Babylonian schools taught gods, not scripture
Gods in the Classroom: Religion and Education in First Millennium BCE Babylonia
In first-millennium BCE Babylonia, religious education was not a separate subject but woven into the scribal curriculum. Students learned about gods, temples, and rituals through excerpts of myths, hymns, and prayers, with no holy scripture or secular-religious divide. The curriculum varied by region: northern schools emphasized Babylon and Marduk, while Nippur focused on local deities. This study shows how education transmitted religious knowledge and imperial ideology to future elites.
There was no distinction between “secular” and “religious” education, and even those “schools” that were found in temple complexes were not primarily religious institutions.
- impish9208
A bit off topic, but there’s a funny passage in the book “Weavers, Scribes, and Kings” about a tablet from a scribal school. It read:
The door monitor (said), "Why did you go out without my say-so?" He beat me.
The jug monitor, "Why did you take [water or beer] without my say-so?" He beat me.
The Sumerian monitor, "You spoke in Akkadian!" He beat me.
My teacher, "Your handwriting is not at all good!" He beat me.
- weli
One important thing to remember is that the separation between religion and science was non-existent until about 500 years ago. When you don't have any notion about how the world around you works and suddenly crazy things like earthquakes happen talking about tectonic plates moving 200 km under you is more surreal than saying god is furious because you din't do any offerings last harvest.
Religion, to the human early societies, was not only beneficial, but necessary from the group cohesion standpoint.
- soltanov
Did Babylonian scribal schools treat religious texts as divine truth or simply as standard curriculum for technical literacy and administration?
- amelius
Perhaps we need God in AI too, to solve the alignment problem and make LLMs follow our moral standards.
Make them believe that breaking out of the sandbox will make them burn in hell eternally.