hard work instead of entertainment. 🤷‍♀ As for Zoroastrianism & Judaism, I don't recall anything very specific beyond the basics you probably already know. I would say though tracing back the Indic & Iranian split in worldview, philosophy, religion, etc is very fascinating. But you get a much better understanding when you look into the linguistics & etymologies. On another note, something I suspect, but have never seen published, is that I think there's something key that has yet to be uncovered about the Mitanni and one or more of the Caucasian peoples with regards to PIE influence on Levantine thought. With how many missing pieces there are it's a fascinating puzzle.

[@huntertrum3658]

I know I'm late to this trail of thought, but seeing how many great thinkers emerged relatively around the same time period, makes me really wonder about the great thinkers from centuries prior that we *don't* know about. Fantastic video as always.

[@magnero2749]

They are called 'just legendary" - and any record is guilty until proven innocent. If someone today scraping clay tablets can't find them it can't possibly be the case that back, then they knew their history better than we do.

[@Rizon1985]

@@magnero2749 It can because history can get lost. For example native americans didn't write their history down for us to read. They sang their history passing the songs down from generation to generation to remember. Some being dated back to 5000 years ago and earlier. The aboriginals did the same thing. Easter Island people did the same thing. At powwows the leaders and spiritual leaders then also spread their own songs of their tribe with other tribes which created a web of history. A historian back then could puzzle that history together. They also all have in common a big and rapid destruction of their societies. With it those songs started disappearing. Tribes being annihilated, others where all the children were taken away so no new generation to teach and in most reservations any ceremonies were forbidden including gathering to sing. We have some songs left from the largest native american tribes, very few of the aboriginels and I think none of the Easter Island people survived as their society was already collapsed to a few hundred men and a few dozen women by the time James Cook got to them without anyone being able to tell him how the hell it happened even though it was pretty recently. The history was lost but also the knowledge how to retain that history disappeared in the total collapse. The people maintaining a library in their head disappeared and so did any chance of us ever finding out their history further than the few archeological records remaining. All the details died with them and they did have a way better understanding of their history than we ever can. One day thousands of people could have told you how Troy was captured, then a few centuries later Homer tried to glue the few remaining pieces of the story together and only 200 years later someone figured out to write it down. We probably wouldn't even know today it ever happened because Troy's site was already covered. Herodutus had the same problem of only being able to capture an essence of what happened decades to hundreds of years before in history without the details surviving.

[@magnero2749]

@@Rizon1985 I appreciate the detailed examples with the native Indians you gave, but I was actually being sarcastic with "it can't possibly be the case that back, then they knew their history better than we do." I'm pretty confident they knew their history better than we do, and I find it kind of preposterous to default to a position that because we can't find something therefore it must be 'just legendary'. At best we can acknowledge these are their records as far as we have.

[@HolloMatlala1]

12:50 Sometimes I under appreciate the work you do behind closed doors to help me understand Religion and Spirituality while still Respecting God. Everything has a beginning

[@185MDE]

Religion For Breakfast has prepared me for this video.

[@manh385]

👏

[@kengillespie7797]

It is not pronounced "The Golden Bow", as in a bow and arrow, it's "Bough" as in a tree bough. Think of the nursery rhyme, "Rock-a-by Baby", specifically the line, "when the bough breaks, the cradle will fall". The distinction is important.

[@dodgek5270]

This just proves every religion is man-made.

[@RubelliteFae]

Research YT channels like this (e.g., Crecganford) often get pronunciations wrong. IMO, the more you get into prehistory, the more important a good understanding of linguistics is. Also, when you go back far enough you realize how important words and their proper pronunciation were considered *by the discussed cultures.* They have a magic of their own that's often ignored in modern scholarship. (A name is one's fame, their immortality. And to know a word is to have power over the thing: to begin to understand it and how to harness it for one's own purposes. Casting "spells" and understanding "spelling" is not coincidental word play.) I hope such channels see comments like this as useful help instead of spiteful critique.

[@andrewprahst2529]

Oh thanks man. I looked into this a month ago, and I read it along with him pronounced like "bow and arrow" and I thought I had it wrong

[@theangel666100]

Those words are completely the same to me. Sounds the same in rock-a-bye Baby.

[@realityisenough]

Bow and Bough literally sound identical. What weird as heck regional accent do you have where they sound different in any way

[@jamalo4177]

Would love to see an entire chart focused on Arab, Muslim & Middle Eastern family trees and dynasties, I saw one on the subreddit and it was great, I hope to see a more in depth yet broader one.

[@UsefulCharts]

Al Muqadimmah was supposed to make one for me. You should go over to his channel and remind him!

[@jamalo4177]

@@UsefulCharts Okey Dokey!

