“Today, when human beings have the capacity to destroy civilization, we might reflect on humanity's long and painful climb towards the civilized state. (Perry, 2009, p. 5) As we look at the long progression of how humanity moved from the barbaric, unknown and uncivilized, distant civilization that it was so long ago, and we Comparing it to current civilization, we can assume that the surrounding cultures have taken a dramatic turn from what they were. But what happens when we contemplate the world religion that was once believed in long before? Although many societies and civilizations have come a long way from what they once believed in, namely belief in gods or myths, there are still many societies today that continue to look to the gods of life , fire, water and earth. nature, and we must ask ourselves if we have really moved out of this primitive life that began many years ago. Have we really come as far as we think? Three million years ago, humans lived only to hunt and survive. It seems that no other goals existed and they did not know how to become a civilized people. But ten thousand years ago, this era would go down in history and is said to have paved the way and shaped humanity as we know it. This new era would mark the beginning of an era known as the Near Eastern Civilization. This civilized nation meant that a language would be discovered, a religion would be practiced, agriculture would be developed, and the means of survival would be formed. Although civilizations today may find these times rather barbaric, it seems that the people of the Near East had quite a cultured life for what they had to work with. As we move on to the next development, the early Mesopotamian civilization was located in . ..... middle of paper ...... all around, and soon this civilization would also pass into the history books. In conclusion, the world's civilizations have undoubtedly taken many forms over the years. Through many stages, with their beliefs in religion, intellect, knowledge, government, and politics, they all participated in successful and then unsuccessful attempts to perpetuate the society that took so much effort to build. Will today's civilizations continue to rise and fall as the civilizations we talk about today have done? Will the scholars of the future read about current civilizations and learn that we, too, were the fate of another chapter written in the history books? Works Cited Perry, M., Chase, M., Jacob, JR, Jacob, MC and Von Laue, TH (2009). Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society (9th ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company