which religion came first?

[scoobysnax81]

i am trying to discover what the first ever religion was called, can anyone help me?

[CLOWN TICKLE]

judaism, if you read the bible

[bobclean]

I don't know if there is an answer to your question, scooby. There have been countless religions, lost in the mists of time. If you mean which is the oldest recorded religion, then a quick google search seems to show hinduism as the oldest. Clowntickle, if you read the bible, it will also tell you the world was created in 7 days, and lots of other misinformation, so I don't think that it can be quoted as a source of reliable information.

[goldenboy]

animism

[Lonnie]

CT's right, if you are talking about the three monothesic religeons, but the one that is generally accepted as the oldest is Hinduism, it was being practiced approximately 1500 BC.

A bit more than you asked, judaism is modelled on the religeons of Ancient Egypt.

[jno]

probably the first deities were earth and sky. The earth mother was usually seen as female, because the earth brought forth food as mothers bring forth children, so they were seen as connected by fertility. Gods of the sky, sea and so on seem more likely to have been male. The earth goddess (or just 'the goddess') lasted a long time but gradually became subordinate to gods - she's probably dwindled into Artemis and Isis and eventually the Virgin Mary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Mother

[mrs zom]

In Greek times there were the Olympic Gods and goddesses and all sorts of pantheistic religions and cults, like Mithras and Bacchus...Before all this though there were beliefs in Ancient Egypt regarding Isis and Osiris, though I'm not sure they were classed as Religions as we know them.

[spudqueen]

Zoroastrianism, the religion Freddie Mercury followed, is about 3500 years old.

[maxximus]

american indian, south and north are reputed by some experts to have existed some 30,000+ years ago. and probably had a belief system along the lines of what jno suggest, as it's along the lines of what they believe today.

[Octavius]

Don't disagree with any of the above, Hinduism is certainly regarded as one of the oldest organised religions.

However as somebody pointed out above, there were many polytheistic religions before 1,500BC. It is even thought that the Aborigines of Australia practised a religion to a rainbow serpent icon 6,000 years ago, which they still recognise as an icon today.

A tough one to answer.

[heathfield]

There is some evidence that religion existed among Neanderthals 80,000 years ago. This is denied by others. The argument is still open.

[dawkins]

The earliest religion for which records exist is the religion of mesopotania which is hard to put an exact date on but from about 4500 BCE?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesopotamian_religion

D

[Donquixote]

That's easy - Jedi.

It started a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

[mrs zom]

You can't really argue with that answer, can you!?

[rockchik@skl]

i think it was a sort of mother nature religion wher they believd a woman had creatd th world nd worshippd a female god.

[pugwashjw]

It is first necessary to establish how long man has been on the earth. Adam and Eve were the first people, created by God. From them we all descended. Genesis chapter five give the geneology from Adam through to Noah. If the time spans given in the Bible is put into chart form, the total is about 8,000 years. Another Geneology list is given at Luke 3; 23-38, from Adam to Jesus. A third is given at Matthew 1; 1-16, covering from Abraham to Jesus. By checking the chart at Genesis 5, it can be seen that Methuselah actually outlived his own long lived son by four years. This method does not give exact years but is enough to show that the claims of man being on the earth for longer than 8,000 years is pure supposition and NOT supported by the Bible. Abraham, through God's direction, established Judaism, through his son, Isaac. Abrahams oldest son by his servantgirl, Hagar, named Ishmael, established Islam. There could have been forms of religion before the flood, which totally destroyed all traces, even though the Sphinx of Egypt may be a relic, then after Noah and his sons survived, [Genesis 10] one of his offspring, NIMROD, went to Assyria and built Ninevah, with a tower, that could be classed as the first pagan church. God disapproved, confused the language and stopped the building, because the people were not worshiping HIM. This is made clear by the statement that Nimrod was " in opposition to Jehovah" [ God's personal name] [Gen 10;9] The Bible indicates that the 'civilization ' was called BABEL, because all the languages were confused and from theis we get the word ' babbling'. Also Revelation refers to the world of false religion as " Babylon the Great". Revelation chapter 18. Your answer is Babylon.

[scoobysnax81]

Thank you to everyone that answered my question.....whats up with the jedi thing tho? lol thanks again folks x

[knwldgseeker]

Druidism, who the christians bit of most of what they use this day from. At least they were true and didn't force a hate on which they didn't know. To love and worship what surrounds us.