The search for
ultimate meaning is a thread that runs through every culture, however wedded it
may be to the practical and tangible. Gold and empire are greatly prized but
always there are individuals who look for something else. The Mughal emperor
Akbar’s inward journey was both long and arduous. Even the Material Girl has
her own special space for the spiritual.
But nowhere is it better exemplified than in the pilgrim’s quest. When the devotee sets out, like Kim’s Lama in search of the River of the Arrow, it is with a humble heart and the hope of absolution or salvation at the end of the journey. That is the end of desire. These journeys are both internal and external and in each case generate a network of guide posts to help successive generations of travellers.
There are all sorts of networks, visible and invisible, written and drawn. Nor are they confined to the spiritual. The notes that Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton or Galileo left behind are also signposts. They served as maps for men and women curious enough to learn more about the anatomy of the universe.
That is not the end of it, however, as the landscapes we inhabit are often notional and emotional, requiring a different sort of navigational aid. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, for instance, consists of a number of magic spells intended to assist a dead person's journey through the Duat, or underworld, and into the afterlife, a map into a different sort of geography.
Somewhat in this spirit is Diana L Eck’s India A Sacred Geography, where she provides insights into a realm that everyone has experienced but few have bothered to explore in any depth. Her concern is the Indian religious landscape, principally Hindu religious landscape, external, internal and hypothetical. That is a deliberate limit she places upon her study. It is a daunting task even with that constraint. The Indian religious tradition is more than 3,000 years old, at least the organised segment of it. Some practices are older, perhaps beyond recorded time.
This tradition has
continued to evolve over the millennia, splitting into branches and
subdivisions and coming together again in some cases. In some instances,
outside influences have modified and moderated its main features. At least two
major religions and several existent minor variations on the theme have come
into being as a result of this process, and we are not including the tribal
faiths which cannot be strictly classified as Hindu. Wisely, Diana Eck makes no
mention of them either as it would complicate her task impossibly.
In addition to the indigenous faiths we have an extensively recorded history of Islam and Christianity, not to speak of Judaism (a very small sample to be sure) and Zoroastrianism. Of the first two there are millions of practitioners in every corner of the land, of every conceivable school of thought. Given the wealth of material, therefore, a certain economy of effort was probably inevitable. All the same, the geography of these faiths deserves separate study.
Everyone is familiar with the term “geography” in the sense of a description of or a pictorial representation of the landscape under the gaze of the observer. The atlas is the best example of geographic representation and there are many types, from the detailed large-scale maps of the surveyor, to the smaller maps of countries that we see in the bookshops.
There are in addition the population, natural resource, roadway and railway, wildlife and forestry maps. Indeed, there are as many geographies in our lives as fields of interest. Each is capable of cartographic representation, immediate instances being the charts and diagrams of weather, stock market cycles, and so on in the daily newspaper.
Then there is Google Maps, a wondrous use of available technology to provide detailed information about every part of the planet. The first view when you click on it is the familiar outline you will see in any atlas, but zoom in on a particular area and you see increasing, richer and finer details until you can view the houses and streets in your neighbourhood. That is your personal geography and mine, paths we traverse every day in the routine of work, study, worship, leisure and errands.
They set out from their villages and towns, sometimes alone, sometimes in small groups and occasionally in large bands, travelling vast distances in search of God. Many never came back, lost forever to their friends and families at home. Some became wanderers, others died and some went to Kashi or Mecca or some other sacred place to die .
Now if we bend our minds to thinking like this we will find another interesting fact. This personal geography is repetitive and highly predictable; we go more or less the same way on most days, with only minor deviations. Consciously or unconsciously, our routines define the major part of our worlds and confine them.
Trevor Bailey, former
England cricketer, was among the most travelled men of his time, having visited
three continents playing for his country. But he considered himself a stay-at-home
type. Most of his life, he said, was spent in an area approximately half a
square mile (about 300 acres) in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. Birth, childhood,
school, work, family, and retirement home, all were crowded into that little
space, a remarkable fact, considering Bailey was born in the Age of Mobility,
social and physical.
But it is when we
are confronted with the fact of pilgrimage and its antiquity that the real
surprises begin. Until the end of the 19th century, travel of any sort was both
uncertain and dangerous, especially for ordinary people. As a result, few
people ventured out of their environment. Merchants and the nobility had their
own armed retainers, but hostile locals were not the only problem. Disease, ignorance
of the country, flood and famine could be equally deadly, equally final.
Those of us who have travelled to Haridwar or Badrinath, Rameswaram or Puri by train, bus or car can have no idea of a journey without any of these conveniences. At best, you could ride a fast horse or a cart. The majority walked, day in day out, the only comfort being that every day brought them closer to the end.
Yet they set out from their villages and towns, sometimes alone, sometimes in small groups and, occasionally, in large bands, travelling vast distances to the remotest places, in search of God. Many of them never came back, lost forever to their friends and families at home. Some became wanderers, others died and some went to Kashi or Mecca or some other sacred place to die.
Roopkund in the Garhwal Himalayas is a glacial lake 5,029 metres (16,499 ft) above sea level. It is piercingly cold, uninhabited and covered in snow most of the year. In 1942, H.K. Madhwal, a ranger from the Nanda Devi game reserve reported some 500 human skeletal remains lying at the edge of the lake. It wasn’t really news as similar reports had been coming in since the 19th century. No one knew where they had come from though rumour had added sinister overtones to a deep mystery.
A comprehensive study of the remains in 2004 turned up some astonising results. The remains dated from approximately 850 AD, more than 1,000 years ago. DNA evidence indicated that at least one part of the group probably comprised Kokanastha Brahmins in Maharashtra.
What inspired them to travel halfway across the subcontinent into completely alien terrain and climatic conditions is not known, but the remarkable fact is that they did so. Why? There is no historic evidence of trade routes into Tibet, but there is an important pilgrimage in the area, the Nanda Devi Raj Jat, once in 12 years. That is the likely explanation, but this too is speculative.
“The footsteps of pilgrims are the point of departure in creating the lived landscape. Pilgrims leave home, and the tracks of their journeys create a circuit of meaning and connection.”
This is the heart of the thesis in A Sacred Geography. Diana Eck devotes an entire chapter to a Hindu “Atlas of the World” including Jambudvipa (Rose Apple Island, an old name for India) but the real focus is on the pilgrim, the sites of pilgrimage and the groups of sites that make up the various circuits, in terms of the auspicious numbers, fours, sevens, twelves, and so on.
The pilgrim is of necessity a humble person. Princes, potentates and plutocrats have recourse to the sacrifice and ritual, but a man alone, of humble station, cannot afford the indulgence. For him it is the tirtha, where he can make the crossing from the mundane to the sacred. The Mahabharata, in the section on sacrifice, states: “The holy practice of pilgrimage excels even the sacrifice.”
Literally speaking, a tirtha is a ford or crossing, as in a river ford. It is especially potent spiritually because a tirtha is a place where the gods are nearby and much more inclined to hear the pilgrim’s prayers.
It thus becomes a place of transcendence as well, where devotee and deity become one, for however brief a time. This is a claim hotly debated, often derided and sneered at by disbelievers, but on a pilgrimage it is hard to ignore the genuine exaltation that takes over some of the devotees. They seem to slough off the dead skin of habit. Perhaps that is why some of them never return to normal life, preferring vairagya (renunciation). These are the persons who make the tirtha, the crossing.
This is what makes
the pilgrimage so special and the pilgrim a figure of reverence. It is his
feet, his heart and his faith that have created all the sacred geographies on
this planet. It is the experience that sanctifies the geography, the lived
landscape, as Eck terms it. Whether it is the Char Dham, Badrinath, Dwarka,
Puri and Rameswaram, the Sapta Sindhu, or the 12 Jyotirlingas, the lingas of
light, all are mediated by the lived experience of the faithful.
As Andrew Sinclair notes in The Discovery of the Grail, the real story is not the mystery or the breathless conspiracy theories that surround the Grail legend, but the simple faith that over the centuries moved millions of pilgrims to walk the trail the Holy Grail is supposed to have taken into Europe. In their faith they created a sacred geography every bit as evocative as the Passion of Christ. As the faith waned the trail was overgrown and then forgotten, and surely there is a lesson in that.
It is appropriate to ask at this point to ask if faith is a form of delusion, a fever of fancy that has no connection with reality, or is it a miraculous act of creation? Eck does not make a direct attempt to answer it, but the response is implicit. She is concerned mainly with the lived experience and that has a value no one can gainsay.
It has long been fashionable to devalue religion by anchoring it in community power play, or by explaining it in terms of neurosis, obsessive behaviour with strong sexual undertones. Both explanations have provided many genuine insights but they often trail off into pseudo-psychological hyperbole. They discount the possibility that their explanations are not the last word on the subject.
Eck’s position resembles that of William James, the 19th century pragmatist. He was perfectly willing to concede that the whole of religion may be delusional, but an individual’s experience still had value to him if no one else.
He held that all the forensic investigation in the world could not, indeed should not, devalue that experience. It was not susceptible to the usual kinds of rational analysis.
The deity is the
centre of the devotee’s world. Everything fades besides that passion and
everything becomes possible because of it. The story of Ekalavya is one of the
finest accounts of unquestioning humility leading to a power that could have shaken
the world if he had not been betrayed by his idol, Dronacharya. The contours of
a sacred geography are defined even more clearly by this passion of devotion.
Deity and devotee thus share in this common task.
Geographies can be global, regional or local, as Eck reminds us time and again. The Char Dham is for all of India, but there are many of these tirthas. For instance, in the high Himalayas lie Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri, its four great pilgrimages.
