How old is Religion?

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   Dreatechposted 13 years ago

   How old is Religion?
   
   Can anyone tell how long religion compare to man existence

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   PETER LUMETTAposted 13 years ago

   I believe that one of the first thoughts the first humans had was "where did we come from?" thus giving rise to religion. The need to explain our universe is fundamental in all of us so without facts faith must fill the void.

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   AMBASSADOR BUTLERposted 13 years ago

   I am alpha and omega. Religion is just a stepping stone to know and walk with GOD moment by moment on the earth and throughout all eternity. I do know and walk with GOD moment by moment in my life on the earth and will continue throughout all eternity when I die on the earth and crossover to the other side of death of which I have done on August 1, 1982 A.D. a Sunday morning GOD shown me in a vision the other side of death. It is glorious. So the answer to your question is plain and simple. Religion is from everlasting to everlasting so that human beings can come into a knowing and walking with GOD moment by moment in their life on the earth like I am having before you die and crossover to the other side of death. This is the highest relationship that human beings can have with GOD living on the earth.

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   Merlin Fraserposted 13 years ago

   I don’t think it’s possible to pinpoint an actual date for the invention of religion but I think it is fairly easy to see why it came about. 
   
   To understand the why I think you need to take a closer look at early mankind and their place in the animal food chain.  Without weapons and the developed skills to use them man was a pretty pathetic creature little better than a scavenger living off the kill remains of other animals.
   
   With such a primitive mind set how would you explain a sudden earthquake, a flash flood or a tribe member being struck by lightning ?   The answer is you couldn’t and a fear of things so powerful and way beyond his ability to comprehend led to superstition.   In a primitive mind such things were clearly the work of invisible forces, evil spirits that lived in the sky and such belief led to the creation of gods and goddesses each with a special power to punish man for any transgression.
   
   It seems reasonable to suppose that if you have Gods then obviously you must have people who will talk to and negotiate with the Gods on behalf of the tribe.  Shaman, Witch Doctors, Medicine men and the like, they became great showmen and, with a few magic tricks, became extremely powerful within the clan structure.
   
   What happens if such men were to use such power not for the good of the Tribe or Clan but for their own purposes ?  Who would dare challenge the misfortune such people could call down upon anyone who strayed from the path.   After all these people spoke for the Gods !
   
   Not too great a leap from there to religion is it ?
   
   The real question is why after o many centuries we are still dumb enough to fall for it !

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5. 61

   peterxdunnposted 13 years ago

   
   
   Religion is approximately 6000 years old - or should I say - religion for which we have written evidence is 6000 years old.
   
   We know from the clay tablets impressed with cunieform script left by the ancient Sumerians that their gods were based on the constellations just as all the religions that followed - including Judaism and Christianity - were based on characters or gods that could be seen in the night sky.
   
   The original sky god was called Anu: he was associated with the Pole Star because everything (all the stars of heaven) revolved around this point. His throne was the constellation that we call Ursa Minor. Around this throne we have the constellation of Draco which was to become the serpent in the Genesis story.
   
   Anu had a wife called Inanna who was to become Ishtar worshipped by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Ishtar was the template for all the later fertility goddesses which included Isis, Asherah (wife of Yahweh) Eostre (from where we get Easter) Astrea (goddess of justice seen above law courts holding the scales of Libra) and many more. These were all represented by the constellation of Virgo: the zodiacal house which ruled the harvest known to the Israelites as 'the house of bread' or beth'le'hem.
   
   There is really no great mystery to religion at all. Once you know the historical facts it becomes quite easy to understand the motives of the men who invented it. It was all about creating a social order that allowed the priest/kings to control the collective efforts of the masses. This was how the first cities and temples got built.
   
   Above is a picture of the constellation of Heracles/Hercules. Notice he is carrying a 'rod of iron' (a measuring rod) with which he is to 'rule all nations'. Those that have read Revelation will know this character as 'the man child' who was 'caught up' to god's throne. The woman that gave birth to him was Virgo and the great dragon that sought to devour him was the constellation of Hydra: the water snake (and the many-headed-monster of Greek myth). Revelation is pure astrology, and can be proven as such, and St John the DivinER was an astrologer.

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   GNelsonposted 13 years ago

   It is as old as the first shadows of twilight.

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   ianjonasposted 13 years ago

   Religion is as old as the ability of the human thought to acknowledge the existence of the past, casting a long shadow going back to our prehistoric age. Religion existed since time immemorial, it was a product of our perception of things unknown, begotten by the appreciation and wondering of the majestic beauty of the earth and the stars which was then beyond our comprehension.
   
   Religion comes in many forms and culture, religion flourished in the absence of science, at the time where spirituality was the only means to measure our distance from the unknown.
   
   Religion was at that time the only means which upheld the sanity of man to function at a satisfactory level of emotional and behavioral adjustment to reason with things not readily understood, religion was the only faculty of thinking and reasoning available in the past to provide us a vague explanation of our existence.
   
   While I truly believe and respect the existence of God as a supreme being above me, religion differs in that it's just a man-made practice focusing entirely on rituals and ceremonial worships headed by none other than a human authority. Religion persisted through the ages and became a cultural institution establishing its own society.

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   www.lookseenowposted 13 years ago

   What a surreal array of answers about how old is religion.  One comment said 6,00 years, or more. Correct it started with Adam in 4026 B.C.E. when he communed with God regularly at the breezy part of the day.  Later, and when Eve came along he instructed them to become many, fill the earth and subdue it. 
   
   He gave instructions, and gave them choices.  The one great gift he gave was free will.  That would require listening to God, or to do your own thing—that’s religion.  How Adam and his descendants used free will as a religion was up to them. 
   
     http://setnewgoal.blogspot.com/2009/02/ … h-god.html

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   Dreatechposted 13 years ago

   Thanks, all hubbers that have answered my question; giving me the insight perspective of religion. God bless you all (Amen).

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