The Oldest Religion in the World?

Question

Which is the oldest religion in the world?

Answer 1

Islamic Monotheism, Allah(swt) created Adam.... Adam was created to worship Allah(swt)..

Answer 2

Wikipedia, Britanica Encyclopedia, National Geographic, all major humanity museum sites etc. mentioned that Hinduism is the oldest extant major religion of the world. There could be other older belief systems (not major) pre-dating HInduism might also be existing in the world, but the oldest major existing religion is Hinduism as accepted by all resources and scholars.

Answer 3

Every religion today most likely has some aspect of an ancient belief in its philosophy or practice, but to say that one particular religion is the oldest is naive. The reality is-- we do not know. We have no basis for comparison. Most reference books list Hinduism as the oldest world religion. This is probably because Hinduism has the oldest recorded roots, which lie in Dravidianism. Dravidianism is estimated to have been practiced around 6,000 to 3,000 BCE and as such predates the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Babylonian cultures.

Final thought: If one really thinks about it; isn't agnosticism the oldest spiritual structure? After all--are we born believing in a god, -or anything for that matter?

Answer 4

It's generally considered to be Hinduism.

Edit:
I should expand on that!

Basically, we have historical evidence for elements of Hinduism being practised at least in 2600 BCE. The oldest surviving text is dated to at least 1100 BCE. This is older than Judaism, and thus older than Christianity and Islam too. Other Eastern religions are also more recent in origin. We know of no other organised religion that is still practised and is definitely older than Hinduism.

Now, it's certainly extremely likely that some belief systems practised today go back further than Hinduism, but they lack the kind of written history that Hinduism has, so dating them is harder. In any case, Hinduism is certainly the oldest major world religion.

Oh, and for those of you who suggested Christianity: We KNOW it's not Christianity! Anyone with the slightest sense of history is aware that Judaism is older!!

Answer 5

Anthropologists would most probably suggest that animism, or the belief that non-human creatures have souls and that humans survive in some form after death, is the oldest belief system still practiced--by non-literate cultures. Shintoism in Japan and Native American religions grew out of this idea, but since most individuals who practice animistic beliefs can't write, no one can say how long this belief in the soul and survival after death have existed. Hinduism, however, is probably the oldest surviving organized religion still in existence. The Vedas were written around 1,500 BCE.

Answer 6

Any Tom, Dick and Harry or even any Kindergaten child can tell you that it was Hinduism. Hinduism is so old that there isn't a specific date to when it was started. Many scholars say that the vedas (the main bible) can potentially be as old as 7000BC. After Hinduism, it was Buddhism, Then came Zoroastrianism and then came all the Abrahamic religions.

Answer 7

Actually, Islam originated in the 7th century.

Mankind has always had religion, and rituals and sacred rites.
Probably the farthest back we can go is the Neolithic era, and based on the artifacts discovered in ancient ruins, anthropologists generally believe that the earliest religions were based on goddess worship, specifically a bird goddess and a bear goddess.

Answer 8

Zoroastrianism was the first of the monotheistic religions based on a 'revealed scripture'. It is still practised in parts of Iran and India. There are also zoroastrians in the USA.

Zoroaster lived around 3,200 years ago, (plus or minus about 600 years).

Answer 9

hinduism is one of the oldest relegion of the world
but iam not sure whether it will bcome The Oldest Religion in the World

Answer 10

The oldest still practiced religion is that of the Australian aborigines. They've had the same beliefs and rituals for at least 40,000 years.

Answer 11

Hinduism is generally considered to be the oldest religion still being practiced today. This ancient religion was born when the Aryan peoples migrated to Northern India and first put their religious tradition into writing. The texts they created are the Vedas, which were written around 1,500 B.C.E. (before common era) and have greatly influenced Indian culture ever since.
Several other religions are almost as old as Hinduism. Judaism traces its roots back to the patriarch Abraham, who lived around 1,800 B.C.E. While the Jewish people are descended from Abraham, it was Moses who first recorded the Torah, the Jewish holy text, in 1,400 B.C.E. Most sources consider the date of the Torah as the beginning of Judaism.

Zoroastrianism is sometimes called the world's oldest prophetic religion. It's certainly one of the earliest religions founded by one person. Scholars are not certain when the founding prophet Zarathustra actually lived. Some believe Zarathustra lived in the 6th century B.C.E., while others trace his writings to the 14th or 13th centuries B.C.E.

India has been a veritable cradle for world religions -- in addition to Hinduism, both Jainism and Buddhism originated in India. The first of Jainism's sacred lords, called a Tirthankara, lived in the 8th century B.C.E. The last of these lords was Mahavir, who lived in the 5th century B.C.E. and was a key figure in spreading the religion. The philosophical teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, spread around Asia after his death in 483 B.C.E.

Oddly enough, the two religions that dominate the world today are relative newcomers to the spiritual scene. Christianity began with the teachings of Jesus Christ around 30 C.E., and Islam started in 610 C.E. with the prophet Muhammad's revelation.