“In rural Chitrakut, where Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana are said to have halted in a forest ashram, there are also four dhams to be visited.” Then Eck goes on to speak of a village called Ghatiyali in Rajasthan where too there is a Char Dham yatra. It has nothing to do with the one we are familiar with.
They can also be overlapping. The statue of Gomateswara or Bahubali at Shravanabelgola in Karnataka is a breathtaking work of art, but it is also one of the great centres of pilgrimage, for Hindus and Jains, as is the temple complex of Girnar in Saurashtra, Gujarat. Girnar too has Char Dham in the needle peaks of the range.
Gaya and Kashi are sacred to Hindus, but for Buddhists they have equally great significance, both being important sites in the evolution of Gautama. The same could be said for a hundred other sites, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan, Shirdi in Maharashtra, Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh and, possibly also Puttaparthi.
Often they run parallel despite the overlap. Thus the Madhava shrines of Krishna in south Karnataka are visited by thousands of people of all denominations of Hinduism, but the sect that tends them may have nothing do with any other. This is also probably true of the Lingayats who would be unlikely to go to any temple other than Shiva’s.
So it is perfectly possible to have two groups of pilgrims travelling side by side for miles on end with neither having the slightest idea of or interest in the other’s object of devotion. Indians are quite used to this form of polite indifference, living as they do among so many creeds and their sub-sects.
A Sacred Geography explores in detail some of the outstanding pilgrim circuits, the great river sanctuaries, the abodes of Shiva, Shakti, Vishnu, Krishna and Rama. Not all of them are covered, partly because that would make the work too big, but also because Eck’s task is the exposition of her idea of sacred geography. The tone is one of reverence but she is careful not to descend into hagiography.
At certain times of the year the road from Meerut to Haridwar is full of quiet, sunburnt men and women on their way by train, bus or on foot. They generally travel in family or village groups, all bent on the same task. They rarely speak to anyone, but if you speak to them they reply with grave courtesy.
They have travelled hundreds of miles from their little villages in Rajasthan for the pilgrimage to Ganga Mata. When they go back they will take some of her waters for their homes. It is a journey that has been repeated by countless generations of their forbears and it may continue for generations to come.
In their unquestioned devotion to the Goddess, they have created an odyssey of their own, sanctified by a passion that is larger than themselves. It is this spirit that Diana Eck celebrates and salutes.
Sacred Geography does not dodge the difficult and troubling questions raised by faith as politics in the hands of opportunists, but it also recognises the central role of that faith in our lives.
India: A Sacred
by Diana L Eck
Random House Publishers India.


On January 24, 1848, gold was discovered in California. The discovery of gold came during an era in United States history when the force of evangelical Christianity was in operation along with that of the nation's Manifest Destiny, which was a charge to expand the reach and influence of American territory and ideals. Evangelicalism and imperialism were institutions that America's experience of the previous two centuries had informed in a unique way.
In this paper I will begin to explore the interaction between California Gold Rush mining camps and evangelicalism; I also will attempt to discern the particular style of evangelism that prevailed in the camps and mining towns.
An extraordinary amount has been written about the Gold Rush, but very little of what I had access to or found referenced was concerned specifically with religion and the Gold Rush. Because of this, I have drawn upon secondary sources that describe either the gold camps in general or religion in the San Francisco Bay area, and necessarily I have done a fair amount of speculation.
California had belonged to Mexico. The United States acquired it as a territory in 1848 at the end of the Mexican War, and in 1850 California was admitted to the Union as the thirty-first state.
Although California was not an issue in the 1844 presidential campaign, apparently a sudden interest in California had come about in 1843. One commentator mentions not only the key locations of San Francisco and Monterey, but especially the ineptness of Mexican rule, the fear of possible British expansion, and Manifest Destiny as arousing American interest.1 At that time, "the press fostered in every conceivable way the emigration to the coast." 2 The huge amount of underpopulated land must have drawn people, but so did deposits of silver, lead, gold and iron reputed to be abundant throughout the unexplored far Western territories.3 Here is a chart depicting California population growth from 1848 to 1860:
Some time earlier, in 1839, John A. Sutter had arrived in California from Switzerland and had acquired about 50,000 acres of land. On January 24, 1848 one of "Sutter's Men," James Marshall, a carpenter from New Jersey, discovered gold at Sutter's Mill at Colonna, a Sacramento territory on the American River.California Population
1848. . . . . . . . . 14,000
1849 (end). . . . 100,000
1852. . . . . . . . 250,000
1860. . . . . . . . 380,000
Despite attempts to keep the discovery secret, by June many residents of San Francisco and Monterey were caught up in the quest for gold. By August, Gold Fever had reached all of California, Hawaii, Oregon and British Columbia; within the next few months it spread to Mexico, Peru, Chile and the rest of the United States. By 1849 virtually the entire known world knew about it.4
Newspapers were important in making known the discovery of gold. Correspondence to eastern newspapers was a significant factor: as alcaldes (mayors) and ministers wrote letters to the papers, their status gave credibility to rampant rumors regarding the quantity and the reality of the gold.
There appears to be general agreement on characteristics of the Gold Rush population. They were male, single, and fairly young; about half of them were American-born; there were a very few wives and children of the miners, and these mainly were in the towns.5 A lot of the argonauts – or goldseekers – went to California as members of an organized company or cooperative association, but almost inevitably these companies disintegrated on the trail or shortly after arrival at their destination. Most miners lived in pairs, a few lived singly or in larger groups—the groups were made up mostly of those from "common origins."6 By profession, miners were predominantly artisans, traders and unskilled laborers.
One writer says there were always a few school teachers and ministers;7 another, that there were a disproportionate number of ministers: "one observer, doubtless exaggerating, estimated the preachers at one in ten."8 Also, California clergy were as much part of the Gold Rush as the Goldseekers: "The Gold Rush was simply the vehicle God had chosen for the evangelization of the whole world."9 . . . " [The preachers] imposed the Blue Law Gospel on mining society and prayed to strike a bonanza in souls."10 A goal was to "make California the Massachusetts of the Pacific."11 The sources cited above make no distinction between ministers who traveled to California with Goldseekers or as Goldseekers and those who were sent by denominations or other church groups. There were missionaries: the American Home Missionary Society commissioned and sent missionaries to California shortly after the initial discovery of gold.12 13
This describes only those ministers and preachers who were either sent to or drawn to California by Gold Fever, because the history of Christianity in California already was close to three hundred years old by the time of the Forty-Niners! In 1579 Francis Drake's chaplain read an Anglican service in California.14 Twenty-one Franciscan missions had been established in California from San Diego in the south to Sonoma in the north.15 In 1776, San Francisco (Yerba Buena) was established by the Spanish as a mission and presidio.16 However, by the mid-nineteenth century some missions had decayed, though some still were flourishing.17
In 1826, the Reverend Jedidiah Strong Smith, known as the "Bible Toter," was the first American to travel overland to California.18 The Reverend Walter Colton, the first resident minister in California, was Alcalde of Monterey beginning in 1846;19 in April 1847, two Methodist missionaries on their way to Oregon stopped at San Francisco and started a Sunday school.20 Also, before the end of 1847 (and prior to the discovery of gold), ministers acted as town officials, preached sermons, and started a few schools.21
Virtually all sources affirm the popular image of the Forty-Niners and their lifestyle as being – in most cases – at least close to the way things actually were. Every mining town had a commercial district that usually included bars, casinos, hotels, brothels, restaurants and dance halls, with bars apparently the main form of entertainment! One source says, "Unquestionably life in California's gold days was characterized by highly pathological conditions, even to the extent of social insanities."22 The same source mentions gambling as an obsession, says that everyone, including judges and ministers, gambled.23 Another speaks of "the tidal wave of iniquity which was gold rush California."24
There is evidence that as the Gold Rush got underway evangelism became a major activity in the San Francisco area. In a broad, fairly inclusive sense, evangelism can be defined as any activity undertaken with the intent of bringing people to Christianity. More specifically, the evangelical movement within nineteenth century Protestant American Christianity focused intensely on the redemptive person and work of Jesus Christ, on the Bible as the Word of God, and on the individual's relationship with God in and through Jesus Christ.
In the goldmining areas, just as elsewhere in the United States at that time, the actual process of evangelism tended to take one of two forms: social and reform movements, such as temperance, abolitionism and sabbatarianism; and spoken proclamation of the Gospel, usually in the form of a sermon, most often in the context of a revival meeting. And quite surprisingly, in San Francisco and the surrounding area there also was an attempt to give "The Church" institutional forms analogous to those in the East through the building of physical facilities and the calling of ordained ministers to pastor the congregations that gathered around the buildings. Two or more congregations sharing the same building was not uncommon; surprising, too, is that seemingly most of the congregations were established under denominational, rather than independent aegis. Among these were Baptist (1849), Congregational (1849), Episcopal (1850) and Unitarian (1850) churches.25 No denominations of continental European origin appear to have been represented. Also, since the author of "Blue Law Gospel" cites many contemporary denominational periodicals, there must have been readers for them.
It was in more settled areas such as San Francisco, Monterey and Sacramento that congregations were gathered and established. The content of the ministry offered by and for these congregations is not altogether clear, though doubtless it included at least support for various reform movements, as well as preaching and more-or-less formally structured worship. In the available literature, casual references to Gold Rush towns seem to indicate that it was just a short ride from one town to another, although that was by no means the case, given that the actual physical distance from one locale to another made a journey for the purpose of attending worship out of the question.
