Disregard my above post: I ran out of time to edit it, and left out a chronology, and mixed up a few.
I donât think that any actual religion (that is, a system with a basis in either history, theology, or philosophy, in a way that it looks to the metaphysical or greater order, and doesnât merely attempt to appease the forces of nature or imaginary spirits) was ever founded in the West as we know of it today. The most âWesternâ of all religions were founded in, and developed in, the Middle East, nothing further west than Asia Minor or the Levant.
(In rough chronological order, from the founding of the earliest form)
- Vedic: India (Iron age)
- Judaism*: Levant and Egypt (Iron age, 15th-11th century BC)
- Hinduism: India (direct descendant of Vedic religion) (9th-8th century BC)
- Jainism: India (9th-6th century BC)
- Zoroastrianism: Persia (Iran and Syria) (6th century BC)
- Confucianism: China (6th century BC)
- Buddhism: India (5th century BC)
- Daoism: China (2nd century BC)
- Gnosticism: Egypt and the Middle East (2nd-1st century BC)
- Christianity: Levant, Asia Minor and Greece (1st century AD)
- Manichaeism: Persia (3rd century AD)
- Islam: Arabia, Egypt and Persia. (7th century AD)
- Sikhism: India (15th century AD)
*Judaism in a primitive form likely began to exist historically around the 11th-10th century BC (although, it may be earlier, as the 15th century traditional date gives, as there can be no evidence of Mosesâ wandering archaeologically) with the modern form taking shape in the 5th century BC, and the currently-practiced form of Rabbinic Judaism being founded no earlier than the late 2nd century AD, although based on ancient traditions. Judaism thus can be divided in to four major periods, of which the religion changed significantly throughout, with the advent of prophets and building and destruction of temples:
Earlier: captivity of the sons of Israel.
- Mosesâ Age (Exodus, earliest Judaic revelation in the Decalogue): 15th-11th century BC
- Solomonic/First Temple Age: 11th-6th century BC
- Second Temple Age: 6th century BC-1st century AD
- Modern Rabbinic Age: 2nd-3rd century AD
I date the beginning of the earliest form of Judaism, as I date the beginning of the earliest form of every other religion, or else the list would be fifty times as long, and every significant development would have to be dated, etc.
It does seem to hold true that the further East one goes, the more the emphasis is on orthopraxy instead of orthodoxy, reaching its ultimate expression in Confucianism for exclusive orthopraxy, and its ultimate expression in gnosticism for exclusive orthodoxy. All other religions have a combination of both, with some bent more towards orthopraxy, and some towards orthodoxy. There may also be a pattern according to chronology as well.
All of the âWesternâ religions were straight mythologies, such as the various Greek, Roman, and Germanic paganisms and the mystery cults, of which very few had any historical basis, nor any theology or philosophy as we know it (the Greek philosophers worked outside of the paganism, not inside of it - Socrates was executed for âatheismâ) although the far East also had its share of equivalent systems, based not on any lofty metaphysical desire but essentially for the control or coaxing of natural processes and the favor of petty gods, such as Shinto, and Africa developed only those fetishist and animist tribal religions.
Even modern attempts of people to make religions in the West are utterly ridiculous and are mere throwbacks to 1) the ancient heresies (such as Arianism or Gnosticism/New Age/Scientology, to a point, Mormonism and Masonry), 2) throwbacks or lack of eradication of indigenous animism, such as Santeria and Voodoo, 3) religions that arenât religions, such as the various cults derived for the benefit of leaders, or around something like drug use (the Way of Infinite Harmony, Santa Muerte), or 4) revivals of the ancient paganisms and mythologies of the barbarians, sometimes in a syncretic manner (Asatru, Wiccanism), or the paganisms of cultures that didnât even believe in their own paganisms (like Rome and Greece), of whence it was said, âOf the [pagan] religions, the philosophers know them to be equally false, the people believe them to be equally true, and the magistrates think them to be equally usefulâ.
