Don't want to start a religion argument here, but what is considered to be the oldest religion(s). I keep thinking Judiasm because of the oldest characters mentioned, but I some say that pagans, Buddhism, Native Indian and South American Indians are just as old? I'm lost. I'm not religious, but I just want to know.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 289279judaism the oldest?
hmmm, lets see:
abraham was from the city of Ur:
Ur was inhabited in the earliest stage of village settlement in southern Mesopotamia, the Ubaid period. However, it later appears to have been abandoned for a time. Scholars believe that, as the climate changed from relatively moist to drought in the early 3rd millennium BC, the small farming villages of the Ubaid culture consolidated into larger settlements, arising from the need for large-scale, centralized irrigation works to survive the dry spell. Ur became one such center, and by around 2600 BC, in the Sumerian Early Dynastic Period III, the city was again thriving. Ur by this time was considered sacred to Nanna.
/quote wikipedia/
moses & co were supposed to live somewhere around 1200 bc
and others, like for instance zarathustra:
(his datation is a bit problematic)
Until the late 1800s, Zoroaster was generally dated to about the sixth century BCE, which coincided with both the “Traditional date” (see details below) and historiographic accounts (Ammianus Marcellinus xxiii.6.32, fourth c. CE). However, already at the time (late nineteenth century), the issue was far from settled, with James Darmesteter pleading for a later date (c. 100 BCE) and others pleading for dates as early as 6000 BCE.[e]
/quote wikipedia/
hinduism:
The earliest evidence for elements of Hinduism date back to the late Neolithic to the early Harappan period (5500–2600BCE).
/quote wikipedia/
so, judaism is pretty new,
especially compared to:
[
link to altreligion.about.com]