Here are mileages between some points:
As one might expect from the evangelical tradition that had developed a convention of calls to individual repentance and conversion within the context of the revival meeting, it appears revival meetings were the chief form of evangelism within the Gold Camps, as well as a popular form of entertainment. And with the goal of bringing individuals – and through them, the whole society – into the kind of "right living" subscribed to by the assorted reform movements, representatives of reform movements, particularly of Sabbatarianism (dedicated to proper observance of the Sabbath, or Sunday), were quite active within the mining camps. Injunctions were directed against vices such as drinking, gambling, swearing, card-playing, prostitution, smoking, dancing and theater-going, primarily because of the tendency of people to break the Sabbath with these particular sins.26 Martin Marty says "they usually spoke first in terms of rescue (to save men from sin and a corrupt society) to be followed by repair of society through rescued individuals and finally through reform."27Mileages between some points
Monterey – Sacramento . . . . . 198
Monterey – San Francisco . . . . . 124
Monterey – Stockton . . . . . 139
Sacramento – San Francisco . . . . . 85
Sacramento – Stockton . . . . . 55
San Francisco – Stockton . . . . . 81
In the camps six day weeks were the rule, a practice that was a response to the fourth commandment!28 Sunday was a day for various chores and amusements, as well as for attending camp meeting. John Walton Caughey describes camp congregations as "rough-looking but remarkably alert, attentive, and openhanded."29
The text of a diary highlighting the journey of a gold-seeker from Indiana to California refers to "Sabbath" a total of eighteen times. The entry for September 23, 1849, describes a Sabbath in one camp:
This is the first Sabbath I have been in the gold mines of California and I must acknowledge that the morals of the people are much better than I expected to find and we have been permitted to spend the day in peace & quietness though many are at work in the mines they are two or three miles from the encampment and do not appear to wish to disturb those who wish to observe the day; . . . the trip coming together with one years residence here will impair the constitution as much as ten years residence in any of the States . . . I am now convinced that I done very wrong in coming here with the hope of bettering my pecuniary condition alone and I now declare and humbly ask God to enable me to perform my promise that if I am again permitted to return [to] a land of peace and quietude that with the proceeds of honest industry I will strive to be content.30It appears that many argonauts were responsive to being evangelized and "saved" but many were not. There is one reference to preachers preaching in bars in an effort to spread the Gospel,31 but in contrast, an argonaut is quoted as saying, "We are not burdened with religion here in California."32
Without differentiating between circuit riders and those called to serve a gathered local congregation, one writer says, "The pioneer preacher was far more than a preacher . . . It was incumbent upon him to become a public servant, with humane instincts, benevolent heart, ready to respond to any call for help from people of every station in life."33
There is no evidence of evangelism directed specifically toward any of the many ethnic groups that were part of the Gold Rush population.
Goldseekers and evangelists each seem to represent a major aspect of the nineteenth-century American ethos. There is an stereotypical image of the American citizen – whether native-born or foreign-born – as one more concerned with ideals and "self-fulfillment" than with establishing roots in a given place.
Although early American colonists indeed were concerned enough with ideals to uproot themselves and move to a place in which they envisioned the fulfillment of their dreams, much of the driving force of early colonization actually was toward social cohesion and community—exemplified by the concept of covenant: the will of God and of the group for the common good. Although many of the miners were employed by others, the Forty-Niners' overriding passion appears to have been for personal (and private!) wealth, with no thought given to any larger, more extended community—least of all in the style of their lives in the gold camps. However, by the mid-nineteenth century the American ideal had gradually turned from the group to the individual and the Goldseekers almost perfectly exemplified this idea of individual fulfillment.
From the beginning, imperialism had been a major force and factor in American history, and whether to expand actual land holdings or to expand the influence of their own economic, religious or social ideals, Americans had a long history of believing their own ideas and ideals superior, and therefore of being justified in visiting them upon others. And for the most part, especially at mi-nineteenth century, Americans believed their mission was identical to that of establishing God's reign upon earth.
At the time of the Gold Rush, those who felt called to evangelize and convert the Goldseekers possessed, or were possessed by, a variety of imperialistic fervor that seems natural for that particular moment in American history: the tradition of imperialism and expansion had been unbroken since early colonial beginnings, and the Second Great Awakening (1800-1830 – an evangelical movement that informed virtually every aspect of culture in the United States) had been recent enough that its effects still were operative, particularly in the way conservative evangelical Christianity was fused with American nationalism. The far West was seen as another part of the Western Hemisphere to be explored and claimed for God by Protestants (Catholicism was not evangelical in style; therefore it didn't have the kind of authenticity Protestants attributed to their type of Christianity). The fruits of the Awakening also had generated many social and reform movements.
Here, too, there was continuity with an earlier, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century spirit and departure from it. In both these cases there is a consciousness of the "rightness" of Christianity, but although earlier the covenant community had been the focus and goal of bringing people into right relationship with God, in 1850, although revivals and evangelism were group phenomena, individuals and individual salvation were quite clearly the goal. This reflects the nineteenth-century Jacksonian ideal of freedom of the individual in contrast to the earlier concept to liberty for the community.
There is also an interesting relationship of gold-seekers and of evangelists to the dominant contemporary culture. At that point in time, America was starting to become an urban-industrial nation, its "becoming" fed by factors such as large and increasing labor supply, an increasing supply of production capital, and free enterprise. Undoubtedly, in the Jacksonian spirit, individual gain and profit would be a prime motivational factor in any entrepreneurial undertaking. Argonauts were caught in this spirit, and with the intention of short-circuiting all of the in-between steps and becoming instantly rich! Although there probably were people whose dream of immediate wealth was allied with a dream of using the wealth to finance industrial production or social good, we don't read about those individuals but only about those for whom gold was an end in itself.
Since even goldseekers who lived in groups or communally seem to have been solitary, and since the pursuit was almost inevitably that of the individual, the argonaut seems to have formed a caricature of the American of the era: a working-class or underclass self-starter who believed wealth was the answer to every problem and question.
The evangelists also appear to have formed a caricature – not so much as they related to American culture as a whole, since their style was so "American" for the time – but a caricature of the biblical Christian ideal for the Christian to be "in but not of the world." Although interpreting Christianity of past centuries can be problematic, one classical Christian stance has been that of interaction with the dominant culture, often in the form of social activism (another has been that of separatism and pietism).
Gold Rush evangelists saw themselves as social reformers, and they believed preaching the Gospel and reform activities were God's call to them, but their activities were inseparably yoked with the rest of American culture. On one side, as they saw the evangelical imperative to spread the Gospel as part of the American vision and of the American imperative to extend American control and influence, there was little differentiation between evangelicalism and contemporary culture. On the other side, because the social and culture milieu of the Forty-Niners was perceived as needing reform, evangelists in the Gold Rush were given reason to be and to act because of the particular conditions in the mining areas. Thus, evangelists formed a complement to the mining culture as well as being in alliance with the general American ethos. But this may not be particularly significant, since historically Christianity has tended to become allied with, and not infrequently identified with, the dominant culture, while still retaining some form of "prophecy" in order to justify the name Christian.
The California Gold Rush evangelists' brand and style of Christianity existed both because of customs and evolution in American life and because of the lifestyle in the mining camps. The form they gave their interpretation of biblical Christianity was definitely American, although probably informed to an extent by biblical ideals. Nonetheless, social reform movements, revival meetings, denominations, and the autonomous local congregation all were exclusively American institutions, as was voluntarism in all these undertakings.
Both argonauts and evangelists were part of the American conviction that life, and this world, can be better. Goldseekers were looking for an out-of-the-ordinary experience; evangelists tried to draw them out of the out-of-the-ordinary and back into the American way.
Caughey, John Walton. The California Gold Rush. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1948.
Ghent, Jocelyn Maynard. "The Golden Dream and the Press: Illinois and the California Gold Rush of '49." Illustrated. Journal of the West, 17:17-27, April 1978.
Graebner, Norman A. "American Interest in California, 1845." Illustrated, bibliographical footnotes. Pacific Historical Review, 22:13-27, February 1953.
Hanchett, William. "The Blue Law Gospel in Gold Rush California." Bibliographical footnotes. Pacific Historical Review, 24:361-368, November 1955.
Hunt, Rockwell D. "Pioneer Protestant Preachers of Early California." Pacific Historical Review, 16:84-96, February 1949.
Kirkby, Dianne. "Gold and the Growth of a Metropolis." Illustrated, map. Journal of the West, 17:3-15, April 1978.
Mann, Ralph. "The Decade after the Gold Rush: Social Structure in Grass Valley and Nevada City, California, 1850-1860." Pacific Historical Review, 41:484-504, November 1972.
Marty, Martin E. Righteous Empire: The Protestant Experience in America. New York: The Dial Press, 1970.
Mattes, Merrill J., editor. "Alexander Ramsey's Gold Rush Diary of 1849." Pacific Historical Review, 18:437-468, November 1949.
McLoughlin, William G. Revivals, Awakenings, and Reform. An Essay on Religion and Social Change in America, 1607-1977. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Paul, Rodman Wilson. Mining Frontiers of the Far West, 1848-1880. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.
1 J.M. Ghent, "Golden Dream and the Press," Journal of the West, volume 17, pages 13-14.
2 Ibid., page 23.
3 R.W. Paul, Mining Frontiers of the Far West, 1848-1880. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963), page 23.
