What is the oldest religion, and for starters say a newbie religion was theorized earlier than 4000bc(before we humans new ignorance was not the same as innocence). so whats an old one and how dose it differ from modern, dogma. Are strick guidlines and traditions neccessary for worship or even the study of spirtual awareness: ie GODHEAD.
what do you think was the first spark of ominpotent thought.
Do you think dragons are extinct or are they are hiding in deep dark caves spleeping over fissurs in the earths crust. Cus the cetls and north men killed alot of them, they must have run and hid. Do you think dragons are real?
Are fairy tales real? Why do so many old religions worship dragons and the bible never mentions them and only talks of serpents?
did dragons only live in the north where the old religions are now forgotten?
What is the meaning behind earths mercy?
Why is the earth merciful or is it?
I get so mixed up when for 1900 years i was told to believe i am made from dust and now its just a figurative phrase of embelishment.
I like dragons and hope they Burn all the heathens who blaspheme god's mercy and abuse his sister the earth.
how stupid was the first human who looked to the sky and said I am not a God?

__________________
GOD is an Acronym, G:reatest O:mnipotent D:eity

I would imagine the oldest religion to be animistic and tribal in nature. Most likely, thousands of versions of this sprang up in widely separated communities worldwide, based on the things that the communities found awe-inspiring or scary.

I am a heiðinn. I love dragons, and they seem to like me a lot, too. (And I have it on good authority that they don't go around burning people.)

Animism would explain everything then. But the old books have very well documented accounts of dragons actually burning people and even sometimes eating them,(armor and all) . But off course not even a dragon could consume a soul.
I would like to join a congregation of practicing animists to further understand my soul, but that may be to ancient or arcane a thought to fallow in study for a modern man or woman. I guess?
Animism must be apluaded for the toa sees infanite, I guess?
What about totems? They scare me more than my soul.
Is animism a Christian belief?
Do animals have souls?
Do you think Dragons have souls?
Dragons are fantastic, Im glad you love them thats nice.
Rainbows are fantastic and they mean God will never flood the earth again

__________________
GOD is an Acronym, G:reatest O:mnipotent D:eity

That the oldest religion would actually be the one(s) that have Solar/Stellar/Lunar overtones. From the beginning of awareness, people have looked up to the skies and seen marvelous things. When man realizes that those things above are beyond the control of us here on terra firma, the next logical step is to attribute heavenly events to some larger, more divine entity.

Not Sun worship, Star worship, or Moon worship per se, but worship of the unseen entity who owned the Sun, Stars, and Moon.

The earliest religions developed around the visible (Sun, Moon, Stars) before the invisible ('God') was added.

I still would have to agree with the obtusely grand conclussion of Animism.
To believe that sentient cognition would begin outside of the self or even out side of the assossiation of the self with other observations is far to radical.
If a child sees a puppy dog they are much more interested with the puppies actions and not who controlls or owns the puppy.
then again what would be a name for the religoin you have theorized that includes the worship of the controll of heavenly bodies and in what culture would you believe it evolved first? Did the myan worship dragons too?

__________________
GOD is an Acronym, G:reatest O:mnipotent D:eity

I liked your post Scolai!

One of the reasons I was interested in studying Hinduism at one time is that it contains probably like a strata of rock in geologic time a sampling of religions that goes way back...so you will see aspects of very ancient religions in it still being practiced..

The Yazidis in the Middle East seem to have really interesting symbols that are very ancient.

- Art

__________________
"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler

You must be attempting to offer the worship of symbols in place of ojects observed, such as the sun wheel. The sun wheel must be the most commonly used symbol of religion. Geographically the sun wheel can be found on every Continnent, but the evolution of symbolism is a very modern school of thought.
I am still more fasinated by my Dragon loving associate's offering of Animism as the roots of religion and possibaly the oldest religion.
what about worship of ancestors, Ancestorism, must be older than symbolism,
unless I am uneducated i believe symbolism is a very modern practice.

__________________
GOD is an Acronym, G:reatest O:mnipotent D:eity

I do not believe that human sentience and religious cognition occurred simultaneously or in rapid sequence. Sentience likely predated religion by a great many years.

I too lean in the direction of Animism in the Shinto sense of the word. All energies extant in the universe originate from a single Source and all things living and inert possess an aspect of this Source (Divine) Energy.

At the beginning the religion likely did not have a name. People recognized that there was something that held the heavens together above them, and they thought that entity, whatever It was, was worthy of reverence. From that acknowledgement we derive religion. Historically, it is believed by many scholars that the origin of Solar religion was in Egypt and proceeded on a slow migration East. Hints of the Solar mythos appear in cultures around the globe: Egyptian Ra and Horus, Christian Jesus, Greek Phaëton, Slavic Svarog, Hindu Vishnu, Japanese Amaterasu, Native American (Inuit) Akycha, Mayan Ahau Kin. If we were to look into the development of these religions, we might find (though I have not done the research on this point yet) that the religions developed more or less chronologically starting in Egypt and heading east across Eurasia, across the Bering into North America and eventually into South America.

People built towers to try to get closer to the heavens, the chiefest of which are seen in the Pyramids at Giza, Sumerian and Babylonian ziggurats, and in temples at places like Chichén-Itzá and Teotihuacán in Mexico.

As for the Maya and dragons - I have not a clue.

You will contradict your self in my following quatations of your self. And yes i too do like to believe that sentience predated religious beliefs, or ever religious beliefs may have predated sentience, Think of it as the missing link.


Very wonderful.
Very quantum. And allows for a belief that even primitive man had the ability to concive modern theories of science.
Shinto is brilliant and can be seen in early vedic scriptures of the region.

I dissagree.
If you where to imgaine every thing you knew could be seen on a piece of paper you would understand that not even preception was a form of thought untill the last rennissance. How then could humans recognize that depth had signifagance. Reverance of the Unknown May even be more ancient a religion than Animism. For how can one fully comprehend they are alive and have precieved the depth of their existance if they where not aware of it first? True
solar religions where commonly based on migration. I would have to dissagree and argue that the eqyptians did not see the sun first.



so was I the essence of flesh attached to the unseen is very scheptical, however lore and documnetation from the past can help us to understand.

__________________
GOD is an Acronym, G:reatest O:mnipotent D:eity

There is no contradiction unless one were to believe that becoming self-aware equals becoming aware of Divine within, which I do not. There are millions (billions) of people alive today who are self-aware but completely ignorant of the idea that the Light of the Universe shines in their very DNA. Self-awareness and religious awareness are independent of one another.


Then you must have some idea of what the name of this inceptional religion was. (?) Most cultures' mythologies have some reverence for the Sun without naming it, so I can't be sure where your idea that this original religion had a name comes from.

Hence my position that people did not worship the Sun, but instead worshiped the unseen Force behind the Sun.

One could effectively argue that modern man has not fully realized the "depth of their existance [sic]".

I do not recall saying that the Egyptians saw the sun first, but unless one believes that humans sprung forth in multiple locations and all developed similar Solar Mythologies, we have to presume that the idea of solar religion began in a single geographical locale (Egypt) and was carried away from that center over time.