Q: In this task, you will be given a passage to read. A fill in the blank question will be given to you. Your answer should fit the blank appropriately.
Egyptian gods were involved in human lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . This divine influence applied mainly to Egypt , as foreign peoples were traditionally believed to be outside the divine order . But in the New Kingdom , when other nations were under Egyptian control , foreigners were said to be under the sun god 's benign rule in the same way that Egyptians were . Thoth , as the overseer of time , was said to allot fixed lifespans to both humans and gods . Other gods were also said to govern the length of human lives , including Meskhenet , who presided over birth , and Shai , the personification of fate . Thus the time and manner of death was the main meaning of the Egyptian concept of fate , although to some extent these deities governed other events in life as well . Several texts refer to gods influencing or inspiring human decisions , working through a person 's heart the seat of emotion and intellect in Egyptian belief . Deities were also believed to give commands , instructing the king in the governance of his realm and regulating the management of their temples . Egyptian texts rarely mention direct commands given to private persons , and these commands never evolved into a set of divinely enforced moral codes . Morality in ancient Egypt was based on the concept of maat , which , when applied to human society , meant that everyone should live in an orderly way that did not interfere with the well @-@ being of other people . Because deities were the upholders of maat , morality was connected with them . For example , the gods judged humans ' moral righteousness after death , and by the New Kingdom , a verdict of innocence in this judgment was believed to be necessary for admittance into the afterlife . But in general , morality was based on practical ways to uphold maat in daily life , rather than on strict rules that the gods laid out . Humans had free will to ignore divine guidance and the behavior required by maat , but by doing so they could bring divine punishment upon themselves . A deity carried out this punishment using its ba , the force that manifested the god 's power in the human world . Natural disasters and human ailments were seen as the work of angry divine bas . Conversely , the gods could cure righteous people of illness or even extend their lifespans . Both these types of intervention were eventually represented by deities : Shed , who emerged in the New Kingdom to represent divine rescue from harm , and Petbe , an apotropaic god from the late eras of Egyptian history who was believed to avenge wrongdoing . Egyptian texts take different views on whether the gods are responsible when humans suffer unjustly . Misfortune was often seen as a product of isfet , the cosmic disorder that was the opposite of maat , and therefore the gods were not guilty of causing evil events . Some deities who were closely connected with isfet , such as Set , could be blamed for disorder within the world without placing guilt on the other gods . But some writings do accuse the deities of causing human misery , while others give theodicies in the gods ' defense . Beginning in the Middle Kingdom , several texts connected the issue of evil in the world with a myth in which the creator god fights a human rebellion against his rule and then withdraws from the earth . Because of this human misbehavior , the creator is distant from his creation , allowing suffering to exist . New Kingdom writings do not question the just nature of the gods as strongly as those of the Middle Kingdom . They emphasize humans ' direct , personal relationships with deities and the gods ' power to intervene in human events . People in this era put faith in specific gods who they hoped would help and protect them through their lives . As a result , upholding the ideals of maat grew less important than gaining the gods ' favor as a way to guarantee a good life . Even the pharaohs were regarded as dependent on divine aid , and after the New Kingdom came to an end , government was increasingly influenced by oracles communicating the gods ' will . fill in the blank :Egyptian gods were involved in __________________ lives as well as in the overarching order of nature .
A:
human