4 Ibid., pages 12-14.
5 R. Mann, "The Decade after the Gold Rush," Pacific Historical Review, volume 41, page 500.
6 Ibid., page 487.
7 Paul, op. cit., page 17.
8 J.W. Caughey, The California Gold Rush (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1948), page 272.
9 W. Hanchett, "The Blue Law Gospel in Gold Rush California," Pacific Historical Review, volume 24, page 363.
12 R.D. Hunt, "Pioneer Protestant Preachers of Early California," Pacific Historical Review, volume 18, page 87.
13 Hanchett, loc. cit.
14 Caughey, op. cit., page 270.
15 Hunt, op. cit., page 86.
16 D. Kirkby, "Gold and the Growth of a Metropolis," Journal of the West, volume 17, page 4.
17 Caughey, op. cit., page 272.
18 Hunt, op. cit., page 85.
19 Caughey, op. cit., page 270.
20 Ibid., pages 270-271.
21 Ibid., page 271.
22 Hunt, op. cit., page 84.
24 Hanchett, loc. cit.
25 Hunt, op. cit., pages 87-95.
26 Hanchett, op. cit., page 362.
27 M.E. Marty, Righteous Empire (New York: Dial Press, 1970), page 95.
28 Caughey, op. cit., page 187.
30 M.J. Mattes, editor, "Alexander Ramsey's Gold Rush Diary of 1849," Pacific Historical Review, volume 18, pages 466-467.
31 Caughey, op. cit., page 274.
32 Hanchett, op. cit., page 364.
33 Hunt, op. cit., page 87.


Music is a language that is universally understood and appreciated. It’s a form of art that embodies culture, tradition, emotion and skill. It has the ability to touch the lives of people in many ways. Besides serving as a career option, it has also found a place in alternative medical therapy as well. Musical careers that are backed by advanced degrees can soar to great heights. That is perhaps the reason for the increasing number of people opting for online masters in music education courses.
What you will learn in a program of this nature
Whether you are a student of music, a teacher, a professional or even a community musician, taking a master of music education online course will give your career the push it needs to get to the next level. The coursework is generally a blend of music theory and research. This is coupled with performances and classroom attendance as well. There are several online courses that give you the option of choosing a specialization as well. These courses give you an understanding of the history of music, theoretical knowledge and the ability to compose. You will be able to perform and critically analyze your work as well. Communication skills will also see an improvement with performances, presentation and quality written work being requirements.
Why should someone pursue this degree?
One of the main reasons to opt for such courses is the convenience, especially if you are a professional as you do not have to worry about the course cutting into your work time. You will be able to access it at your leisure in your home without having to commute each day to a campus at a specific time. You could choose programs that have established platforms of teaching, are further enhanced with video based lectures, etc. Many courses are tailored in such a way that they give you the same exposure and hands-on experience as your counterparts taking more mainstream courses.
The basic courses that are available
There are a range of subjects that you can choose to study in your online masters in music education. It depends on your chosen career path. Some of the options you have are Orchestration, Choral or Instrument arrangements, Folk music and their instruments, Technology in music, various ensembles in choir, guitar, string, percussion, brass, etc. You can also consider learning about the philosophy or history of music and the psychology behind it. There are also course subjects that are more academic in nature and will involve the research and submission of a thesis. Each of these are designed to give you an in-depth understanding of the music world.
Career prospects upon completion of course
The main advantage with gaining a Master’s degree in music is your ability to earn a higher salary. K-12 music teachers can earn anywhere fro $29,000 to $76,000 a year depending on their skills and the school as well. You can also look at positions such as that of music education administrators, teaching in a private school or even being a music teacher in a community college. Besides the educational set up, you also have the choice of working in churches as a choir director. You could try your hand at the opera as a conductor or begin to teach music privately.
Why should someone pursue this degree online?
There are several plus points to such online master’s courses. For one, they can be done at your convenience, allowing you to pursue other commitments simultaneously. They also provide you with all the advantages that a full time student enjoys, with the added flexibility that online courses offer. These online courses can be of two types — completely online, or a hybrid that involves classroom and practical sessions. This flexibility is something that a regular course will not accommodate.
Eligibility for the course
The eligibility for each course will vary depending on the kind you choose. You could opt for a masters degree that can train you for an elementary school music teaching post, vocational instruction, instrument instruction, career guidance and more. The general requirements are as follows:
A Bachelor’s Degree in Music for a recognized university or college
GPA of 3.0 or more
Recent classroom teaching exposure
Official transcripts for all educational courses you have attended
Completed application form
Letters of recommendation
Letter of purpose for pursuing the course
Since there is a high demand for online masters in music education courses, there are a number of universities that have begun to provide it. It is important that you do your research and settle on one that will best service your purpose. Make sure they are accredited to the right institutions and that the certification they provide in the end is valid.


How will climate change affect your creature’s habitat? How will it adapt to its new surroundings? What kind of shelter will it seek? What traits will be selected for in order for it to survive?
Body structures like spikes, horns, or sharp claws, help protect and defend animals against any creature that threatens them. What kinds of defensive body structures will help your creature look tough? How will your animal use these structures to fight off another animal?
When an environment changes, finding food can be harder. Whether your animal eats veggies or meat, it has specialized structures for obtaining food and eating food. What anatomy changes will your creature evolve to help it find food? Will your creature change its diet, if so, why?
Animals need to be able to get from place to place to find shelter, food, and friends. Depending on where they live, they can develop structures to help them get around. How will your creatures’ body change to help it move through this new environment? Will its limbs get longer or shorter? Will it have wings, fins or a tail?
Camouflage is an adaptation that allows animals to blend in with their environment. This is useful when hiding from predators or hunting for food. What physical color or pattern will your creature have? Will it camouflage in its new environment? Why or why not?
Temperature regulation is vital to an animal’s survival. How will your creature adapt to higher temperatures? Will its structures change to need less insulation? Or will it need more protection from the hot sun? Be sure to consider if your animal is warm or cold blooded.
Future Engineers hosts online contests and challenges for K-12 students, including the recent Mars 2020 "Name the Rover" contest. This challenge platform was developed with support from the US Department of Education and all challenges are free for student/classroom participation.


Overview Of Nose Injuries
- Nose injuries regularly happen during fights, falls, sports, and accidents.
- Pain, inflammation, and bruising are expected, even with slight injuries. Home treatment can generally help alleviate your symptoms.
- It might be hard to determine if your nose is broken. Inflammation can make your nose look bent even if it is not cracked.
- When the inflammation goes down, it is easier to determine if your nose is actually damaged. Most GPs prefer to examine an injured nose soon after the inflammation has decreased.
Severity Of A Nose Injury
A nose injury is more severe when:
- You are experiencing a nosebleed that you can’t stop.
- The skin on your nose is cut or pierced, particularly if you think your nose might be broken. This may lead to infection.
Problems With A Broken Nose
Most broken noses heal without complications. When complications develop, they can consist of:
- A change in the dimension or form of the nose, or a twisted or bent nose. Several nose injuries, particularly during childhood, increase the risk of injury to the tissues and bones in the nose. This can cause long-term complications.
- Problem breathing or nasal congestion.
- An infection within the nose.
- A defect in the tissue that divides the nostrils.
- If your nose is cracked and distorted, it might need to be realigned. Most GPs like to wait for any inflammation to go down before realigning a broken nose.
- Most inflammation decreases after 3 days but could take up to 14 days.
- Once the nose is realigned, nasal packing can be placed and a splint can be applied. You might be given antibiotics to help avoid infection.
- Your GP might want to re-examine your nose and take out the packing in 2 to 3 days.


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - View original article
|Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns|
|Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List|
|Criteria||i, ii, iii, iv, vi|
|UNESCO region||Europe and North America|
|Inscription||1999 (23rd Session)|
|Archaeological Sites of Mycenae and Tiryns|
|Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List|
|Criteria||i, ii, iii, iv, vi|
|UNESCO region||Europe and North America|
|Inscription||1999 (23rd Session)|
Mycenae (Greek Μυκῆναι Mykēnai or Μυκήνη Mykēnē) is an archaeological site in Greece, located about 90 km southwest of Athens, in the north-eastern Peloponnese. Argos is 11 km to the south; Corinth, 48 km to the north. From the hill on which the palace was located, one can see across the Argolid to the Saronic Gulf.
In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae.
Although the citadel was built by Greeks, the name is thought not to be Greek, but rather one of the many pre-Greek place names inherited by the immigrant Hellenes. According to John Chadwick, the name of Mycenae is of pre-Greek origin. The pre-Greek language remains unknown, but there is no evidence to rule out a member of the Indo-European superfamily. (See Pelasgian, Minyans)
Ancient Greek etymological speculation connected the name to the Greek word "μύκης" (mycēs), 'mushroom'. Thus, Pausanias ascribes the name to the legendary founder Perseus, who was said to have named it either after the cap（mycēs）of the sheath of his sword, or after a mushroom he had plucked on the site.
The reconstructed Mycenaean Greek name of the site is Mukānai, which has the form of a plural like Athānai. The change of ā to ē in more recent versions of the name is the result of a well-known sound change in later Attic-Ionic.
Only scattered sherds from disturbed debris have been found datable to the Neolithic (prior to 3500 BC). The site was inhabited, but the stratigraphy has been destroyed by later construction.
It is believed that Mycenae was settled close to 2000 BC by Indo-Europeans who practiced farming and herding. Scattered sherds dating to 2100-1700 BC have been found, when Mycenae interacted with Minoan Crete. Other theories suggest the settling of Mycenae a thousand years earlier.
During the Bronze Age, the pattern of settlement at Mycenae was a fortified hill surrounded by hamlets and estates, in contrast to the dense urbanity on the coast (cf. Argos). Since Mycenae was the capital of a state that ruled, or dominated, much of the eastern Mediterranean world, the rulers must have placed their stronghold in this less populated and more remote region for its defensive value. Since there are few documents on site with datable contents (such as an Egyptian scarab) and since no dendrochronology has yet been performed upon the remains here, the events are listed here according to Helladic period material culture.