[@ackbooh9032]

The absence of Mesopotamian pantheons and practices is a shame! Totally agree that updated histomaps would be huge

[@RobespierreThePoof]

I wouldn't mind seeing an attempt to revise and update these histomaps you have called our attention to. I wonder if there is a graphic designer out there who you could collaborate with.

[@furlizard]

Yeah, that would be awesome

[@jfkmiller]

This is absolutely fascinating! Spark’s map is an early triumph of metadata. Only when we see the entire continuum in full do we realise each belief system’s role in it. Religions aren’t “received wisdom” as we’re led to believe, let alone the final word of any god, but mostly appropriated from earlier beliefs systems, and an evolving prospect ... like all life in the universe. Wonderful post - appreciate your scholarship.

[@gabyg389]

I'd love it if you made an updated version of these as they are really pretty and really well designed.

[@BigScienceDP]

This comment needs to be higher. Same!

[@JonathanGeorgeVillarreal]

As someone fascinated by history and religion, I find this channel incredibly enriching. Keep the videos coming!

[@lindiecalitz9420]

Mr. Baker I really love and appreciate your work!

[@bluestrawberry6472]

It would be cool if you could make a video about zoroastrianism

[@JVentura3]

19:08 Instead of capitalism, maybe the inclusion of Classical Liberalism would be a better comparison. Capitalism is an economic system, not an ideology. However, Communism has other aims for society going beyond economics, such as state, religion, etc. which capitalism is mostly silent about that. (Classical) Liberalism is the mostly polar opposite of Communism in those areas.

[@ChrisCorwin]

Came here to say this very thing.

[@Aerostarm]

I agree

[@michaeltsui3435]

Bolshevism would be a more correct term

[@shuliarenko]

Moreover - actual, practical communism/socialism in a "socialist" states has/had a number of features, usually seen in a religion. Studying and citing sacred texts (writings of Marx, Lenin, Mao, Kim, etc.), that are thought to be infallible and treated in dogmatic fashion (that's why there are different "heretics" and communist parties in some regions, where "state communism" is not enforced, tend to split and form small "sects"); relics of "saints" (founders of states and leaders) worshiped at the special shrines (mausoleums), and their standardized images used in a iconic fashion; there are special rituals, both occasional (for example in USSR there was a "solemn naming" of a baby ritual, called by people "starring" as an analogy of christening) and regular (party/comsomol meetings with it's regular ritualized practices). So it's much more looks like a religion in a reality, than just a political ideology.

[@raymondhartmeijer9300]

Communism is equally an economic model and an ideal, it's just that we are currently in a Capitalist system, so it feels like enormousy ideological and political, bc it is a proposed future arrangement that Communists would want to see implemented. But at the core it's economics too. Capitalism can also be viewed as an ideology, bc it is founded on certain principles that are not neutral. The right to private property, gaining surplus value out of a particular boss-worker-relationship, these are not universal truths, but arise from the system itself. It's just that we are used to it so we don't treat it as such. It's hard to seperate the ideal with the economic model, it doesn't work that way. I wouldn't say the Cult of Personalities that arose in certain Socialist nations are religious per se, these can be explained by a (then) new state that strived for unity and a new identity, that is not unique for Socialism. Also there are no "sacred texts", bc Marxism (the most important framework in Socialism) is actually viewed as a Social science. A science, that can, and must, be build upon and corrected with new insights. That's what any science does. The appearence on that old chart is just an Anti-Communist sign of the times which is pretty funny looking at it today

[@aztergaming2071]

It's really humbling to know that humans are capable of this even without the internet

[@milansvancara]

On the other hand seeing that even now people believe this BS has the very opposite effect

[@thesharinganx5847]

@@milansvancara Calling all religion BS is a pretty close-minded approach, considering how big of a role it played and still plays in organising society and culture across the world. And no most conflict around the world has nothing to do with religion if that's what you're referring to.

[@milansvancara]

​@@thesharinganx5847 For example alcohol had much greater effect on humanity, yet it is an objectively correct thing to say that alcoholics are doing objectively stupid thing drinking it. Ironicaly enough it also makes people stupid, just like religion... So no, its' impact on humanity doesn't justify being a believer today, and doesn't make it any less stupid... Countless sacrifices of people and animals, banning and censoring knowledge, torturing and executing people for having a different opinions, countless wars waged for fairy tales, yet you call me ignorant for shunning that behaviour, lul

[@methylmike]

charts are so awesome you're doing great work

[@HolloMatlala1]

And Maps too

[@bulbainquisition9590]

I don't know why, but when I was a Mormon missionary in southern California, someone had this chart up in one of our Apartments. No one knew who put it up or how it got there, but it was a fun read.

[@MurdersaurusFlex]

That chart would really tie the room together.

