ancient beliefs
Bygone spiritual traditions
Ancient beliefs are the religious, spiritual, or cosmological ideas held by early civilizations and traditional cultures—the gods of Egypt, Greek mythology, animist traditions, or pre-Christian European religions.
The phrase often carries a distancing effect, marking these worldviews as superseded or primitive: Ancient beliefs held that the sun was a god.
Sometimes used appreciatively: She studied ancient beliefs about healing.
- divine interventionGodly action in affairs
- superstitionBaseless belief in omens
- evil spiritsMalevolent supernatural beings
- loreTraditional knowledge transmitted orally
- creation mythsTraditional origin-of-everything tales
divination · animism · nature worship · mystical · ancestor worship · dualism · moral codes · rituals · blood sacrifice · sacred texts · pantheons · astrology · oral traditions · shamanism · tribal elders · polytheism · cosmic order · sacrifices
ancient beliefsmodern philosophy
Post-medieval Western thought
Scientology · neo-paganism · modern spirituality · Mormonism
ancient beliefsscientific knowledge
Facts established through research
empirical evidence · modern science · scientific method · skepticism · materialism