Outside the partial circuit wall, Grave Circle B, named for its enclosing wall, contained ten cist graves in Middle Helladic style and several shaft graves, sunk more deeply, with interments resting in cists. Richer grave goods mark the burials as possibly regal. Mounds over the top contained broken drinking vessels and bones from a repast, testifying to a more than ordinary farewell. Stelae surmounted the mounds.[not in citation given]
A walled enclosure, Grave Circle A, included six more shaft graves, with 9 female, 8 male, and two juvenile interments. Grave goods were more costly than in Circle B. The presence of engraved and inlaid swords and daggers, with spear points and arrowheads, leave little doubt that warrior chieftains and their families were buried here. Some art objects obtained from the graves are the Silver Siege Rhyton, the Mask of Agamemnon, the Cup of Nestor, and weapons both votive and practical.
Alan Wace divided the nine tholos tombs of Mycenae into three groups of three, each based on architecture. His earliest - the Cyclopean Tomb, Epano Phournos, and the Tomb of Aegisthus - are dated to IIA.
Burial in tholoi is seen as replacing burial in shaft graves. The care taken to preserve the shaft graves testifies that they were by then part of the royal heritage, the tombs of the ancestral heroes. Being more visible, the tholoi all had been plundered either in antiquity, or in later historic times.
At a conventional date of 1350 BC, the fortifications on the acropolis, and other surrounding hills, were rebuilt in a style known as cyclopean because the blocks of stone used were so massive that they were thought in later ages to be the work of the one-eyed giants known as the cyclopes (singular: Cyclops). Within these walls, much of which can still be seen, successive monumental palaces were built. The final palace, remains of which are currently visible on the acropolis of Mycenae, dates to the start of LHIIIA:2. Earlier palaces must have existed, but they had been cleared away or built over.
The construction of palaces at that time with a similar architecture was general throughout southern Greece. They all featured a megaron, or throne room, with a raised central hearth under an opening in the roof, which was supported by four columns in a square around the hearth. A throne was placed against the center of a wall to the side of the hearth, allowing an unobstructed view of the ruler from the entrance. Frescos adorned the plaster walls and floor.
The room was accessed from a courtyard with a columned portico. A grand staircase led from a terrace below to the courtyard on the acropolis.
In the Temple built within the citadel, a scarab of Queen Tiye of Egypt, who was married to Amenhotep III, was placed in the Room of the Idols alongside at least one statue of either LHIIIA:2 or B:1 type. Amenhotep III's relations with m-w-k-i-n-u, *Mukana, have corroboration from the inscription at Kom al-Hetan - but Amenhotep's reign is thought to align with late LHIIIA:1. It is likely that Amenhotep's herald presented the scarab to an earlier generation, which then found the resources to rebuild the citadel as Cyclopean and then, to move the scarab here.
Wace’s second group of tholoi are dated between IIA and IIIB: Kato Phournos, Panagia Tholos, and the Lion Tomb. The final group, Group III: the Treasury of Atreus, the Tomb of Clytemnestra and the Tomb of the Genii, are dated to IIIB by a sherd under the threshold of the Treasury of Atreus, the largest of the nine tombs. Like the Treasury of Minyas at Orchomenus the tomb had been looted of its contents and its nature as funerary monument had been forgotten. The structure bore the traditional name of "Treasury".
The pottery phases on which the relative dating scheme is based (EH, MH, LH, etc.) do not allow very precise dating, even augmented by the few existing C-14 dates due to the tolerance inherent in these. The sequence of further construction at Mycenae is approximately as follows. In the middle of LHIIIB, around 1250 or so, the Cyclopean wall was extended on the west slope to include grave circle A. The main entrance through the circuit wall was made grand by the best known feature of Mycenae, the Lion Gate, through which passed a stepped ramp leading past circle A and up to the palace. The Lion Gate was constructed in the form of a 'Relieving Triangle' in order to support the weight of the stones. An undecorated postern gate also was constructed through the north wall.
One of the few groups of excavated houses in the city outside the walls lies beyond Grave Circle B and belongs to the same period. The House of Shields, the House of the Oil Merchant, the House of the Sphinxes, and the West House. These may have been both residences and workshops.
Citadel facts and figures
Circuit length: 1105M
Preserved height: up to 12.5M
Minimum stone required: 145,215 Cu.M or 14,420 average stones (10 tons)
Time to move 1 Block using men: 2.125 days
Time to move all Blocks using men: 110.52 years
Time to move 1 Block using oxen: 0.125 days
Time to move all Blocks using oxen: 9.9 years
based on 8 hour work day
The largest stones including the lintels and gate jambs weighed well over 20 tonnes; some may have been close to 100 tonnes.
Somewhat later, toward the end of LHIIIB, another extension to the citadel was undertaken. The wall was extended again on the northeast, with a sally port and also a secret passage through and under the wall, of corbeled construction, leading downward by some 99 steps to a cistern carved out of rock 15 m below the surface. It was fed by a tunnel from a spring on more distant higher ground.
Already in LHIIIA:1, Egypt knew *Mukana by name as a capital city on the level of Thebes and Knossos. During LHIIIB, Mycenae's political, military and economic influence likely extended as far as Crete, Pylos in the western Peloponnese, and to Athens and Thebes. Hellenic settlements already were being placed on the coast of Anatolia. A collision with the Hittite empire over their sometime dependency at a then strategic location, Troy, was to be expected. In folklore, the powerful Pelopid family ruled many Greek states, one branch of which was the Atreid dynasty at Mycenae.
By 1200 BC, the power of Mycenae was declining; during the 12th century, Mycenaean dominance collapsed. The destruction of Mycenae is part of the general Bronze Age collapse. Within a short time around 1200 BC, all the palaces of southern Greece were burned, including that at Mycenae. This is traditionally attributed to a Dorian invasion of Greeks from the north, although some historians now doubt that this invasion caused the destruction of the Mycenean centres. Displaced populations escaped to former colonies of the Mycenaeans in Anatolia and elsewhere, where they came to speak the Ionic dialect.
Emily Vermeule suggests that the disruption of commercial networks at the end of 13th century BC, was disastrous for Greece and this was followed by the coming of the mysterious Sea Peoples, who caused a chaos in the Aegean. According to the Egyptian records, the Sea Peoples destroyed the Hittite Empire then attacked the 19th and the 20th dynasties of Egypt, ( ca 1300-1164 ). They may be related with the destruction of the Mycenean centers (the records of Pylos mention sea-attack). However at the end of LH III B period, the Myceneans undertook an expedition against Troy, which indicates that the sea was safe, and there is no any indication of destructions in the Aegean islands.
Other theories have been that a drought caused the Mycenaean decline, but there is no climatological evidence for this. Manolis Andronikos claimed that a social revolution caused the destruction of the Mycenean sites, but it is not sensible, because all the Mycenean centers throughout Greece were destroyed almost simultaneously. George E. Mylonas noticed that after 1200 BC, some attempt was made for recovery in Mycenea. He believes that in Argolid there was an internal fighting, and this was followed by the Dorian invasion. It seems that the Dorians moved southward gradually in small clans, until they managed to establish themselves in the land
Amos Nur argues that earthquakes played a major role in the destruction of Mycenae and many other cities at the end of the Bronze Age. However, no conclusive evidence has been brought forward to confirm any theory of why the Mycenaean citadel and others throughout Greece fell almost simultaneously at this time.
Whatever the cause, by the LH IIIC period (whose latest phase is also termed "Submycenaean"), Mycenae was no longer a major power. Pottery and decorative styles were changing rapidly. Craftsmanship and art declined. Although the settlement was much reduced in size, the citadel remained occupied though it never regained its earlier importance. A temple dedicated to Hera was built on the summit in the Archaic period. A Mycenaean contingent fought at Thermopylae and Plataea during the Persian Wars. In 468 BC, however, troops from Argos captured Mycenae, expelled the inhabitants and slighted the fortifications.
It seems that the state was ruled by a king who is identified with the name wa-na-ka ( "wanax') in the Linear B inscriptions at Knossos and Pylos. In the Homeric poems he is the lord ( άναξ). Some inscriptions with a list of offerings indicate that the king was probably divine, but the term "for the king" is usually accompanied by another name. It is doubtful that the wanax was responsible for religious matters, but probably his title indicates that his right to rule was given by the god.  The term qa-si-re-u (cf. βασιλεύς / "basileús") which was later used in Greece for "king", seems that was used for the "chief" of any group of people, or for a provincial official. ( Later Homer mentions many basilees in Ithaca).
The land possessed by the king is usually called te-me-no (τέμενος / "témenos"), a word that survived in classical Greece. (the temenos placed by Hephaestus on the shield of Achilles is called "royal").  Other important land owners were the ra-wa-ke-ta ("lāwāgetas"), the leader of the people, and the te-re-ta ("telestai"), the officials. Lawagetas is placed next to the king and he could be the leader of the army, but it is not confirmed by the inscriptions.  Palmer suggests that the "telestai were the men of telos- the fief holders".  The e-qe-ta ("equetai"), literally, "the companions" or "followers", were a group of nobles (aristocrats), who followed the king in peace and war. From the existing evidence, it seems that the kingdom was further subdivided into sixteen districts. The ko-re-te was the "governor of the district" and the po-ro-ko-re-te the "deputy". It is possible that the real names were koreter and prokoreter. The da-mo-ko-ro (damokoros) was an official appointment but his duties are not very clear. The communal land was held at the hands of da-mo (literally, "people", cf. δῆμος / dễmos), or "plot holders", a word that survived in classical Greece (demos, democracy). It seems that ”Damo” was a collective body of men, representing the local district.  It is suggested that qa-si-re-u had a council of elders, a ke-ro-si-ja,( later "γερουσια" gerousia), but Palmer believes that it was an organization of "bronze smiths"
Much of the Mycenaean religion survived into classical Greece in their pantheon of Greek deities, but it is not known to what extent Greek religious belief is Mycenaean, nor how much is a product of the Greek Dark Ages or later. Finley detected only few authentic Mycenean beliefs in the eighth-century Homeric world, but Nilsson suggested that the Mycenean religion was the mother of the Greek religion. Through the oral tradition Homer transferred the beliefs during the Dark Ages, but he kept in memory the confederacy of the Greeks under the powerful king of Mycenae. when gods walked along friendly with men, and the "heroic-age" when great heroes dominated the scene. The belief in gods as embodiments of power, the heroic outlook inherited from a distant past together with the local chthonic cults, were later fitted into the frame of the city-states and his demands into an elastic system.
From the history traced by Nilsson and Guthrie, the Mycenean pantheon consisted of Minoan deities, but also of gods and goddesses who appear under different names with similar functions in East and West. Many of these names appearing in the Linear B inscriptions can be found later in classical Greece like Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Hermes, Eileithyia and Dionysos, but the etymology is the only evidence of the cults.
There are several reasonable guesses that can be made, however. It seems that originally the Myceneans like many Indo-Europeans considered divine any object that inherited an internal power ( anima). Certain religious beliefs were mixed with the beliefs of the local populations as it appears in the old cults of isolated Arcadia which survived up to classical Greece. In these cults, Poseidon appears usually as a horse, representing the river spirit of the underworld as it usually happens in northern-European folklore.The precursor goddesses of Demeter and Persephone are closely related with the springs and the animals, and especially with Poseidon and Artemis who was the first nymph. Mycenaean religion was almost certainly polytheistic, and the Myceneans were actively syncretistic, adding foreign deities to their pantheon of deities with considerable ease. The Myceneans probably entered Greece with a pantheon of deities headed by some ruling sky-deity which linguists speculate might have been called *Dyeus in early Indo-European. In Greek, this deity would become Zeus (pronounced zdeus in ancient Greek). Among the Hindus, this sky-deity becomes "Dyaus Pita". In Latin he becomes "deus pater" or Jupiter; we still encounter this word in the etymologies of the words "deity" and "divine."
Later in some cults Zeus is united with the Aegean Great Goddess, who is represented by Hera, in a "holy wedding" (hieros gamos).At some point in their cultural history, the Myceneans adopted some Minoan goddesses like Aphaea, Britomartis, Diktynna and associated them with their sky-god. Many of them were absorbed by more powerful divinities, and some like the vegetation goddesses Ariadne and Helen survived in Greek folklore together with the cult of the "divine child", who was probably the precursor of Dionysos. Athena and Hera survived and were tutelary goddesses, the guardians of the palaces and the cities. In general, later Greek religion distinguishes between two types of deities: the Olympian, or sky, deities (including Zeus), which are now commonly known in some form or another; and, the chthonic deities, or deities of the earth. Walter Burkert warns:
and suggests that useful parallels will be found in the relations between Etruscan and Archaic Greek culture and religion, or between Roman and Hellenistic culture
The pantheon included also deities representing the powers of nature and wild life, who appear with similar functions in the Mediterranean region. The "Mistress of the animals", later called Artemis, who was the first nymph, may be identified as the Minoan Britomartis, and has similar functions with the Sumerian Ninhursag. Poseidon is the lord of the sea, and therefore of storms and earthquakes, (the "Earth shaker" in Linear B tablets ). He may have functioned as a pre-Hellenic chthonic Zeus, the lord or spouse of the Earth goddess. Athena whose task was to protect the olive-trees is a civic Artemis. The powers of animal nature fostered a belief in nymphs whose existence was bound to the trees and the waters, and in gods with human forms and the heads or tails of animals who stood for primitive bodily insticts. In Arcadia were depicted animal-headed gods, indicating than in the remote past the gods were conceived as animals and birds, in a surrounding of animal-headed daemons. Later the gods were revealed in human forms with an animal as a companion or symbol. Some of the old gods survived in the cult of Dionysos (Satyrs) and Pan (the goat-god).
The Myceneans adopted probably from the east a priest-king system and the belief of a ruling deity in the hands of a theocratic society. At the end of the second milemnium BC, when the Mycenean city-state collapsed, it seems that the Greek thought was gradually released from the idea that each man was a servant to the gods, and sought a "moral purpose". It is possible that this procedure started before the end of the Mycenean age, but the idea is almost absent or vague in the Homeric poems, where the interference of the gods is not related to the rightness or wrongness of men's actions. Later, Hesiod uses a lot of eastern material in his cosmology and in the genealogical trees of the gods, and he introduces the idea of the existence of something else behind the gods, which was more powerful than they. This is the powerful Fate (Moira), who in the Homeric poems is acting in parallel with the gods and predestinates the events. Hesiod complies to the Greek desire of an order in the universe, and tries to bring the gods under a rule comparable to the rule which controls the lives of men. In Greek mythology this power is named Ananke (necessity).
The Olympian system is an ordered system. The Greek divinities live with Zeus at their head and each is concerned with a recognizable sphere. However certain elements in some Greek cults indicate the survival of some older cults from a less rationalized world: old cults of the dead, agrarian magic, exorcism of evil spirits, peculiar sacrifices, and animal-headed gods, In the Homeric poems, the avenging Fate was probably originally a daemon, acting in parallel with the gods. Later, the cult of Dionysos Zagreus indicates that life-blood of animals was needed to renew that of men. A similar belief may be guessed from the Mycenean Hagia Triada sarcophagus (1400 BC), which combines features of Minoan civilization and Mycenean style. It seems that the blood of a bull was used for the regeneration of the reappearing dead. Probably most of these cults existed in the Mycenean-age and survived by immemorial practice.
A secondary level of importance was the cult of the heroes, which seems to have started in the Mycenean-age. These were great men of the past who were exalted to honourafter death, because of what they had done. According to an old Minoan belief beyond the sea there was an island called Elysion, where the departured could have a different, but happier existence. Later, the Greeks believed that there could live in human form only the heroes, and the beloved of the gods. The souls of the rest were drifting unconsciously in the gloomy space of Hades. Gods and men had common origin, but there was an enormous gap between the immortal gods and the mortal men. However certain elements indicate that the Myceneans probably believed in a future existence. Two well-preserved bodies were found in Shaft Grave VI, and Helbig believed that an embalming preceded the burial. In the shaft graves discovered by Schliemann, the corpses were lightly exposed to fire in order to preserve them
Mycenaean religion certainly involved offerings and sacrifices to the deities, and some have speculated that their ceremonies involved human sacrifice based on textual evidence and bones found outside tombs. In the Homeric poems, there seems to be a lingering cultural memory of human sacrifice in King Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia; several of the stories of Trojan heroes involve tragic human sacrifice. In the far past, even human beings might be offered to placate inscrutable gods, especially in times of guilty fear. Later sacrifice became a feast at which oxen were slaughtered. Men kept the meat, and gave the gods the bones wrapped in fat.
Beyond this speculation we can go no further. Somewhere in the shades of the centuries between the fall of the Mycenaean civilization and the end of the Greek Dark Ages, the original Mycenean religion persisted and adapted until it finally emerged in the stories of human devotion, apostasy, and divine capriciousness that exists in the two great epic poems of Homer. It was the beginning of the religion which later the Greeks considered Hellenic, and embodies a paradox. Though the world is dominated by a divine power that the gods bestow in different ways on men, nothing but "darkness" lay ahead and life was sometimes frail and unsubstantial.
Classical Greek myths assert that Mycenae was founded by Perseus, grandson of king Acrisius of Argos, son of Acrisius' daughter, Danaë. Having killed his grandfather by accident, Perseus could not, or would not, inherit the throne of Argos. Instead he arranged an exchange of realms with his cousin, Megapenthes, and became king of Tiryns, Megapenthes taking Argos. From there he founded Mycenae and ruled the kingdoms jointly from Mycenae.
Perseus married Andromeda and had many sons, but in the course of time, went to war with Argos and was slain by Megapenthes. His son, Electryon, became the second of the dynasty, but the succession was disputed by the Taphians under Pterelaos, another Perseid, who assaulted Mycenae and losing retreated with the cattle. The cattle were recovered by Amphitryon, a grandson of Perseus, but he killed his uncle by accident with a club in an unruly cattle incident and had to go into exile.
The throne went to Sthenelus, third in the dynasty, a son of Perseus. He set the stage for future greatness by marrying Nicippe, a daughter of king Pelops of Elis, the most powerful state of the region and the times. With her he had a son, Eurystheus the fourth and last of the Perseid dynasty. When a son of Heracles, Hyllus, killed Sthenelus, Eurystheus became noted for his enmity to Heracles and for his ruthless persecution of the Heracleidae, the descendants of Heracles.
This is the first we hear in legend of those noted sons, who became a symbol of the Dorians. Heracles had been a Perseid. After his death, Eurystheus determined to annihilate these rivals for the throne of Mycenae, but they took refuge in Athens, and in the course of war, Eurystheus and all his sons were killed. The Perseid dynasty came to an end. The people of Mycenae placed Eurystheus' maternal uncle, Atreus, a Pelopid, on the throne.
The people of Mycenae had received advice from an oracle that they should choose a new king from among the Pelopids. The two contenders were Atreus and his brother, Thyestes. The latter was chosen at first. At this moment nature intervened. The sun appeared to reverse direction and set in the east. Atreus argued that because the sun had reversed its path, the election of Thyestes should be reversed. The argument was heeded, and Atreus became king. His first move was to pursue Thyestes and all his family - that is, his own kin - but Thyestes managed to escape from Mycenae.
In legend, Atreus had two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, the Atreids. Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes, killed Atreus and restored Thyestes to the throne. With the help of King Tyndareus of Sparta, the Atreids drove Thyestes again into exile. Tyndareus had two ill-starred daughters, Helen and Clytemnestra, whom Menelaus and Agamemnon married, respectively. Agamemnon inherited Mycenae and Menelaus became king of Sparta.