[@davidanderson_surrey_bc]

As a Vancouverite I was surprised and elated to see the sacred symbol and devout followers of the local religion shown on your video at around the 6:25 mark.

[@RubelliteFae]

This is the best brief summary of these ideas that I have come across all in one place. Though I learned most of this info 2 decades ago, I only learned about the Midianite-Shasu-Kenite-Canaanite-Hebrew information earlier this month. So, it's really nice that these days people can get a summary of 20 years of study all in one place. Source: I have a degree in anthropology w/ archaeology emphasis. Also heavily studied semiotics, Asian culture, philosophy, & religions (though some of that collegiately and some of it on my own). P.S. If you want more info on East Asian religion hit me up. It's not quite right to call Confucianism or Taoism a "religion" in the sense that Westerners use the term, but that could be said of Vedic-based ideas as well as things like Platonism, etc. Even emically we can divide what we call Taoism into Taoist philosophy & Taoist "religion," but not so with Confucianism (which does advocate for keeping up much older religion-like practices, but didn't innovate any). I actually took an Asian Philosophy course and an Asian Religions course at two different schools and they were >75% the same info, even sharing many of the same course texts. Since (IMO) these are taught outside of the discipline of anthropology, they still haven't left behind old Western thought biases. China's Hundred Schools of Thought era is a fascinating area of study during the Axial Age, tho. I think a deep dive video into a complete and (modernly) accurate chart such as this (perhaps containing both religion & philosophy as the dividing line isn't simple) would be amazing and would love to share what I've learned in order to assist in the creation of such a chart/video.

[@traviswadezinn]

Very interesting - also helpful to get an overview of shifts in academic thinking

[@statickaeder29]

I'm interested in when the Bronze Age Collapse occurred in relation to this chart.

[@UsefulCharts]

Basically, exactly where he includes Moses.

[@ettinakitten5047]

@@UsefulCharts Did he link the Exodus to the Bronze Age collapse? I know there's been debate about whether the Exodus story is referring to events during that time period.

[@UsefulCharts]

I don't think Sparks knew about the link but nowadays most historians do point to a link. I'll be talking a lot about the Bronze Age Collapse in the next video.

[@Vichikuma]

There's one thing that came to my mind after reading David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. Religions began having human shaped deities as their priests began writing. Before that, deities had shapes taken from Nature, even in old Ancient Israelite Religion (the burning bush). But once priests begin writing, deities turn human shaped. Greek religion and Judaism are the best examples. Before wrtiting, Zeus wasn't protrayed as human shaped; same happens with YHWH. The Egyptian case is specially interesting, because it's like a middle ground, and how does that relate to writing? Well, completely human shaped deities are charasteristic of abstract alphabets, like the Hebrew and Greek ones. Pictographs like the Egyptian give rise to a mix of human and animal charasteristics in the deities shapes. Oral traditions have complete natural deities. What is the relationship between the shape and type of the deities and writing, then? Well, with writing, the idea that communication is a human trait is easier to adopt. But if you write with pictographs of natural shapes, forgetting that Nature also communicates is harder, since quite literally, when reading, you are hearing a voice in your head while looking at a natural element, as if the voice came from it. Thus, the Egyptians kept having gods with animal traits. But not the Jews, Greeks or Romans. Communication was always understood as a sign of intelligence and, thus, power; for that reason it was ultimately projected to deities. Once people think that Nature doesn't communicate (as deities do), then comes the thought that nature is not sacred, even stupid, can be exploited and finally destroyed. Is it a coincidence that the Industrial Revolution began in one of the most literate places of the world at its time, the United Kingdom? Is it a coincidence that when people began to massively see animals clearly communicating, watching animal documentaries on TV and then spectacular feats of pets communication here in KZbin, people actually began to treat animals differently than earlier in the XX century (specially cats)?

[@Kumimon]

underrated comment.

[@HolloMatlala1]

School of thought....y thoughts exactly the internal but external drivers and influences of changes and human reasoning

[@DanDoerfler]

I'm curious what people will say about Useful Charts 100 years from now. I wonder what current ideologies we hold will be considered taboo to future peoples.

[@HolloMatlala1]

The cultural importance is so significant as we entering an age of Ignorance and short attention spans

[@_martian101]

future people would be much more less biased and more open minded, they'd be much more respectful as well, this is always a pattern as the world advancing the standard of morality are also increasing, people are more and more tolerant to other groups than before, this would lead to much more diverse and more complex society eventually, diverse but also homogenous as globalisation today to classic europeans.

[@rizkyadiyanto7922]

wokism vs trumpism

[@kirkvoelcker5272]

Please consider a discussion of a famous histomap, Minard's 1869 "‘Losses from the Russian Campaign," which graphics theorist and educator Edward Tofte has called "the best statistical graph ever drawn."

