There are so many different branches on the "tree". I'm just wondering where it all began
2006-12-17 09:18:58 · 29 answers · asked by John H.55inelcentro 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Primitive man and his fear of the unknown.
2006-12-17 09:20:35 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 2⤋
Well, there have been very ancient graves found where bodies were found buried with belongings, indicating a primitive belief in the afterlife (which amounts to a religion). I believe these were found even among stone age people. I linked you to a site about religions, I'm sure you can find a lot more if you search for "origin of religion" at Yahoo! or Google.
2006-12-17 09:23:21 · answer #2 · answered by Sara 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, no one KNOWS, since it arose long before we wrote, so there are no records.
We do know that people have long buried their dead, and left objects with the corpses, suggesting belief in some kind of afterlife.
Modern religions developed from those sorst of beginnings.
But we have no way of knowing the details of what early man (and woman) thought or believed with respect to anything, including religion.
You could do some trolling around the web by using your favorite search engine on the phrase "origins of religion" -- you'd probably hit some interesting reading.
But it's mostly conjecture from anthropological evidence and extrapolations of religions of people today.
2006-12-17 12:03:47 · answer #3 · answered by tehabwa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it has always been in human nature, the five main religions in the world today are bud ism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, Islam is the most recent, it branched off from Christianity, which branched off from Islam. Buddhism, and Hinduism have been around longer than the other three.
2006-12-17 09:23:03 · answer #4 · answered by atheist kid 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It began with God. From there a convenant with Abraham and God's people, Isreal (Old Testament), then the arrival of Christ (New Testament), the founding of His Church (The Catholic Church), for 1500 years until the Protestant Reformation, from there thousands of different denominations as protestantism continues to fracture and split, and one holy and apostolic Catholic Church like She's always been for the past 2000 years.
Brief timeline; hope it helps. God bless.
2006-12-17 09:26:29 · answer #5 · answered by Danny H 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The oldest evidence of some sort of "religous" observance is in the middle-eastern area of the world. I believe that once humans became self-aware enough to understand there were things they didn't understand, they found a need to express their fears and desires in ritual, and this was the begining of religion...
2006-12-17 09:21:47 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Every culture has explained the unexplainable with myths. Also the myths help keep society in order.
If you are wondering where modern Christianity comes from I would say to study Greek/Roman mythology.
2006-12-17 09:22:55 · answer #7 · answered by Laughing Libra 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
it started when the earliest men started settling down... before men would just wonder around and hunt.. moving like herds, so if anyone died they would just leave the body behind and move on. After men settled down, there was nothing to do w/ the bodies, so they had to start making graves. (that's when men started treating the dead w/ respect, leaving gifts and such w/ the bodies... ) That's around the time religion was born.
http://belaart.com
2006-12-17 09:23:50 · answer #8 · answered by BelaArt 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
it started on april 7th, 4296 BC at 6:32 pm, in the northern district of Al Ybaba, Babylon.
The all got pretty drunk and decided to write a book for fun- and see how many of their friends would fall for the prank. The rest is history.
2006-12-17 09:23:38 · answer #9 · answered by The Ascending Serpent 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The origin of religion which began with a man named Abraham in about 2000 BC. From this point in history, God began revealing Himself to the world through the nation of Israel. The Jewish Scriptures record the journey of the Israelites from slaves in Egypt to the "promised land" in Canaan under the leadership of Moses. During a period of about 1500 years, God revealed what became the Old Testament of the Bible, relating the history of Israel with the character and laws of God. During the period of the Roman Empire, Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem as the long-awaited Messiah. The ministry of Jesus ended in about 32 AD with His crucifixion and resurrection. After Christ's ascension into heaven, the Christian church grew in His name and the New Testament was written.
2006-12-17 09:21:59 · answer #10 · answered by K 5 · 1⤊ 3⤋
As far as I know there has been religion in every discovered tribe and they all have some elements in common so my guess is it comes from within man.
Even tribes where there was nothing to fear had a religion.
2006-12-17 09:21:16 · answer #11 · answered by icheeknows 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