Soon, Helen eloped with Paris of Troy. Agamemnon conducted a 10-year war against Troy to get her back for his brother. Because of lack of wind, the warships could not sail to Troy. In order to please the gods so that they might make the winds start to blow, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. According to some versions of the legend, the hunting goddess Artemis replaced her at the very last moment with a deer on the altar, and took Iphigenia to Tauris (See Iphigenia en Tauris by Euripides). The deities having been satisfied by such a sacrifice, the winds started blowing and the warfaring fleet departed.
Legend tells us that the long and arduous Trojan War, although nominally a Greek victory, brought anarchy, piracy, and ruin; already before the Greek fleet set sail for Troy, the conflict had divided the gods as well, and this contributed to curses and acts of vengeance following many of the Greek heroes. After the war, Agamemnon, returning, was greeted royally with a red carpet rolled out for him and then was slain in his bathtub by Clytemnestra, who hated him bitterly for having ordered the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia (although the life of the latter had been saved). Clytemnestra was aided in her crime by Aegistheus, who reigned subsequently, but Orestes, son of Agamemnon, was smuggled out to Phocis. He returned as an adult to slay Clytemnestra and Aegistheus. He then fled to Athens to evade justice and a matricide, and became insane for a time. Meanwhile, the throne of Mycenae went to Aletes, son of Aegistheus, but not for long. Recovering, Orestes returned to Mycenae to kill him and take the throne.
Orestes then built a larger state in the Peloponnesus, but he died in Arcadia from a snake bite. His son, Tisamenus, the last of the Atreid dynasty, was killed by the Heracleidae on their return to the Peloponnesus. They claimed the right of the Perseids to inherit the various kingdoms of the Peloponnesus and cast lots for the dominion of them. Whatever the historical realities reflected in these stories, the Atreids are firmly set in the epoch near the end of the Heroic age, leading up to the arrival of the Dorians. There are no established stories of a royal house at Mycenae later than the Atreids, and this could reflect the fact that not much more than fifty or sixty years seem to have separated the fall of Troy VIIa (the likely inspiration of Homeric Troy) and the fall of Mycenae.
In fact, there was a total eclipse of the sun in the Aegean on March 5, 1223 BC, which Atreus might have twisted into a setting of the sun in the east. This date does not solve all the unknowns, however.
A late date is implied for the Trojan War, which would, in that case, have been against Troy VIIa after all. The Perseids would have been in power ca. 1380, the date of a statue base from Kom el-Heitan in Egypt recording the itinerary of an Egyptian embassy to the Aegean in the time of Amenophis III. M-w-k-i-n-u (phonetic "Mukanuh"?) was one of the cities visited, a rare early document of the name of Mycenae. It was one of the cities of the tj-n3-jj ("Tinay"?), Homeric Danaans, named, in myth, after Danaë, which suggests that the Perseids were in fact in some sort of dominion.
Also in the 14th century BC, Ahhiya began to be troublesome to numerous kings of the Hittite Empire. Ahhiyawa or Ahhiya, which occurs a few dozen times in Hittite tablets over the century, is probably Achaiwia, reconstructed Mycenaean Greek for Achaea. The Hittites did not use Danaja as did the Egyptians, even though the first Ahhiya reference in "Indictment of Madduwatta" precedes the correspondence between Amenhotep III and one of Madduwatta's subsequent successors in Arzawa, Tarhunta-Radu. The external LHIIIA:1-era sources do, however, agree in their omission of a great king or other unifying structure behind Ahhiya and the Tinay.
For example, in the "Indictment of Madduwatta", Attarissiya, the "man of Ahhiya" (i.e. ruler), attacks Madduwatta and drives him from his land. He obtains refuge and military assistance from the Hittite Great King Tudhaliya. After the death of the latter and in the reign of his son, Arnuwanda, Madduwatta allies with Attarissiya and they, along with another ruler, raid Alasiya, that is, Cyprus.
This is the only known occurrence of a man named Attarissiya. Attempts to link this name to Atreus have not found wide support, nor is there any evidence of a powerful Pelopid named Atreus of those times.
During LHIIIA:2, Ahhiya, now known as Ahhiyawa, extended its influence over Miletus, settling on the coast of Anatolia, and competed with the Hittites for influence and control in western Anatolia. For instance Uhha-Ziti's Arzawa and through him Manapa-Tarhunta's Seha River Land. While establishing the credibility of the Mycenaean Greeks as a historical power, these documents create as many problems as they solve.
Similarly, a Hittite king wrote the so-called Tawagalawa letter to the Great King of Ahhiyawa, concerning the depredations of the Luwiyan adventurer Piyama-Radu. Neither of the names of the great kings are stated; the Hittite king could be either Muwatalli II or his brother Hattusili III, which at least dates the letter to LHIIIB by Mycenaean standards. But neither the Atreus nor the Agamemnon of legend have any brothers named *Etewoclewes (Eteocles); this name, rather, is associated with Thebes, which during the preceding LHIIIA period Amenhotep III had viewed as equal to Mycenae.
Elsewhere, Muwatalli II (reg. 1296–1272) makes a treaty with Alaksandu (possibly Alexander), king of Wilusa (Ilium); and another document has Wilusa swearing by Appaliuna (Apollo). But the Alaksandu of the treaty is too early to be king of a city assaulted by Agamemnon, and besides, Priam was king of that city.
The first excavations at Mycenae were carried out by the Greek archaeologist Kyriakos Pittakis in 1841. He found and restored the Lion Gate. In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann started a complete excavation at the site. Schliemann believed in the historical truth of the Homeric stories and interpreted the site accordingly. He found the ancient shaft graves with their royal skeletons and spectacular grave goods. Upon discovering a human skull beneath a gold death mask in one of the tombs, he declared: "I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon".
Since Schliemann's day, more scientific excavations have taken place at Mycenae, mainly by Greek archaeologists but also by the British School at Athens. The acropolis was excavated in 1902, and the surrounding hills have been methodically investigated by subsequent excavations.
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|Table of contents
Preface Annex 1
OVERVIEW OF LAND RESOURCES
Land is a primary asset for survival and development in Eastern Africa. Land supports the livelihoods of most rural people. Rural population is high: in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Burundi, Eritrea and Uganda more than 80 per cent of the people live in rural areas; in Kenya and Somalia more than 60 per cent live in rural areas; and, in contrast, in Djibouti only 16.3 per cent live in rural areas (FAO 2005). Land also provides diverse functions in support of ecosystem processes.
As shown in Table 6 below, Uganda has the highest proportion of potentially arable land, whereas in Rwanda, all arable land is in use (FAO/AGL 2003) and land pressure is pushing cultivation into marginal areas. In Eritrea, 88 per cent is under cultivation. Countries such as Rwanda and Burundi face enormous challenges as they are physically small with high population densities. Burundi’s population density is 265.8 per km² and Rwanda’s 340.1 per km² (FAO 2005). Burundi has the highest rate of deforestation in Africa, and one of the highest globally, with a 9 per cent change per year (FAO 2005). Potential arable land is negligible in Djibouti because of the extremely arid conditions in the country.
More than one-third of the land area is covered by permanent pasture as the dominant land use is livestock grazing as shown in Figure 4 (FAOSTAT 2004). About 73 per cent of the total area is characterized by desert and dryland conditions, of which significant proportions fall in Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia.
Though immense, the potential of irrigation is under- utilized. The current extent of irrigated land is largest in Somalia. followed by Ethiopia, Kenya and Burundi. In the Horn of Africa, less than 1 per cent of the cultivable area is irrigated (IATFUN 2000). In Ethiopia, about 214 720 ha is irrigated, while the potentially irrigable land is estimated to be 3 328 910 ha (MoWRD 2001), implying that only 6.5 per cent of the potentially irrigable land is currently under irrigation. The area currently under irrigation accounts for about 3 per cent of the country’s total food production (FDRE 2003). In Kenya, potentially irrigable land is estimated to be 540 000 ha, of which 52 000 ha or 9.6 per cent of the potential has been developed.
ENDOWMENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES
Agriculture and tourism are the main drivers of growth in Eastern Africa. Improved agriculture was a key factor in Tanzania’s growth of 6.1 per cent and Ethiopia’s growth of 11.6 per cent per year (ECA 2005).
Land is primarily utilized for agriculture (crop and livestock production), nature-based tourism and extraction of other land-based natural resources such as metal ores and oils. By putting in place appropriate institutional and policy frameworks, and conservation- based agricultural development technologies, the breadth of opportunities to be derived from land can be immense and thus hold great potential for breaking the circle of poverty. Though variable between countries, agriculture accounts for the highest share of GDP, contributing 51.5 per cent in Burundi, 49.9 per cent in Ethiopia, 43.1 per cent in Uganda and 38.9 per cent in Rwanda. For Djibouti, Eritrea and Kenya, the GDP is derived from diverse service sectors.
Integrated land-use planning is an essential tool and defines an approach to land resources management. It introduces mechanisms and incentives for bringing about change in land allocation as well as for identifying suitable biophysical and economic uses, and it prescribes appropriate management practices and options to ensure that land resources are conserved (FAO/UNEP 1999). In Ethiopia, attempts have been made to formulate and implement integrated land-use plans at village, district, regional and national levels. The national land-use plan was based on a nationwide socioeconomic and physical land resources database (Henricksen 1988). There are attempts to implement local or village level integrated land-use planning using watershed or farmer’s service cooperative boundaries as planning units (Gittins and Henricksen 1986, LUPRD 1989, MoARD 2005). In Kenya, the watershed management approach has been used extensively to conserve and develop resources at a microlevel.