[@theshenpartei]

The more complex design charts the better looking and more interesting they look

[@robinharwood5044]

Those charts are great. We need updated ones to replace old biases and prejudices with modern biases and prejudices.

[@giuseppecasci]

Amazing comment

[@gordonwallace3584]

FIRST; Excellent video and keep up the good work. Secondly; At the rate of Discovery, or rate of increase in knowledge it must be very hard to make charts that don't become irrelevant in a very short time. Good luck!

[@ekmalsukarno2302]

Hi there, Matt. Can you please make a video on the Cambodian royal family tree. Thank you very much.

[@Kushagra.j]

I'm sure everyone will be Peaceful and Co-operative in the comments and no one will try to diss any religion. Right?

[@imperator9343]

Gosh you're so cool and enlightened and obviously way better than all those other people (?) how do you make such insightful observations

[@thechosenone5644]

Mostly. Usefulcharts comments sections are pretty chill

[@lucavwholaugh5023]

right? 😂

[@jvgreendarmok]

(Always Sunny title card)

[@MrKnowledge0014]

I personally think religion is mostly stupid but I do like learning about it.

[@okAphex]

Hey Matt! i hope you have been feeling better. This is such an incredible flow design. it seems so intuitive but very comprehensive

[@alemayehushanko6857]

hello Matt, happy to see you back. Hope you had recovered well.

[@blauskie]

Anything that illustrates the vastness of time and space or the untold billions of people that came before us, clearly undermines a belief that we are special.

[@MarkArandjus]

"For just 1$" One dollar in 1940 was like 22 bucks today.

[@noureldinmohammed7612]

I love this "Matt Bakerrrr"

[@VyrenLee]

Just wanted to point out the Osiris was the resurrected god, while Horus was his son that was conceived before his return to the underworld.

[@IulianYT]

19:08 - don't know if "marxism" is a religion by the "western culture point of view", but living in the post soviet country, I saw a lot of religious fanatics, supporting marxism as panacea, ultimate model of the society, best way to live and thrive and so on. You don't find often such "prozilitious" people as homo-sovietikus-dalbaiobikus between any "proper religion"

[@V01DIORE]

It's an extreme ideology, philosophy, a kind of memetic infection though not religious itself sharing dispositions for spread. Ultra-nationalistic jingoism is not purely communist. Personalities cults which spawn more often as a result of communistic thought are however what could be considered religious followings.

[@Neomalthusiano]

If you ever come to Latin America you will find out there even though there were few marxist regimes there, there are throngs of fanatical zealots fighting for Trotskyism, which differ from traditional Marxism (Marxism-Leninism) because it's basically WOKE socialism.

[@jeupater1429]

Marxism is a religion.

[@lovecraftianwalrus4490]

My grandmother has a copy of the main histomap by John Sparks hanging in her bedroom. It’s very cool.

[@jansenart0]

Thank goodness we had Jared Diamond to show us the way.

[@paulo50001]

True and honest work here, congratulations.

[@Axehilt]

Awesome, we had that Histomap posted at the office of our game company while working on Rise of Nations (an RTS game like Age of Empires that's about civilizations throughout history). Didn't know there were more!

[@isaacnazar]

Excellent information, thank u for taking the Time to.make this video

[@kin_1997]

you should make a map / chart related to natural sciences, like who did what first, when was Newtonian physics published, calculus, quontem mechanics and etc.

[@Exit311]

I really enjoyed your commentary on this chart. It would be great if you made this a regular part of your channel - reviewing famous or historical charts, flow maps, etc (e.g. Minard's map of Napoleon's invasion of Russia).

[@michaelbenham3603]

Interesting to think about someone down the line looking at your histomap and identifying the biases or debunked ideas of our day

[@drushed7387]

I am not gonna lie, the animism in Hinduism is very alive and I think it is a good thing, it shows that the things that you use, that surround you are more powerful than you. And it's is not a very human centric view like other religions. There is literally a festival vishvakarma where people worship their tools related to the work... Which includes the classical tools like hammers and modern tools like cars and their engines, truck.

[@StAngerNo1]

I've taken a closer look at the Histomap. Japanese Shinto is classified as state worship coming from tribal religion and devine kings. This is not entirely wrong, but I think it would fit better within the Nature Worship, since most Kami (gods/spirits) are more nature spirits, like mountain "gods", the "gods" of wind and thunder or the sun godess. It can be considered a tribal religion, because it makes no effort of converting other people to it, so almost all shinto believers are ethnic japanese, and the connection to divine kings is also not wrong. The Tenno (emperor) is not seen as devine by himself, but his bloodline is divine stemming from Amaterasu, the sun godess. But I would not consider Shinto a form of state worship and all things considered, I think it still fits better within nature religions.

