Can anyone tell me (with proof) what the oldest religion/faith/belief is?

Question

I am Catholic. I believe that God created Adam and Eve. I know about the early Hebrews. But there were people like the Egyptians and pagans back then. I'm interested in history. Can ou tell me about earlier religious beliefs, gods, customs, the people, cities? Their holy books or writings? Thanks!

Answer 1

oldguy63 is incorrect. Religions extend back tens of thousand of years. They also go back before cities and writing. The oldest faiths possibly had matriarchal origins, as one of the earliest human artifacts is the Venus of Willendorf (see photo link below). The Neanderthals also buried their dead in caves, which may provide evidence of spiritual belief. But exactly what they believed is difficult to tell because nobody is alive to remember those beliefs.

Indigenous tribes that have not been influenced by outsider contact may provide a glimpse into the religious practices of small groups, before humans organized into cities. The Yanomamo of Venezuela and Brazil, for example, believed in three types of souls, four layers of heaven (resembling a jungle), strong belief in animism and spirits, and virtually no deity. Below is a roster on their views, if you are interested.

Hope this helps.

On Neanderthal burial and evidence of ritual behaviors:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#Ritual_defleshing_or_cannibalism

On Yanomamo religion/cosmology:

http://alpha.webcenter.uab.edu/Front/show.asp?durki=54416

Image of Venus of Willdendorf:

http://witcombe.sbc.edu/willendorf/willendorfdiscovery.html

Dates to 15,000 B.C.

Answer 2

The Old Stone Age is the time when most scholars believe organized belief systems emerged. All the way up until about 7,000 bce these were Fertility/Goddess-based belief systems. This means that this is not only the oldest religion, but also the longest lasting, considering we are talking about 100,000 years tops. Gimbutas is really the besst scholar to find more about it. You can see many religious expressions that can be, although very lightly, traced back to this worship. At first pre-historians had a hard time grasping new archaelogical evidence supporting this, but now it is very widely accepted. You will, however, still find a few holdouts. Kind of like older doctors who still think it is necessary to almost always remove a child's tonsils.

Answer 3

*Is Catholic*

Well the religion of Adam and Eve is the earliest. They had a religion, rituals etc. Everything stems from this, from the true religions which elevated the faith, to those that distorted it.

Cain and Abel were both priests. Most people miss it but only priests offer sacrifice in Judaism so Genesis is making the point that they both were priests.

Genesis 4:26 is the point in time when real variations in the faith of Adam and Eve begin to occur.

Coming out of scripture, we find the Epic of Gilgamesh, which is very early. The religion depicted in it is the religion that would have been practiced by Abram's friends when he lived in UR ca 2400 BC as the Epic dates from the same period. This religion would have been considerably older inorder for it to be the background religion in the Epic.

Egyptian myths date to this time and possibly earlier.

The BUILDING OF CHRISTENDOM by CARROLL actually has a very good few introductory chapters detailing early pre-Abrahamic religions. I suggest this book as it is detailed and gives a host of references which you can track down.

You might also be interested in
Encyclopedia Mythica
www.pantheon.org/

Answer 4

Get a good book. The Religions of Man by Houston Smith will probably be in the library.
The Bible is so fuzzy about passage of time and people argue about whether the intervals of life given in the Bible actually refer to tribes, that it is very hard to place the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve with respect to better documented histories for Egyptian, Indian, and Chinese cultures. Before pinning down older, you have to pin down Eden better than most Christians are able.

Answer 5

Hinduism is believed to be the oldest organized religion on this planet that is still in practice today.
Exerp:
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.

But the religion that would have predate this is called Dravidianism, and was practiced since 6000 B.C to 3000B.C but little evidences can point at a definite answer as it was not put into writings...

Answer 6

Actually, there is a living religion far, far older - by tens of thousands of years - than Hinduism or Zoroastrianism. This is actually a fairly recent discovery.

There is a snake cult in Botswana that is linked to a carved stone snake that has been dated back to around 70,000 years ago. This is approximately the time when modern humans left Africa for the rest of the world.

Answer 7

Hinduism is considered the oldest religion still being practice today.It was created by the Aryan people who lived in northern India around 1,500 B.C.E(Before Common Era).

Answer 8

Basic Tribal Religions exsisted

Answer 9

The Babylonians are the oldest I KNOW of. Isthar and all of them. I'm not certain. Interesting question.
It's hard to find proof. Constantine pretty much burned it all. Early Christians then burned the people. The history of the religions are hard to find.

Answer 10

The Zoroastrians were around way back when and Hinduism is really old too( actually I think it is considered the oldest existent religion)