which is the oldest religion? Hinduism?

Answer 1

Yes Hinduism. It still has early elements of Sun worship, mother goddess worship, nature worship even shamans surviving in its folds. It is a tradition which never rejects older theories. But at the same time it is progressive.

Not to forget that Hindus never tried to fix a date and limit the origin of life in time period of a few thosand years ever. It always been aware of its tradition as being very ancient. Thats because of its continuity.

There have been many recent archeological discoveries which only indicate the Hindu civilisation is much older that previous scholars wanted to believe.

Mostly they were western researchers who tried to fit Harrapa and vedic tradition in Biblic time line. But discoveries like

1. A City Dating Back to 7500 BC, Krishna's city Dwarka

2. Satelite discovery of disappeared River Saraswati

3. Satellite Photos of the Ancient (17,50,000 years )
Bridge Between Ramesvaram and Sri Lanka, mentioned in Ramayana and said to be constructed by his army.

4. A 40,000 Year Old Cave Painting South of New Delhi,

5. Ancient City Found Off the Coast of Mamallapuram,

take it to very long back.

Dwarka:
"Samples collected include artefacts, wood pieces, pottery materials, hearth pieces, animal bones. They were sent to Manipur University, Oxford University, London, Institute of Earth Sciences, Hanover, Germany for analysis and dating. The results were astonishing. It was found beyond doubt that the samples belonged to a period going upto7800 years (BP) Before Present !"

Though Archeologiccal research is a costly affair and heavy population + Loads of sedimentation in Indian basins does not help either. Harrappa itself has 7 layers-Minimum. It wasnt possible to dig more and see if there were still more layers burried under. But other excavations around India definitely enough to prove that it was a widely spread civilisation and not a localised one.

Discovery of SARASWATI again by NASA and researches in south India also prove that ARYAN Immigration theory is fake:

"strong evidence that the Neolithic people of Tamil Nadu and the Indus Valley people "shared the same language, which can only be Dravidian and not Indo-Aryan." He added that before this discovery, the southernmost occurrence of the Indus script was at Daimabad, Maharashtra on the Pravara River in the Godavari Valley."
http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/01/stories/2006050112670100.htm

Check out the sources given below for details and images of some of discoveries.

Answer 2

I think that Hinduism is the oldest documented religion that is still in practice today. The keywords are "documented" and "still in practice today". Although there may have been other older religions, often times they were practiced in oral societies or they do not have an unbroken history of practice. Also, Hinduism does not have a central leader and contains many different beliefs and practices.

"... The Sanskrit word ric, which for euphonic reasons is changed to rig, means literally "praise". ... The Sanskrit word veda means literally "knowledge" or "wisdom". ... The Rig-Veda is the oldest book in the Sanskrit language, indeed in any Indo-European language. More than that, if we are correct, it is the oldest book in the world ... The fact that the Rig-Veda mentions a stellar configuration that corresponds to a date from 6000 B.C. to 7000 B.C. - the astronomical Ashvini era ..."
http://www.valdostamuseum.org/hamsmith/RgVeda.html

"Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized religion."
http://www.religioustolerance.org/hinduism.htm

"Hinduism is the major religion of India, practiced by more than 80% of the population. In contrast to other religions, it has no founder. Considered the oldest religion in the world, it dates back, perhaps, to prehistoric times."
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001469.html

Answer 3

certain its real that hinduism is older than christianity and islam. Hinduism is conventional to exist to date as 3300 BC or probable even extra. there is not any precise date of its introduction and there is not any conventional founding father of hinduism both (like jesus for christianity and mohammad for islam). apart from, hinduism is a faith of many Gods. there are a selection of deities in it, which makes it very exciting and remarkable too. in spite of the indisputable fact that it not globally usual. that's heavily concentrated in India (which has a million billion inhabitants) and its neighboring parts. yet i have continually been intrigued with the help of Hinduism and their literature of "bhagavad gita" (it rather is a similar as bible in christatinity) is rather attractive. Do observe that's between the most complicated and exact religions. it isn't difficulty-free to understand and there must be many definitions of what it skill and what it implies. you may examine 10 books on hinduism and all 10 will seem particularly different and new. The extra books you examine the further perplexed and lost you will get (in case you at the instantaneous are not a hindu) you does not discover the similarity that you'll discover in christianity or islam books. In different words hinduism information is rather different and hard to comprise in a nutshell

Answer 4

Probably Zoroastrianism through Gandhra Culture has roots in early Hinduism dieties:

The cognate word in Avestan is daēva. In Zoroastrianism and the Avesta, the ahuras are supreme, while the daevas are demonic. This has been forwarded as an argument of a religious split between early Indo-Aryans and Iranians. In early Vedic religion, however, some Asuras are still worshipped. It seems more likely that the Indo-Iranians, and probably already the Proto-Indo-Europeans (the Germanic Aesir are cognate to the Asuras) worshipped two classes of gods, without any moral dichotomy.

Answer 5

People don't want to believe because they themselves can't imagine anything different, but Hinduism is considered the oldest organized religion in history. People who don't believe should look it up. But of course, there is always non belief before belief, so it can be said that Atheism was first, but Hinduism was the first actual religion.

Answer 6

A religion cannot be claimed to be most pure and authentic, only on the criterion that it is the oldest. It is similar to a person saying that the water he has kept in an open glass, in his house, outside the refrigerator, for three months is purer than the water which has just been collected in a clean glass, immediately after it has been purified.


On the other hand a religion cannot be claimed to be the purest or authentic, only on the criterion that the religion is new or the latest. A bottle of distilled water which is sealed, packed and kept in the refrigerator for three months is much purer than a bottle of water freshly collected from the sea.

Answer 7

You would know the oldest religion, only if you knew the definition of ''oldest'', what and when that guy walking around covered in leaves, carrying a club and hunting animals, saw, and believed in right ? Can you tell us, how old is 'old' ? or how oldest is oldest ? Can you place a point in time and say ''this is the oldest'', I am sure no one can. Atleast not in terms of beliefs and faith. Everyone claims to be oldest. No one knows for sure. No proof, nothing. Scientifically, we can say what is old, like a tree, an animal, a nation.....but thats it. Just talking aloud and claiming each religion to be the best and to be the oldest. Everyone has different theories. For us, the oldest is what we believe in. No names, just who we are, and how we follow our life. Religion is just a way of life that you follow. No preaching here, just teling you my thoughts.

Answer 8

The worship of God is the oldest religion. There is a natural affinity man has for God. There is not an instance we can point out as the first religion. At the begining of creation, mankind worshipped God in many different ways (sun worship, earth worship, and even deifying other human beings). The fact is, that man worshipped God or didn't. Even the atheist in their denial of God acknowledges the idea. So, my answer would be the original and primitive religion of man to be that of natural or true religion. The worship of God without any attached dogma. Even as a Christian, I would have to argue that Adam & Eve knew little of who or what God was other than their Father. So, the earliest religion could only be the worship of God.

Answer 9

Pagan, druidic, shamanistic & humanistic faiths all pre date any of the modern religions like Hinduism, Islam, Christianity etc.

And all of these modern religions have taken most of their faith systems from the older religions

Answer 10

Nobody can know this. Religion is older than history istelf.

Even the masonic symbols have been found all over the world, and they don't even know where it began.

Curious and beautiful.