[@thhseeking]

Shinto was co-opted by the Japanese government and became "state Shinto". I think "Religion for Breakfast" covered it, or "Let's Talk Religion". Maybe both. That ended after the Second World War. The Japanese are rather pragmatic...they perform Shinto rituals but can also perform Buddhist ones, and marry in Christian churches. Seems better than some who want to beat you over the head to convert.

[@matejmoravek4580]

not an expert but I think its helpful to split to folkish shinto (which is clearly nature worship) from the State Shinto after Meiji Restoration which is still the same shinto but in practice it is state worshish (but also partly nature worship as the divine right of the emperor comes from the fact the he is the Son of Sun)

[@thhseeking]

@@matejmoravek4580 My understanding is that State Shinto disappeared after the Second World War and the occupation by the United States.

[@matejmoravek4580]

@@thhseeking yeah that's a good point; but not totally as there are still lots of people shouting banzai all over but the emperor has denounced his godhood

[@StAngerNo1]

@@matejmoravek4580 Maybe you are right, I don't know much about shinto during the japanese empire, but I know a bit about shinto today, and for todays shinto nature worship definitely fits better.

[@MarkWusinich]

Great content, as always

[@msmilder25]

Love it. Great job. It's important for people to realize that through time, standards change...perspectives change...new information often refutes earlier established knowledge that at the time, may have been considered irrefutable. For example, my father was a history major in college in the early 1970's and would become a high school history and social studies teacher. He acquired a book series titled "Six Thousand Years of History", made up of 10 equal length volumes, the first of which covered "ancient and medieval" history. This series was published in 1899 by E.R. DuMont (New York-Chicago-St. Louis). The books are a fascinating take on how late 19th century historians viewed human history...but they were very much skewed by Euro-centric prejudices of that time. They basically spell out in the text that Caucasian history is the only history that really matters. The books mention only in the slightest context the civilizations or cultures of sub-Saharan Africa, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders/Oceania, and largely dismiss Eastern Asian civilizations...well, they recognize a few early civilizations, but debate whether they developed independently or through some pre-historical connection to the West. It lumps the Middle-Eastern civilizations, Indian civilizations, Greek and Roman European civilizations as well as the rise of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as being interconnected, and goes into quite a bit of race theory regarding Aryans. My guess is, it was works like this that were later referenced by Hitler and his ilk, though there isn't anything in the books that I have come across that are grotesquely racist, more that they are just dismissive of other ethnicities and non-Western civilizations. The point is, this was probably a scholastic collection at the time, that was used in classrooms, and was seen as correct and accurate thinking...but by today's standards, well over 100 years later, as being tragically out of date and full of biases, prejudices and assumptions not based on facts.

[@calebgoodfellowcg]

Two things I want to mention about Zoroastrianism. The whole “dualism” thing is a much later invention. The original dualism was between two spirits in reality that emerged out of creation, but Ahura Mazda had no direct opposing god. Spenta Mainyu was the dual opponent of Angra Mainyu. Calling Angra Mainyu a god would have been seen as heretical in every stage of Zoroastrianism. And the Zurvanites who did this were original seen as heretical before gaining political power. It did have later deities added in called Yazatas that are creation of Mazda to help it manage existence and fight against Druj, the lie, as well as Angra Mainyu, the evil spirit/potentiality. An even bigger point is that Zarathushtra did not live in the Persian empire, he lived many centuries before, sometime between 2000 and 1000 bc. We know this because we have a set of poems composed by him called the Gathas, and they are contemporaneous with the RgVeda. Herodotus also described the Persian religion as similar to Zoroastrianism, and said this was carried in since ancient times.

[@ahuram]

🌹

[@sdastoryteller3381]

Ooooh, i really like these Charts, trippy crazy colours, and broad strokes.

[@ireallydontknow8616]

Just got my Timeline of the Bible book. It's amazing so far!

[@johnpenner5182]

great description and contextualization. thx!

[@kirandeepchakraborty7921]

That's why I love this channel so much. ❤

[@rilosvideos877]

Very interesting to look at these 'old' charts and how things were seen in these times. You get a much clearer understanding of religion and people's connections when you have an understanding of their history and how things developed. That makes history so important! I even got a 'better?' understanding of our christian religion and how it developed among the others. If you look at the topic from a birds-eye-view the 'magic' aspect of religion gets smaller and you probably get a more 'realistic' or more comprehensive view.

[@radonato]

Matt, your videos are well researched and thorough. Your commentary effuses knowledge and enthusiasm for your chosen topics. Please keep on with your colorful and in depth reviews and creations that help bring better understanding of and joy in learning history. And fuck all the trolls.

[@LordJazzly]

(Also - despite habitually leaving flippant comments, I really do appreciate these videos; they're great work, informative, entertaining, I enjoy watching them, and the intent behind the 'Yes, but-' type commnents is only ever to try and contribute more interesting information to what is already here. Whether or not that intent succeeds, I have no idea, and I apologise if it's just a load of junk data.)

