Religion is an integral part of the life of almost every person. The need to worship higher powers is expressed in the spiritual awareness of the world and faith in the supernatural. An interesting question arises about what is the oldest religion, how it arose and developed.
After studying all the available information about the Paleolithic period, scientists came to the conclusion that people of this era developed spiritual relationships, as indicated by the customs of ritual burials of that time, as well as rock paintings. Most likely, our ancestors believed that the world was inhabited by deities, and they considered different places and objects of nature to be alive. In addition, burial customs give us an idea of the belief in the afterlife.
But still, what was the most ancient religion? The answers to the question depend on the position taken by various authors who study the origin of man. Some argue that religion was artificially created by man, and not the result of evolutionary development. Thus, according to this view, a woman and a man knew only one God, whocreated, they worshiped him, bringing various sacrifices. The monotheism and sacrifice described in the Bible were the first characteristics of religion in its original form. The oldest literary monuments of China, Greece, Egypt and the traditions of many peoples can serve as evidence of this.
But there is another point of view based on Ch. Darwin's theory of evolution. According to her, a long period of time was required for the formation and development of religious beliefs. At first, these beliefs were based on people worshiping spirits, as there was a fear of their power. Then Israel reduces the diversity of gods of various nations to one tribal god, which paved the way for the improvement of religion as such.
Considering which religion is the most ancient, it should be noted that in modern times on Earth there are a large number of religious directions, the so-called spiritual knowledge, which are divided into several systems. So, the Aryan - Vedantism (occult science) is referred to the primary teaching. Further, it was transformed into Brahmanism, and then into Buddhism. The Aryan traditions were adopted by the Russian prehistoric religion, so paganism appeared - the worship of the elements. These beliefs were not completely defeated, and after several millennia, the religion of ancient Rome and ancient Greece developed on their basis.
The culture of Egypt and Babylon became the basis for the birth of knowledge, which is partially transmitted to us in the Bible (therefore, the opinion that Christianity is the most ancient religion is erroneous). They developed a philosophyPlato, which had a great influence on the spiritual development of all of Europe. In addition, these teachings formed the basis of the religion of ancient Judea, on which Christianity will continue to rely. The knowledge of the ancient Egyptian civilization, Jews and Christians is partially preserved in Islam.
The black race practiced ceremonial magic, preserving the rituals and customs of African sorcerers. The yellow race gave rise to the teachings of Lao Tzu (Daonism), as well as shamanism, Zen Buddhism and Shintu.
Thus, it is impossible to say with accuracy which is the most ancient religion on Earth, since from early times all knowledge, rituals, rituals and customs spread during the mixing of peoples and the migration of tribes. So, the idea of sacrifice first belonged to the civilization of the black race, later it was adopted by the peoples of all continents and existed for more than one millennium on Earth.
Thus, the answer to the question of what is the oldest religion on the planet is ambiguous, and depends on the worldviews and views of historians.
