What is the oldest religion and what was the name of the Deity?

Question

Hi I am writing a book. And one of the characters is an old Deity, in fact he was the first one! But I am struggling to find out his/her/it's name.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

I am writing a book. And one of the characters is the first ever deity. But I am struggling to find out his/her/it's name. any help would be greatly appreciated.

By the way I ma looking for a religion older than 600 bc. or hinduism, Judism or Islam. I don't want to cause offence to anyone but I know there is an older religion.

And I am not looking for an answer like "God" I am looking for a name such as Isis or Ra

Thanks in advance

I am hoping that this book will be killer funny without insulting anyone....too much

cheers

Answer 1

Lets see... Mithra-ism has been around for an EXTREMELY long time. It predates Christianity by about 1400 years. Which makes it about 1600 years old. Those dates have been confirmed through archeology.

Judaism claims to be about 6000 years old, but that only works out if you honestly believe in the impossibly long lives of the people in the Torah. Barring that, it's more like 4000 years.

Dravidian-ism is known absolutely to have been practiced 6000 years ago. Dravidian-ism is the precursor to Hinduism. I'm sure if you look hard enough, you'll find some sort of cult even older than that though.

The largest problem with tracing back religions is that they don't really appear to have become organized until the cultures that spawned them reached the Bronze Age. If I remember right, the phenomenon is attributed to the concept that life was just too difficult to worry about things that were not neccessary to survival. In order to have time and energy to expend on religion, a culture must have sufficiently advanced technology to allow them the free time to specialize in other attributes of advanced culture.

However, I believe that the absolute oldest forms of religion probably revolved around animism or sun worship. Since the earliest cave drawings are of animals and the natural world, and it is known that early man had religious beliefs by their burial customs, it stands to reason that they worshiped things that they could easily understand. Since they couldn't understand a simple concept like the wheel, I doubt they understood concepts like invisible sky-daddys.

-SD-

Answer 2

Well, the person credited to be the first monotheist and the first to start monotheism is Ankhenaten, with the worship of Aten. But, Aten is not the oldest deity. I would have to say something along the lines of the Goddess. A good example would be something like the Woman (or "Venus") of Willendorf, which was carved around 24,000 BCE - 22,000 BCE. But, this is just the oldest example of a goddess figure. There isn't a name and/or knowledge of any "religious" practice to go with it.

I did find this site (and several others that say the same) about Tara,
http://www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/goddess_tara_white.htm

I would go with this unless you can find something that claims to be older. I check a bunch of sites to find a god that is claimed to be older than Tara or older than any type of nature/fertility goddess and I can't find one. Seems that one way or another the oldest deity is a goddess not a god.

Answer 3

My advice is to make up a name. The oldest religions would have been practiced by people with either no written language, or with a language that is now lost.

If you still want to find the oldest religion, you ought to poke around for info on the Indus Valley Civilization. They had some religious beliefs which influenced Hinduism.

On the other hand, the oldest "monotheistic" religion (with leaders, worshippers, doctrine, prophecy and the like) is probably Zoroastrianism, with Ahura Mazda as it's supreme diety.

Answer 4

The world's oldest religion is Humanism. Humanism has no deity, so if you're looking for a name of a deity I would suggest looking into Babylon or other cultures in or around that era. Perhaps Persia? I've never read much on Persian religion but it might go well with your book.

Much luck,
Andy

PS: www.religioustolerance.org might be of some help to you.

Answer 5

Invitation to All Believers

[3:64] Say, "O followers of the scripture, let us come to a logical agreement between us and you: that we shall not worship except GOD; that we never set up any idols besides Him, nor set up any human beings as lords beside GOD." If they turn away, say, "Bear witness that we are submitters."

[3:65] O followers of the scripture, why do you argue about Abraham, when the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed until after him? Do you not understand?

[3:66] You have argued about things you knew; why do you argue about things you do not know? GOD knows, while you do not know.

[3:67] Abraham was neither Jewish, nor Christian; he was a monotheist submitter. He never was an idol worshiper.

[3:68] The people most worthy of Abraham are those who followed him, and this prophet, and those who believe. GOD is the Lord and Master of the believers.

[3:69] Some followers of the scripture wish to lead you astray, but they only lead themselves astray, without perceiving.

[3:70] O followers of the scripture, why do you reject these revelations of GOD though you bear witness (that this is the truth)?

What is Islam?

The first thing that one should know and clearly understand about Islam is what the word Islam itself means. The religion of Islam is not named after a person, or a place, a tribe, a mountain or a river. Nor is the name just another –ism among the many that exist in the world today. The Arabic word Islam means the submission or surrender of one's will to the only true god worthy of worship, Allah (God in Arabic). A Muslim is the one who submits or surrenders his will to Allah. Hence, it was not a new religion brought by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Arabia in the seventh century, but only the true religion of God re-expressed in its final form.
http://www.thetruecall.com/home/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1

Answer 6

The Greeks told of the older Gods as decended of Chronos. Zeus was his son. Chronos at all of his other children. The Baylonians had the great God El, his kids inclued Ba'a' and Astarte (Ishtar), then there are the Egyptians with Osirus and others preceded by Chaos with the godess Nut(Night) over the ocean of Chaos.
Every religion claims their chief god to be the oldest or the oldest son of the oldest.

For some reason Mother Night (nut)seems right

Answer 7

The first Human, Adam, and Eve and their sons worshiped a deity. The same deity worshiped by Noah and those he saved in his Ark. The same deity worshiped by Abraham, Lot, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Joshua...Malachi, Jesus, Muhammad and all Muslims.
The mode of worship has always been total submission/surrender to the will of the deity as described in 5 revealed books. The name of the religion varies according to language. But today it is universally called ISLAM.
Today, the name of the deity is universally known as ALLAH.

Answer 8

Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world as it is proved on many many occasions. The oldest deity of Hinduism is SUN. In fact Sun was the first Deity and his other name is Suryanarayanan i.e. Lord Vishnu the protector of the universe.-

Answer 9

the oldest religion is the " Sun god religion " That's a very funney religion.. The dumb early ape mammals used to bend and make loud noise when the early sun rise. And night they houl at the Moon following the wolfs. There are still dumb people do similar things.

Answer 10

As far as I know.

The Goddess and Paganism

I have heard they found ancient cave markings of her.
But I am not sure how true this is. The person I heardthis from is a very intelligent hoonest person tho