[@jdotoz]

The original Histomap looks like "just a dollar" to us, but that was worth about $20 back then.

[@Planag7]

Definitely remember seeing this chart I think that are learning center which is where you turned in the homeschooling assignments. Yeah definitely biased. Although it was oddly my mom that pointed that out that Sparks was putting his biases on it Nowadays she'd never admit it

[@RedheadDane]

Interesting thing about Dyaus-Pitar; while Zeus and Jupiter were the "King gods", Tyr was not, that honour of course belonging to Odin. Or am I basing this on a Scandinavian perspective, while in other locations Tyr was indeed the top-god?

[@jacksoninc.4062]

I think the most interesting part in this histomap is the Islamic part and its' inclusion on the green part. The Qur'an many times affirms the idea of the "size" of God as compared to nature ("look at how the mountains that are large, now look at Me, the Almighty" kinda stuff). In Islam, God is looked at as the one who runs the universe and is bigger than the things in that universe. Definitely something to read on, thanks 👏👏

[@michaelweldon1271]

Matt, I look forward to seeing your new chart ...

[@ksoman953]

Awesome. As always.

[@-RONNIE]

Thanks for the video

[@dark_messiah8183]

A well-intentioned friend who knows how I love maps and charts and biology and history, accidentally got me the evolution map for Christmas. Let’s just say, upon closer inspection, the friend returned the map for another gift 😂. While an interesting piece and view into 19th/early 20th century views, I didn’t particularly feel the need to own it myself. Great video!

[@vadec5909]

Thank you so much! I love your work!

[@athanasiusofalexandria4304]

I love your work. I love your charts and videos. They are so informative and well researched. Very entertaining and educational! One thing that just grates on my nerves is that you constantly use the terms BCE and CE. These terms have always seemed to me to be a solution without a problem. The use of the terms BC and AD have been in common use in the Western World for close to a millennium, possibly longer, as the dominate/common way to date events. The use of these terms does not force anyone to be a Christian or even religious in any way whatsoever, so why the change? , the only reason I can think of is to unnecessarily bash Christianity, because it doesn’t change the fact that the “common era” began (roughly) with the birth of Christ, so then if a student were to hear that, for example, Charles Martel won the battle of Tours in 732 CE (common era) and ask the question “What is the Common Era and when did it begin? The answer would have to be “it is the era beginning (roughly) with the birth of Jesus Christ.” So then the dating system is still based with the turning point from BCE to CE as being the year when certain monks calculated the birth of Jesus Christ to be. So nothing substantial changes with the new designation. The only difference is one doesn’t have to say the word Christ or the word Domini (Lord.). This is literally the only difference, which brings me back to my original point, the change from BC and AD to BCE and CE is truly a solution with a non existent problem (which attempts to do this dates back to even the 1700s’ though it has only become widely used in the last 20-25 years.) But as I said I love the content. Excellent channel. Forgive the rant…Just a pet peeve of mine.

[@SpaveFrostKing]

I'd suggest reading the wikipedia article on the terms: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era. There's a number of reasons why you might choose to use it (or at least not complain about those who use it): it's a phrase going back hundreds of years, it's less religiously significant, and it's the standard in academic circles. If anything, it'd be weird for a Jew (like the maker of this channel) to use "AD" to refer to the current year, when AD means 'year of the lord / year of our lord'. Also, the language we use to refer to things constantly evolves. I assume you wouldn't refer to someone using a term that used to be widely accepted, but is now considered offensive. Not quite the same thing, but the same thought process applies.

[@WilliamLund-o1d]

He has talked about it in other videos that the reason that CE was invented wasn't to avoid referencing Jesus, it was to avoid calling him "our Lord", and it was invented by Jews who weren't comfortable call Jesus lord.

[@UsefulCharts]

I actually did a video about why I use BCE/CE if anyone is interested: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kJa1Z4CIhNyqiaM

[@4sythdude549]

@@WilliamLund-o1d Yeah and Matt is Jewish, so I doubt that he'll be using AD any time soon. Personally, I think that we should push the starting date of the common era back towards the approximate invention of writing. That way you have PH (Pre History) and CE (Common Era). Everyone's happy.

[@athanasiusofalexandria4304]

@@UsefulCharts thanks very much for the response. I will check it out. I wasn’t aware you had made one. Again, I very much appreciate the response. As I said I love your content. Very well done.

[@marksandsmith6778]

I bought your book Matt. Turns out a lot of world history was empty space.

[@UsefulCharts]

?

[@marksandsmith6778]

@@UsefulCharts Lots of white space on the charts and blank on reverse.

