What is the oldest religion?

[AlphaAlex115]

I blame the current state of our school system...and your parents, of course.

And sadly I am also very gullible... I hope this place will fix that .. and im off topic again. Sry.

 

[steeltoes]

Do you always dismiss other people's views that seem to you as absurd by saying that they're a troll xd? In all honesty I admit I am incredibly ignorant. I actually googled it and saw that I had miscalculated slightly - god I am an imbecile for believing he was born 20000 years ago... but only 2000 years? I think at the time that I believed that was too recent. In fact I originally believed that jesus was born when humans first came about.. and I had heard that america was like iceland in being created by plate margins moving away from each other and having magma rise up to form land etc.

Jesus could be a literary construct for all we know.

 

[AlphaAlex115]

I believe there is evidence to prove that he existed as a man. As for him being the son of God, that's another matter :^).

 

[steeltoes]

I believe there is evidence to prove that he existed as a man. As for him being the son of God, that's another matter :^).

Jesus could have existed as a man but I would not venture so far as to claim that there is evidence to prove that he existed. There is the opinion that Jesus existed and that opinion is held by many, and that is the extent of it.

Anyways, as for the oldest religion;

1. Hinduism
   
2. The world's oldest religion still being practiced today is Hinduism (know to adherents as 'Sanatan Dharma', Eternal Order) but, in what is considered 'the west', the first records of religious practice come from Egypt around 4000 BCE.
   
3. Religion -- Ancient History Encyclopedia
   
   Ancient History Encyclopediareligion/
   
   
   

 

[Mycroft]

The oldest known and recorded formal religion (as an opposed to a faith) is the Egyptian religion with dates back to about 3000 BCE.

 

[CynthiaCypher]

Jesus could be a literary construct for all we know.

And maybe me reporting you for attempting to derail a thread will be a literary construct too. He asked what is the world's oldest religion, what does that have to do with your conspiracy theories about Jesus?

 

[religion99]

Rishabh, founder of Jainism is mentioned as a minor deity in Rig Veda. That makes Jainism nearly as old as Hinduism

 

[AlphaAlex115]

I thought Hinduism started when judism started.. and what proof is there that its older?

 

[outhouse]

Where there's a problem in answer the question in the OP is that all religions evolve over them, and there also is very frequently an exchange of religious ideas. If one studies the Sumerian religion that predates Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by thousands of years, you'll see how some beliefs and traditions undoubtedly got passed down.

Correct, in my opinion.

There is no way to answer this because people are mythologically inclined so to speak.

As long as there has been homo sapiens, and before, there has been spirituality and beliefs.


All we know is what we can determine from written history, and before this period, from anthropology and archeology which limits are definition of early religions.

 

[metis]

I thought Hinduism started when judism started.. and what proof is there that its older?

Some of the Vedas are older texts than what is found in Judaism. However, generally speaking, much of what we read in almost any scriptures were typically carried orally, and it's all but impossible to determine how long ago these oral traditions started.

 

[ChristineES]

I actually do not know and was asked this the other day. Is there any definite answer? And when I say religion I don't mean as in one guy thinking ''Yeah there's a man in the sky that controls everything" etc. I mean a religion, that may or may not now be dead, that a moderately large group took part and believed in. My history is terrible so I reaaly have no clue :^)

I think you might mean the first "known" religion in history. It can't be proven, but Neanderthals used to bury their dead in a fetal position, which indicates they MAY of had some kind of religion. They also found artifacts in the graves of the Neanderthal. (I took Physical Anthropology in college, which is where I learned this kind of things, it's been years, so I might be shaky of the details).

(By the way, Christians don't believe in a "man in the sky").

 

[metis]

I think you might mean the first "known" religion in history. It can't be proven, but Neanderthals used to bury their dead in a fetal position, which indicates they MAY of had some kind of religion. They also found artifacts in the graves of the Neanderthal. (I took Physical Anthropology in college, which is where I learned this kind of things, it's been years, so I might be shaky of the details).

(By the way, Christians don't believe in a "man in the sky").

You are correct, and you might check back on posts #8 and 12.

 

[ChristineES]

You are correct, and you might check back on posts #8 and 12.

I'll do that. I am guilty sometimes of not reading a whole thread before I post.

 

[metis]

I'll do that. I am guilty sometimes of not reading a whole thread before I post.

Hey, don't feel bad as I think you'll agree that reading all posts on some threads sometimes may be classified as "torture".

 

[Riverwolf]

I thought Hinduism started when judism started.. and what proof is there that its older?

The youngest possible age for the Vedas is about 3500 years, and it's highly likely that the oldest passages date to about 4-5000 years ago, if memory serves me correctly. (Many Hindus will claim they're 20,000 - 100,000 years old, or even eternal.) The Vedas, historically speaking, record a religion already well in practice, indicating that the religion goes back much further.

As for oldest surviving religion, what about the Bear Cults that are still practiced by certain people like the Ainu or Sami?

 

[Bunyip]

Aboriginal Australian religion may very well be the oldest existing religion

Yeah, the aboriginal occupation of Aus goes back some 65 thousand years - which would be earlier than even the Neanderthal burials found. So I would agree with you as to the oldest surviving religion beingthat of the Australian aborigines.

 

[s2a]

Spl

I actually do not know and was asked this the other day. Is there any definite answer? And when I say religion I don't mean as in one guy thinking ''Yeah there's a man in the sky that controls everything" etc. I mean a religion, that may or may not now be dead, that a moderately large group took part and believed in. My history is terrible so I reaaly have no clue :^)

It's virtually certain (though well beyond any available historical accounting) that polytheism (a belief in specific cause "gods") to be the most likely amongst any "firsts". In the most early accounts of human civilizations, evidence indicates that people first believed in forces of nature (wind, fire, sky, etc.), to eventually lending proper names to these forces.

Ra, Apollo, Zeus, etc.

At any rate, any concepts of "monotheism" (one singular "god") came much later, and with significant popular resistance.

Is there a definite answer? I think that unlikely.

It must be added that "animism" (fear of predators like cave bears and sabre tooth tigers) qualifies , in my mind, as "forces of nature", whose "names" did not receive any early history nomenclatures beyond "Run"!

Ask anyone of any faith-based beliefs though...I'm sure you will at least get their answers of theistic origins.

 

[roger1440]

I actually do not know and was asked this the other day. Is there any definite answer? And when I say religion I don't mean as in one guy thinking ''Yeah there's a man in the sky that controls everything" etc. I mean a religion, that may or may not now be dead, that a moderately large group took part and believed in. My history is terrible so I reaaly have no clue :^)

One of the oldest religions may be the worship of fat chicks. I'm serious.

 

[Mycroft]

No America popped up out of sea in the sixteenth century as people weren't there before that.

Aman777, is that you?

 

[Willamena]

One of the oldest religions may be the worship of fat chicks. I'm serious.

Just so.