Which is the oldest religion in this world? Reeply with some theory supporting your claim...?

Question

I believe it is Jainism... I dont have any proofs right now... but will soon get them to you... There is one book by one Jain Ascetic "Shrusthi ka sabse purana dharm", which is in Hindi language... It just explains how all existing religions of World originated from Jainism. I'll soon write a blog abt it and let you'll know more abt it...

Answer 1

WHAT ABOUT THE MOTHER GODDESS FROM OUR EARLIEST PRE-HISTORIC ANCESTORS OF ABOUT 20,000+ THOUSAND YEARS? RELIGION IS INHERANT AT A CERTAIN LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE, PROVEN BY THE SUDDEN EXPLOSION OF DIETY WORSHIP, ON THE HEELS OF OUR OWN INTELLECTUAL EVOLUTION.

Answer 2

Jainism is most certainly not the oldest religion in the world

you might eventually make a case that it is the oldest currently practiced named religion in the world

but their is good evidence that the oldest of artifacts included things that would be considered "religious"

from surviving myths of the most primitive peoples, we can infer that when there have been people, there has been religion

so, depending on when you think there were first "people", then there was religion there

Answer 3

Much about man's early years is shrouded in mystery. Your question is particularly tricky since you did not define religion. When did "religion" come into play? Was it before or after man became spiritual? Are you referring to early superstition or organized worship with the acknowledgement that this is a religion?

If you're talking about -- the first beliefs held by man -- we're talking about a quasi-religion. Aside from the most basic superstitions about nature and life, there was the faith Hume talked about . . . the faith that each of us still rely heavily on today: induction. We use our past to predict our future and this seems highly unlogical because we have NO idea what makes our life hold together and therefore it is impossible to know when life will stop holding together.

Sure, we have names for processes but that doesn't dictate why. It just shows merely how. We have faith that when I lay my bowl of cereal down on what I feel is a hard surface, my bowl will stay there. It won't jump up. It won't float toward the ceiling. It will remain until another force (like me) moves it. That's the Problem of Induction. We induce that the past will dictate our future.

Before man KNEW he was inducing, he induced. He simply believed he would get the correct response if he made sacrifices to a certain god.

You could also be asking what the first organized, religious identity was formed. When did people begin to feel they were religious? A religious indentity is quite different from early man's worship of the god of rain and the goddess of crops. A religious identity is inclusive: there is a community in which this identity is shared.

One of the leading theories of anthropology (this theory has a whole group of problems it can't deal with, but it's still a leading one and worth learning about) suggests that man's awareness of his faith came MUCH later in life. Until then, he'd pretty much believe any Mysterium Tremendum (big mystery).

If his neighbor Joe had a different god of harvest -- Joe's god of harvest was just as valid and real as Ugh's god of harvest. But Ugh's god of harvest was territorial so while Ugh is under his own property, he'd pray to his god. But if Ugh stayed with Joe, Ugh would pray to Joe's god.

There is no religious identity. It never occurs to either Joe or Ugh that they may believe in different things. Even if they realized it, it is unlikely that they'd be able to communicate these differences because "god" is an abstract concept. To Joe, god could mean the process. He prays to the rain which is helping his harvest grow. To Ugh, rain is handled by an "entity" and so is "harvest" and he needs both entites to work together.

This question can be answered in so many different ways. To cover the most broadest terms, I'd say the earliest religion was "mysticism" (a general term, not the specific religion) and the earliest belief was inductive reasoning.

Answer 4

Egyptian religion predates pretty much any other known religions and is still followed today, if a bit sparsely. My best friend follows the khemetic faith, particularly honoring his patron deity, Sekhmet. He does so with all the same devotion, if not more, as do Christians their gods.

Answer 5

Hinduism

Answer 6

Hinduism is the oldest organized religion, but Zoroastrianism is the oldest prophetic religion.

Answer 7

the oldest religion in the world is long forgotten by now. religion is older than written history. if somehow this religion has survived, it has long been brushed off as myth or legend.