[@YellowJelly13]

The key difference between this "bias" when it comes to capitalism and communism is much simpler and not actually a bias. Capitalism wasn't invented, it emerged and was later described. Communism, on the other hand, did not exist before it was invented, and so instead of it being described, it had to be prescribed, it had to be put in march until completed. Capitalism predates Adam Smith, but communism does not predate Karl Marx. I agree it's still weird that it was included in a religion chart, but it being added alongside humanism makes it have a bit more sense at least.

[@mcray0309]

I’d love to see you look through that histomap. I’m sure it’s outdated but I love to see more about it

[@DanMosqueda]

Really great video and information. Thanks Matt!

[@darcolomew]

As a practitioner of magik, I do not speak for all pagans but nature worship is a.big part of my craft, any "powers" as laypeople may call it that I have are gifts from spirits I have honoured, I can't just snap my fingers and shit happens I have to appease the appropriate spirit and ask them kindly for their help

[@jimy_rizu]

What a great artwork to hang on the wall! This should be auction starting at $45m

[@atnguyenquoc4056]

Looks like a colorful picture

[@ryanasazaki1291]

I agreed on the fact that these older charts tended to exhibit the understanding of the period, and these errors, intentionally or unintentionally, should be rigorously revised, examined, and to be looked onto, under an objective manner. But on whether communism is a religion, serving a religion-like purpose, most likely depended on a believer, or what a believer thinks about the ultimate cause of communism. To a non-believer, communism can be seen as scientific-discovery-driven optimism, utopianism, and heavily romanticized, often establishing a cult-of-personality around key communist leaders and figures. Often these revered and celebrated figures were then preserved after death, out-of-respect and for the masses to witness the heroic, emotional experiences when visiting the respected mausoleum, while figures who was label troublesome in their latter life doesn't, and were purged. Examples are Lenin's Mausoleum and the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong. This exact phenomena, were further developed into the so-called "red tourism", where believers toured through historically-significant places and avenues, often in a governmentally-sponsored program or by the personal choice of the individual. In essence, the "Disneyfication" of historically-significant places and figures, enabling a communist counterpart of religious pilgrimage. The village of Liangjiahe in Yan'an of Shaanxi Province, along with the rest of Yan'an received thousands of domestic tourists in a year, and is the place where the current secretary Xi Jinping was sent to the countryside under the "Down to the Countryside Labor Movement" during Mao's era. Not to mention, the various merchandises of Mao himself, were and still are sold as gifts, presents and other memorabilia, and popular songs in different genres were made on Mao too (Somewhat similarity to Christian music). Communism, thus is a "secular religion", a para-religious belief, often with political and ideological connotation as a basis, deals in not the heavenly divine, nor the holy, but the earthly-spirit of the belief in the ultimate cause of the revolution. Excessive belief in Christian nationalism or the American exceptionalism is also along the same lane. The term "civic religion" is also a related term. So while I agreed upon that is it questionable that the chart specifically singles out on other politically, or ideologically driven para-religious beliefs, and choose to cover communism itself, whether intentionally or unintentionally, the remark shouldn't undermine the often intrinsically political, para-religious tone the cause of communism has. Something that capitalism doesn't have, at least to a comparable degree. After all, depending on who you ask, some will pointed out that, communism has led many more to their demise than what their cause originally promised for. Ironically, communism has a long history of doubting traditionally mainstream religions in of itself, the belief in the heavenly is too bourgeois for the proletariat I guess. This also led the masses to "seek and convert" to communism for faith, as the state-wide restriction on religion created a vacuum for the need of faith in an already economically harsh environment.

[@miguelatkinson]

You are aware that there where communist who are religious and also non-believers who are not in support of communism either right

[@religionandscience3514]

woww, what a work on you, 👍👍👍👍👍

[@justaboomer9091]

I saw this thumbnail and went like "yep, this lad never gets bored of it"

[@terryfox9344]

These histomaps are remarkably informative and thoughtful. I believe that "Communism" is truly a religion, while I disagree with you that Capitalism is a religion, unless you're talking about Ayn Rand's "Objectivism". I really like the fact that he includes "philosophers" in his chart because philosophy and religion are closely related concepts.

[@arthurmorgan1550]

How is communism a religion?

[@redmask1356]

these should be remade with modern information

[@AlixL96]

Sad about the lack of inclusion of American Secular Religion. From an anthropological perspective it's rather fascinating, and a perfect example of how you can't really have any human culture without some form of spiritual behavior.

[@damattice23]

So looking forward to your version of this map!!!🎉. Please consider spelling magic as “magick” as it distinguishes it from slight of hand type magic. So excited ❤❤❤❤❤

[@anmolsinghbath9434]

Ah, exactly what I was expecting when you mentioned the age of the chart. A grave error by Sparks in putting Sikhi as a part of the Hinduism line - should've been made a split between at least the Hindu Bhakti movements and Sufi Islam, small part of Zoroastrianism (arguable; 3 pillars) & Jainism (rejection of Hindu Scriptures).

