What did people do before religion came about?

Question

Before the 'big'* religions hit the planet what did people do instead? Read stuff? Swim? talk about stuff? play twister?


*by 'big' religions I mean Christianity , Islam, Hinduism, and bhuddism.

Answer 1

They were happy...

Or at least their lives were simpler.

Answer 2

They still had a sort of religion, just not the ones we have today. Religion is only a set of rituals and beliefs that practice what a person believes and thinks. Whether it's about a higher power or about the way to cook food so you don't get "cursed" (or poised or sick or whatever) Religion comes about through people teaching what they believe and how to follow what they believe. It's the physical form of an internal reality. The native american's believed in many "gods" and the Mother Earth and Father Time....that is a religion. And even if it's only one person who believes it, if they have a set of rituals to honor their beliefs then it's a religion. The "big" religions are only big because many people believe the same thing. I would say, that many people had much simpler beliefs, yet at the same time, there were many different personal "religions" or community "religions". Some of them might have been abusive or paranoid. Others could have emphasized food or maybe the weather. It just depended on who you were, and what kind of life you lived.....the way you interpreted it. the religion aspect is just what people believe about a higher power....or about the bigger picture. It has to do with expressing your soul in the way you believe to be true. the way you want. Religion is the act of Spirituality. Spirituality is expressing your soul.....whether it be to yourself or to god or to another person. I hope something I've said has entertained your question.

Answer 3

Hinduism is pretty old, and so is Zoroastrianism. Christianity and Islam are quite recent.

The religions of the Mediterranean - Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Greek religions, the Phrygian religion of Attis, Roman religions - they all grew out of the Nilotic religions, thousands of years older, originating before we had any written records. But thanks to the Rosetta Stone and much research into Egyptology, we can read a lot from ancient stelae and papyri and numerous temple inscriptions.

The ancient Egyptians generated the foundation for them all. When Christians speak of the corn of wheat that falls into the ground etc., they are continuing the ancient religion, and Jesus as the Christ is a new manifestation of Osiris, the man-god, the Mediator, who dies and is resurrected and gives us eternal life, and is remembered in the sacred meal.

The Egyptians colonized Byblos, on the coast of Syria, where the major library of their religion was established. The name "Byblos" gives us our word "Bible".

Spreading to Greece, the Egyptian Osiris morphed into Dionysus. In Turkey, he surfaces as Attis, with Cybele his consort. In Canaan, he is Jesus Christ. Always the birthday is December 25, and the death and resurrection is always at Easter.

Many Christians today sing "O for a thousand tongues to sing the great Redeemer's praise," not knowing that this is the Hymn to Isis, the blessed Bride of Osiris the Redeemer.

When fundies today advocate posting the Ten Commandments in public places, it would make more sense if they would go back to the original, and post them as they appear in the Papyrus of the Scribe Nepseni in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. They only exhibit their ignorance when they allege some kind of unique significance in the later versions reproduced in their Bible (yes - I said versions, plural, because there are more than one in the Bible, and I said "their" Bible, because there are other Bibles too.)

Answer 4

I do know that the 2000 year old religion, Christianity, is a descendant to Judaism which is over 6000 years old. Yes, people tried to live normal lives like they do now.
By the way, everyone is religious. Even Atheism is a religion. However this world believed in God before it didn't.

Answer 5

Before things got complicated (when religion started), we were in direct communication with the creator and with nature. A religious person and a spiritual person are simular but different. A religious person is one who listens to the "head" of the intitution and follow the commands in a ritualistic manner. A spiritual person is one who understands the words of holy writtings and incorporates it in their everday lives in their treatment of fellow humans and the way we care for this planet we are given to live on.

Answer 6

Religions is about: Marriage, Living, and Death.

Since man has developed a "Conscience" (Christains say this is when Adam & Eve gave up eternity for knowledge of good & evil) ... mankind has purposfully choosen a "Spouse" ... mankind has had to deal with dead bodies since we die. It was at the time when mankind started making cerimoines for weddings, and burrying their dead (vs. leaving them for the worms, birds, & carnivors) that religion formed.

Prior to the Abrahamic Religions (Jewish, Christain, & Islam) ... the primary religion was the Egyptian religions. IDK about the Budhist & Hindu origins; however, I think they were formed around the same time as the Egyptian pagan gods (Egyptian gods turning into the Greek Gods, and the Roman Gods). I havn't studied Hindu ... but I remember that the Hindu gods are very similar to the Egyptian gods.

Answer 7

Man was created to 'worship' God. The different religions came about after Adam's disobedience. Have you read in your bible about the ziggarat? when the people of the earth decided to build a tower to the heavens and God then confused their languages and scattered them across the globe? This is when the religions that we know of today came into existence. Genesis 11: 1-9.

Answer 8

Of the big faiths that you mentioned, Islam is the newest. It has only been in existence for about 1500 years. Christianity is inseparable from Judaism so it has roots back to Abraham and even to Adam.

Answer 9

According to the Bible true religion is a personal relationship with your Creator. Adam and Eve had a personal relationship with God, before it got damaged by their disobedience.

Ever since they submitted to Satan, he has been busy flooding this world with counterfeit religions, to keep people from returning to a restored relationship offered thru Jesus.

So, faith in God, and rebellion against God, are as old as our first parents.

Answer 10

Gather in cults and small religions.

Before that, they just walked on all fours, swung on trees and picked each other's hair, trying to learn to walk on twos. Ever since we learned to do that, the s|-|ite hit the fan.

Answer 11

There has always been religion in one form or another. The reason for that is............human cannot reconcile their rational brains with their animal instincts.