What was the first religion?

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DetectiveNiko

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This year I got sociology as one of my school subjects.
It says in the book that I use for studying sociology that hinduism is the world’s oldest theistic religion ( aprox. 6000 years old )
My problem with that would be , why wasn’t judaism the first religion. If this implies that Hinduism was the first written down religion, it still doesn’t make sense to me. Wouldn’t the jews want to share their faith, and wouldn’t their faith logically be first if its true ?
On a side note tt also seems to be a very secularist book, promoting secularism as the best way society can go, and
saying that religion is an “opium for the mass”
 
It doesn’t really matter who wrote it down first. It could very well be that Hinduism wrote it down first. However, we have tradition and scripture from the start of time. Literacy is not evidence of validity.
 
Many place does not share a faith. Heck, no one knows much about Confuscism in the western world because the Chinese are not actively sharing.

In fact that is what makes Christianity unique: it’s a faith to be shared peacefully (relatively speaking)
 
The first act of religion recorded in the Scriptures is the sacrifices of Cain and Abel to the one true God. Hinduism is not older than that.
 
I can’t tell you what the first religion is, but the “world’s oldest temple” has been discovered in Turkey, called Gobekli Tepe. It’s 11,000 years old. Also, Neanderthals have been known to carefully bury their dead with flowers, which may indicate they had some kind of belief in an afterlife.
 
Hinduism isn’t the world’s oldest religion. It’s a fairly recent take on the Vedas and Upanashads, which only date back to about 1000 BC. We don’t even have any writings from ancient India that date to before 250 B.C., so anti-Christian historians can make up whatever they want about ancient India (which is exactly what Voltaire did).

Most of the world’s religions date to the axial age about 400 years before Jesus. This period saw most of the great minds that laid the groundwork for major religions and philosophical movements: Buddha, Chandragupta Maurya, Plato, Aristotle, Confucius, Zarathustra, Laozi, etc.

Of course the Old Testament has them all beat. The one true religion, Christianity, is the oldest religion in the world.
 
DetectiveNiko said:
This year I got sociology as one of my school subjects.
It says in the book that I use for studying sociology that hinduism is the world’s oldest theistic religion ( aprox. 6000 years old )
My problem with that would be , why wasn’t judaism the first religion. If this implies that Hinduism was the first written down religion, it still doesn’t make sense to me. Wouldn’t the jews want to share their faith, and wouldn’t their faith logically be first if its true ?
On a side note tt also seems to be a very secularist book, promoting secularism as the best way society can go, and
saying that religion is an “opium for the mass”
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This is because people (even teachers and text book writers) get confused regarding what the definition of “history” is. There is history and prehistory. The term “recorded history” is an oxymoron because all “history” is recorded in written form. For example, dinosaurs are not part of our history. They are part of our prehistory.

The first religion is prehistorical. Hinduism might be the first historical religion, but logically it’s not the first prehistorical religion. EVEN if I was an atheist (which I’m not), claiming that Hinduism is the first religion on this planet makes little sense philosophically. It’s quite logical to assume that prehistoric peoples all over had religion and that religion is as old as the human race itself (even if you look at it though atheist eyes).

Now regarding Judaism. We cannot say (even as Christians) that Judaism was the first religion because Adam & Eve were not Jews. But Christians can say that the first religion was the religion of Adam & Eve. And an atheist can say that the first religion belonged to the first humans on this planet.

I pray this helps.

God Bless.
 
actually Hinduism can be called a religion in matter of its worship practise and all…but…it is kind of a tribal religion formed of people from India and making Gods of their materials…having set of beliefs and traditions which later moved to systematic within country…making some of the history written in proper way and having some intelligent people who contributed to science medical and maths…later their were caste systems mostly these were removed when the gospel preachers came to India …actually they(catholic saints) took the first step against the caste system…
 
The first “religion” was simply the worship of God held by Adam and Eve. But they sinned, and their descendants created many other religions of their own. Hinduism just happens to be the oldest religion still practiced today. Judaism has only been around for about 2,600 years, being a development of the ancient Israelite religion which can be traced to over 3,000 years ago. As Christians, we believe that the Israelite’s and their later Jewish descendants were in some way inspired by God. Of course, the fullness of the truth about God wasn’t revealed until Jesus Christ came around 2,000 years ago.
 
Thank you everyone who replied on this. I guess my question was a bit stupid when I look at it. I appreciate the answers ! God bless
 
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