There are opportunities from agricultural research and technologies which can contribute to development, such as the use of improved seed varieties, agrochemicals and other improved agronomic practices (appropriate planting date, seeding rate, etc). This could result in substantive yield increases, as current production is often characterized by low input and management levels.
The sustainable use of land resources requires, among other things, a strong institutional framework at all levels. The mushrooming of multiple sub-regional institutions to manage resources, which are of an inter- country nature, is a key element in fostering economic growth. The Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) was put in place in 1986 with seven member counties including Djibouti, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia, with the aim of strengthening regional cooperation and efforts in areas of food security and environmental protection, maintenance of peace and security and humanitarian affairs, and enhancing economic cooperation and integration of member countries.
Recurrent drought, limited alternative sources of income, population pressure, limited technology, lack of product diversification and market integration, lack of institutional capacity, environmental degradation and poor access to credit all undermine efficient and sustainable land use. In some countries, including Ethiopia, many interlocking and reinforcing factors including poverty, misguided policies, technological stagnation, population pressure, insecurity of land rights, weak institutional support (credit, extension, etc), drought and political instability contributed to the stagnation of agriculture, food insecurity and the degradation of natural resources (Shiferaw 1994, FDRE 2003). These factors may make efficient planning and management difficult: in Ethiopia, for example, the effectiveness of the recently launched nationwide agricultural extension programme, which embraces about 40 per cent of the farming population, has been constrained by high agricultural input prices, shortage of complementary inputs and inadequate extension services (Bonger and others 2004). Access to improved technology in Ethiopia is minimal where the average rate of fertilizer (nutrient) application per hectare of cultivated land is 17.5 kg (CSA 1996). In Uganda, increased crop and livestock disease, soil degradation, lack of access to improved agricultural inputs, weak agricultural extension systems, inefficient markets, increasing land fragmentation and unreliable weather have been cited as contributing to the declining crop yield of smallholder farmers (McDonagh and Bahiigwa 2002). On the high and medium potential lands of Kenya, land productivity potential is adversely affected by soil erosion, decline in soil fertility, soil salinization, crop and livestock diseases and fragmentation of landholdings. In the lowlands, where pastoralism is the predominant farming system, a combination of physical, environmental and socioeconomic factors constrain production efficiency. Gradual resource shrinkage, tenure insecurity and inadequate livestock watering may also be major problems in pastoral areas, as they are in Ethiopia (Arsano 1999, Sisay 1999).
Land degradation is a serious problem as shown in Table 7. The total area suffering from severe to very severe degradation is about 14 per cent (FAOSTAT 2005). In particular, Burundi and Rwanda face a serious threat of land degradation, where about 76 and 71 per cent of the respective country’s total area encounters very severe degradation problems (FAOSTAT 2005). They are followed by Eritrea, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, where areas with severe to very severe degradation constitute about 63, 53, 30 and 26 per cent respectively of total land area (FAOSTAT 2005). In Djibouti, wind erosion is the principal form of erosion but is mainly viewed as “natural” due to the absence of agricultural land (FAO/AGL 2003).
The pressures and driving forces that are attributable to land degradation are similar across the countries of the sub-region. Typical proximate causes include overcultivation, overgrazing and deforestation. The process of soil degradation is affected by poverty, population dynamics, insecure tenure, weak institutional support (eg extension, credit, etc), political instability and factors related to physical land attributes such as topography, soil and rainfall conditions. Topography is an important consideration, as many countries are mountainous. In order of magnitude, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia encounter the highest potential erosion risk due to steep topography.
The areas with the most severe land degradation are also those with the highest population density. The high population density, in the central and northern highlands of Eritrea, Rwanda and Burundi, is an important consideration. Rwanda has the highest population in Africa, with 340 people per km²; its population is growing at 2.1 per cent per year (FAO 2005). Burundi, with a population density of 265.8, is growing at 3.1 per cent per year (FAO 2005).
Land tenure is profoundly political, and it continues to be a critical factor in the development of African politics and economies (Bruce and others 1996). Land tenure, and in particular ownership and access rights, has been widely recognized to have important bearings on effective, efficient and sustainable management and production regimes. The topography of land tenure varies from country to country and includes freehold tenure, state leasehold and community-based tenure (legally recognized indigenous tenure and community-based). A combination of freehold, state leasehold and community-based tenure prevail in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda (Bruce and others 1996). In Burundi and Djibouti, freehold and community-based tenure, including pastoral systems, occur extensively (Bruce and others 1996). In Ethiopia and Eritrea, state leasehold and community-based tenure, including pastoral regimes, dominate. Overall, the tenure situation assessment in most of the sub-region’s countries (Uganda, Somalia, Kenya and Rwanda) reveals that compulsory and systematic tenure conversion to individual ownership offered little benefit to smallholder farmers (Bruce and others 1996). In Ethiopia, tenure insecurity is described as being one of the major problems associated with the existing land system (Rahmato 2004, EEA/EEPRI 2002). In Kenya, where formal titles to land are held by many farmers, the lack of any significant relationship between land title and crop yield is perhaps explained by the limited use of land titles in obtaining formal credits (Migot-Adholla and others 1994).


Giving women the power over resources is essential for any development to take place. This is lieu of the fact that women are the mainstay in farming and yet they have no decision-making power. Through mutual help groups (MHGs), there is a method of organizing the energy, contribution and activeness of grassroots women. The MHGs are developed around activities such as developing a grain bank or taking up a tree planting program. Two short case studies are given below.
These tools give the women a level of self-sufficiency in which they can come together and participate in the larger struggle for rights. Otherwise they do not have the facility to do this.
Strengthening women’s role by setting up the (Ekta Mahila Manche) Women’s Wing: An exclusively women’s formation within Ekta Parishad was started in mid-2001 as a way to bring more women leaders and decision-makers into the senior echelons of the organization. Their main focus is the women and land related issues i.e. joint pattas (document stating joint land rights between men and women), are issued in the names of husband and wife both. The campaign to get joint pattas issued in the names of both the husband and wife was carried out by Ekta Parishad on the understanding that women’s empowerment can be possible only by ensuring women’s rights on land. (Singh 2005) The tool used here is to motivate women to get into the land rights movement by starting with seeing their own life change and realizing that change is possible within the home, community and society.


Atheism is based on faith
Apologists often claim that atheism is based on faith — that is, not believing in a god requires just as much faith, if not more, than belief. Norman Geisler expressed this argument in the title of his book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.
- "To be a [sic] Atheist one would have to be omniscient, knowing all things, having a perfect knowledge of the universe, to say they absolutely know God does not exist. For one to do this they would have to personally inspected all places in the present known universe and in all time, having explored everywhere seen and unseen."
- The definition of "Atheist" in the argument above is an overly broad straw man: an atheist is one who either lacks positive belief in a god or who believes that no gods exist, not one who claims to know absolutely that no gods exist (see Atheist vs. agnostic).
- While a person would need perfect knowledge of the universe to be absolutely certain that no gods exist, such knowledge is not required for disbelief. And, in fact, individual theists disbelieve all kinds of claims (that various mythical beings exist, or that Earth is being regularly visited by aliens from space) without having complete knowledge even of the relevant subject areas.
- The use of the word "faith" is often an attempt to mislead based on the equivocation fallacy. As the article on faith discusses, the two primary meanings of the word are: (1) confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing; and (2) belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. One may reasonably claim that certain forms of atheism are based on "faith" using the first definition. However, the way this claim is often made implies that the second definition is being used, which is usually incorrect.
- Disbelief based on lack of evidence does not require faith. In fact, disbelief does not require evidence of any kind. Someone who has never heard of the concept of "gods" would not believe in them. Under the broader definition of atheism, they would be an atheist and yet not have faith that no gods exist. Similarly, someone who has been given evidence and simply finds it lacking (the classic narrower definition of atheist) would also not be relying on faith for his or her lack of belief.
- It is quite possible to obtain evidence discouraging belief in the existence of specific gods (i.e., "evidence-based atheism"). For example, if the god is defined sufficiently well, one may examine the definition for logical contradications. If the god is not logically consistent, then disbelief is justified. If a god is invoked to explain a certain phenomenon, then that explanation can be compared to the best scientific explanation of the same phenomenon. If science leads to a better explanation or a deeper understanding of the mechanisms involved, then why is belief in the god necessary?
- The argument equates non-belief in a proposition due to a complete lack of evidence and good reasons to suppose otherwise to the psychological leap of faith needed to believe such a proposition.
- Theists tend to treat belief in their particular god as the default position, and they will often back this up with some variation of the argument from design. But since theists make a positive claim of their god's existence, they have the burden of proof. In fact, their claim is quite extraordinary (e.g., a being that can create whole universes), so their burden of proof is all the greater for that.
- There is often an unspoken premise in this kind of argument that being an atheist is dangerous and therefore should not be entered into lightly. This is a classic appeal to emotion. (Not to mention the ironic implication that faith is not a good reason to disbelieve something; if that's true, then why should faith be a good reason to believe something?)
- Theists commonly consider faith to be a virtue. It seems odd, then, that they would criticize atheism for being based on faith. Moreover, the argument implies that the more faith a proposition needs, the less one should accept it as true, a position that many counter-apologists would welcome.
- Tu quoque! This argument attempts to defend faith-based religious claims by insisting that the atheist position falls into the same category. It also often serves as a non sequitur, and tends to derail the discussion about the merits of positive god claims.
- Theists often backslide and have trouble maintaining faith in their god. Atheists occasionally convert to theism, but do not tend to slip into various god-beliefs due to the "strain" required to maintain no belief in any gods. If atheism were an identity based on faith, one might expect atheists to share the same difficulties the religious have in maintaining their faith.