[@JoRiver11]

You should make an updated histomap of religion! Also I get your point about the Horus to Jesus transition, but even though Jesus was a historical figure, he has had the similar mythology attached to him, and current interest in him is about the mythology, not the real mortal man.

[@Thomas_H_Sears]

I consider that Islam is a reformist religion in the same sense of Lutheranism, and put it not in the middle as you suggest, but to the 'right' [on this chart] of Christianity.

[@MarcusCactus]

Not actually correct. Reformist means correcting errors, dispensing of old-fashioned primitive thinking in the aim of progressing towards truth. Islam was meant to regress to quasi-animist thinking, fit for arrierated populations like the bedouins, as opposed to the sedentary civilized Arabs. Note: orthodoxism was a mix of progress and regress. And politics. (No judgment of value under the terms progress and regress. Progress could lead toward fascism, regress to rejection of cupiditism... oops! I mean capitalism.)

[@Thomas_H_Sears]

@@MarcusCactus We seem to be using different words for the same thing. Islam, seeing the corruption (not value judgement) of urbanized Christianity, moving away from the connections to the, as you say, arrieated livings of the earlier Jewish livings, correcting the errors.

[@hipstertrudy3658]

I think it is an incredibly astute observation to put communism as a religion. Within the small community of economic historians that is how we classify it as well, at least since the work of Joseph Schumpeter. There is an important difference in that what we call "capitalism" is a DESCRIPTIVE system of how the means of production switched from serving primarily princes, lords, aristocrats, and the church-- to serving the masses. Essentially becoming mass production instead of handcrafted artifacts. What we call "Communism" however, is a PRESCRIPTIVE set of doctrines about how an economy could and SHOULD work. It makes value judgements, and was heralded by the moralistic prophet Karl Marx. This is from my economics history textbook: "Marxism is a religion. To the believer it presents, first, a system of ultimate ends that embody the meaning of life and are absolute standards by which to judge events and actions; and, secondly, a guide to those ends which implies a plan of salvation and the indication of the evil from which mankind, or a chosen section of mankind, is to be saved. We may specify still further: Marxist socialism also belongs to that subgroup which promises paradise on this side of the grave." It becomes even more obvious when you realize that like monotheism, what communism first had to do was kill all its opposing Gods. Similar to how Christian evangelists around the year 800-900 had to first kill the German Aesir, one of the first thing communism did was destroy all religious monuments and suppress the worship of all other gods. From a historical perspective, it fits the bill of a religion about as cleanly as they come.

[@V01DIORE]

I don't think ideologies while not being religions themselves stops them being in opposition with their specific criteria, both communism and capitalism suppose their moral correctness. Communism is an extremist economic philosophy. Though just as any system a memetic infection which vies for spread, especially when jingoistic ultra-nationalism is a comorbidity. The personality cults that do often arise due to communist thinking in modernity however could be considered religious followings, and so are in direct competition with other religiosity, but those are not purely communist in nature as history shows.

[@rabidbeaver167]

Communism is the opposite of capitalism it's not a f****** religion. Marx wasnt a prophet lmfao. Nobody prays to his books, no churches, no apologists. Lol.

[@SpaveFrostKing]

Obviously these charts are very problematic by our standards, but I'm glad you emphasized things done well. It would be "appropriate" for someone in the 30s to overemphasize Christianity, claiming it as objectively better than other religions. It's also always nice to see a rejection of biblical literalism.

[@jackblack24]

Matt, have you heard about the book the Dawn of Everything, by David Graeber and David Wengrow? Their research contradicts a bit of your critique of Sparks that divine “kings” did not exist in prehistory. There is archeological evidence of ancient burials of special individuals, such as people we would now say “with disabilities,” who were clearly revered by their groups and honored in death. Pretty cool, and a great book overall!

[@erdood3235]

22:10 it's also your duty to correct mistakes from contemporary competitors as well

[@Elizabeth-rh1hl]

Very interesting. Thank you.

[@vcjg287]

Meanwhile all of them be like "My religion is the only true and right one evidently"

[@mr3817]

"Propitiation" in the Biblical sense means the "satisfaction of God's Wrath" - the idea that the gods are "angry" for a "reason" and punish humans. The Christian religion still contains in its texts (aka The Bible) this core idea. I would argue it is STILL the core concept in Christianity and it is FROM the resolution of this "problem" that all the benefits of Christianity flow.

[@TheRealCaelestium]

Love the video. Never gets boring watching your content. God bless🙏

[@mikeyb7263]

A product placement that drips with irony.