history of religion

What is religion?

The word ‘religion’ can be defined in many ways but usually it involves one or more of the following three things:

·         The worship of a god or gods

·         Guidelines about how to behave

·         Answers to life’s biggest question

Since science also seeks to provide answers to life’s biggest question, it sometimes comes into conflict with religion. Therefore, some people believe that we must choose between the two. However, others believe that science and religion can both be useful (since science tends to answer the question HOW and religion tends to answer the question WHY). What is your opinion on this? 

My opinion - I would like to believe in Buddhism; as it is a well balanced religion which is not full of rules and restrictions. One of the things I like most about Buddhism is that they believe that animals are our equals. In many religions I have studied people like to believe that they are superior to animals and have rights over animals. I don’t think that this is fair. I believe that all religions are made up of basic things like be kind, treat people with respect, take care of others, and we are all equals. I also believe that some religions have gotten carried away in obeying their rues and being dedicated to their religion; and have forgotten the basics that their religion was formed on. Like being kind, treating people with respect and taking care of others.

Early religion?

The earliest kind of religion to develop was animism. It developed while humans were living as hunter - gatherers and is still found among indigenous people today. Animists believe that humans and animals (and sometimes even plants and rocks) have a soul or a spirit. The word animism, animal and animation all come from the same root -- all are related to the idea or force that makes something move or "come alive". Spirits were assumed were assumed to be responsible for things that happen in nature (Such as the weather.)

Over time, many things in nature became more and more personified until they were eventually thought of as being gods and given specific names. Animism therefore became polytheism (Belief in many gods). The first human civilisation followed different types of polytheism—such as the Egyptian along the Nile or the Babylonians along the Euphrates and Tigris.

However, another group of ancient polytheism would become more important in the history of religion – the indo-Europeans. From their original home near the Caspian Sea, they split into several groups-some setting in Europe and others in Iran and India. The groups in India inter graded with the people already living there and played a role in the development of Hinduism. One of the groups that settled in Europe became the ancient Greeks. We can therefore see certain similarities between Greek and Hindu gods.

In ancient polytheism, there was always a sky father and an earth mother. According to the indo-Europeans, the name of the sky father was Dyaus. This word eventually evolved into “Zeus” ( main god in the ancient Greek religion) and can still be seen in words like “Dieu” (the French word for god)

Although Hinduism today polytheism, it is actually closer to something called pantheism. (belief that everything is part of one god.) Many other new religions are also developed out of early Hinduism, such as Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. these religions are collectively known as Indian religions.

Religion in the west
meanwhile, in another part of the world, the ancient Jewish people started following monotheism (belief in only one god). the part of the christian bible known as Old Testament tells the story of the Jewish and their beliefs. same famous Old Testament characters include Adam (the first man), Noah (he built a boat and saved the animals during the flood). Abraham (the father of the Jewish people and Moses who led them out of Egypt. there was also David who was a famous kin that defeated a Goliath. Many English names today are based on bible characters.

At the same time the Jewish were developing their own monotheism, many Greek thinkers were moving away from religion and beliefs in god all together.  they were developing science and philosophy instead. this layer pathed the way for agnosticism(uncertainty about gods or goddesses) and atheism(belief in no gods).

then about 2,000 years ago a Jewish teacher named Jesus died and raised from the dead. and some of his followers believed he was the chosen one. later these followers became called Christians. however because the culture of the time was dominated by Greek thinking; Christianity(and most of western people thought in general) developed a combination of Jewish and Greek philosophy.
In about 600 AD, an arab named Mohammad claimed to have recieved words directly from God and wrote them down in the Qur'an. he convinced there Arabic people to accept monotheism (like the Jews or Christians) and eventually this gave rise to Islam.

In summary, we can see that all the major world religions share common roots: