What was the first religion?

[BluePhantom]

it was "Adam, don't forget that God is stopping by tonight after supper"......

Exactly, the first religion was with Adam and Eve and God. Before they messed it up, but that worked out well for all of us.

Well...again Adam and Eve is a nice story but I don't think it is one that should be taken literally. Do some research on Enki and Ninhursag and you will find a very similar story in Sumarian mythology about 2000 year prior to the Genesis account.

 

[Anonymous1977]

Exactly, the first religion was with Adam and Eve and God. Before they messed it up, but that worked out well for all of us.

I think that the "fall" of Adam in the Bible does not necessarily mess things up for everyone. The Bible might say this or that, but I know that it says "women can talk in church." Such a sexist statement makes no know that not everything in the Bible is necessarily true.

Peace and may God Bless you.
Anonymous1977

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

"What was the first religion?"

Fear and ignorance.

Obviously religion hasn't changed much since then.

 

[hipeter924]

Spiritualism -> Cult worship -> Religion -> Organized Religion. So depends on what you define as 'religion'. Organized religion had a major role to play in the Bronze Age, and the Sumerians were some of the first as were the Egyptians and Hittites (if you take into account their thousands of gods added with the expansion of their empire).

 

[BreezeWood]

.
the same as today and still cluttered by politics.

the Triumph of one over the other, Good vs Evil.

.

 

[Avatar4321]

58 And thus the Gospel began to be preached, from the beginning, being declared by holy angels sent forth from the presence of God, and by his own voice, and by the gift of the Holy Ghost.

59 And thus all things were confirmed unto Adam, by an holy ordinance, and the Gospel preached, and a decree sent forth, that it should be in the world, until the end thereof; and thus it was. Amen.(Moses 5:58-59)

Just so you know.

 

[Treeshepherd]

Shamanism.
"A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = 'technique of religious ecstasy'."[4] Shamanism encompasses the premise that shamans are intermediaries or messengers between the human world and the spirit worlds. Shamans are said to treat ailments/illness by mending the soul. Alleviating traumas affecting the soul/spirit restores the physical body of the individual to balance and wholeness. The shaman also enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community." -wikipedia

In any ancient tribe you had certain people who for whatever reason excelled at hunting or making tools. Others admired their skills, naturally.
You also had that rare person who possessed an innate sensitivity to the spirit world. People naturally gravitated toward him/her for spiritual guidance.

 

[Treeshepherd]

The eldest campfire we found until today is about 1.5 million years old. This makes sagas like the saga of Prometheus for sure more important. I guess he had to suffer so endless cruel because fire was unbelieveable important for the people in the prehistoric time. They were not able to survive without fire. So it seems to me, they were thankful to the god who gave them the ability to use fire - but on the other side they lived maybe in fear of all other gods or devils, which punished this lightbringer for this greatest gift of love for human beings.

In those old Prometheus stories, fire represents technological mastery over the elements. Zeus was angered that the secret of fire was given to man. In the grand scheme of things, Zeus had a valid point; fire eventually became the nuclear warhead (among other things), and a nuclear war isn't going to be very good for any of the species.
But, Prometheus loved man so much he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

There is so much rich imagery in a story like that, and it deals with so many paradoxical realities of the human condition. People who think they're somehow advanced because they reject the value of mythology are actually themselves impoverished.

 

[orogenicman]

The oldest known religious icon was a snake statue found in a cave in Africa. It is 70,000 years old.

Canadian unearths 70 000-year-old religious snake icon

 

[Politico]

Probably the grunt grunt fire good god.

probably ancestor worshiping or sun worshiping.

Well, it depends on what you mean by "right".

He means was it Christian. That is the only 'right' one.

 

[Two Thumbs]

And was the first religion the right religion?

oldest icon found was that of a pregnant woman.

I'd assume she had a male counter part of some kind

but it predated writing

 

[Delta4Embassy]

it was "Adam, don't forget that God is stopping by tonight after supper"......

Exactly, the first religion was with Adam and Eve and God. Before they messed it up, but that worked out well for all of us.

Well...again Adam and Eve is a nice story but I don't think it is one that should be taken literally. Do some research on Enki and Ninhursag and you will find a very similar story in Sumarian mythology about 2000 year prior to the Genesis account.

Aye, Epic of Gilgamesh contains a story curiously similar to the Genesis creation story. Can actually read it here:

The Epic of Gilgamish Index

And the Aboriginies too have a creation story which is even older still.

 

[zaangalewa]

The eldest campfire we found until today is about 1.5 million years old. This makes sagas like the saga of Prometheus for sure more important. I guess he had to suffer so endless cruel because fire was unbelieveable important for the people in the prehistoric time. They were not able to survive without fire. So it seems to me, they were thankful to the god who gave them the ability to use fire - but on the other side they lived maybe in fear of all other gods or devils, which punished this lightbringer for this greatest gift of love for human beings.

In those old Prometheus stories, fire represents technological mastery over the elements. Zeus was angered that the secret of fire was given to man. In the grand scheme of things, Zeus had a valid point; fire eventually became the nuclear warhead (among other things), and a nuclear war isn't going to be very good for any of the species.
But, Prometheus loved man so much he was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.

There is so much rich imagery in a story like that, and it deals with so many paradoxical realities of the human condition. People who think they're somehow advanced because they reject the value of mythology are actually themselves impoverished.

If I take a view into the future then I'm sure we need much more "fire" (=mightful natural laws) which will help us to fly to the stars. Non est ad astra mollis e terris via. And a problem is for sure to be free with such an unbelievable might and not to misuse this might. We cannot solve unkown problems with laws - we have always to be on a good and stable way and bad experiences are not the very best way to learn something. So I hope everyone will be a prophet one day.

 

[dblack]

What I find most interesting is the question of whether religion was a consequence of human consciousness, or a prerequisite. I suspect they are deeply connected, in any case.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

What I find most interesting is the question of whether religion was a consequence of human consciousness, or a prerequisite. I suspect they are deeply connected, in any case.

Was a really interesting bit of dialogue from Babylon 5 when Capt. Sheridan goes to Zahadum, jumps into the pit, and encounters Lorien. Lorien then monologues and says...See if I can find it, paraphrase wont do it justice.

"Lorien: Words have meaning. And Names have power. The universe began with a word, you know. But which came first? The word or the thought behind the word?

You can't create language without thought.
And you can't conceive a thought without language.
So which created the other and thus, created the universe?"

Good question.

 

[dblack]

What I find most interesting is the question of whether religion was a consequence of human consciousness, or a prerequisite. I suspect they are deeply connected, in any case.

Was a really interesting bit of dialogue from Babylon 5 when Capt. Sheridan goes to Zahadum, jumps into the pit, and encounters Lorien. Lorien then monologues and says...See if I can find it, paraphrase wont do it justice.

"Lorien: Words have meaning. And Names have power. The universe began with a word, you know. But which came first? The word or the thought behind the word?

You can't create language without thought.
And you can't conceive a thought without language.
So which created the other and thus, created the universe?"

Good question.

There's an interesting theory about how that might have evolved. I'll have to paraphrase because I don't recall exactly where I read it. But the idea was roughly the following:

Initially there was ability to respond to stimuli. We see this in the simplest of organisms. In some communities of organisms it proved advantageous to share this ability - to relay responses through noticeable reactions (communication). When a dog barks in reaction to seeing an intruder, the other dogs in their pack respond, by fleeing, attacking or perhaps barking themselves, to further spread the alert. It's this ability to respond to an alert with your own alert that may have been the key to self awareness.

The leap toward consciousness comes when a creature is able to respond to its own alert - to hear its own voice and re-react. Perhaps with another alert, or more complex reactions. It's this recursion that may have been the spark of thought and self awareness. Organisms that learned this "trick" could build on it, constructing ever more elaborate reactions with every loop - eventually to the point of "responses" that didn't even include any outward stimuli. Sounds a lot like what we feel like when we're 'thinking', right?

 

[PostmodernProph]

it was "Adam, don't forget that God is stopping by tonight after supper"......

Exactly, the first religion was with Adam and Eve and God. Before they messed it up, but that worked out well for all of us.

Well...again Adam and Eve is a nice story but I don't think it is one that should be taken literally. Do some research on Enki and Ninhursag and you will find a very similar story in Sumarian mythology about 2000 year prior to the Genesis account.

are you joking?......you mean "very similar" because Dilmun was also a paradise like Eden or "very similar" because it was a place where a god and goddess had sex and made little godlings?......
Enki and Ninhursag - www.GatewaysToBabylon.com

thats as bad as saying that since Attis went crazy and cut off his own penis then a tree grew out of his grave, that he died and resurrected just like Jesus Christ.......

 

[RandomVariable]

And was the first religion the right religion?

Being as you are an atheist are you looking for a religion?

 

[Treeshepherd]

"Lorien: Words have meaning. And Names have power. The universe began with a word, you know. But which came first? The word or the thought behind the word?

Logos= the Word

Any conceptualization of God is abstract. But if you have to define God, I like to awkwardly use terms like 'Cosmic Instruction' or 'Motive Will'.

“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.”- Norman MacLean A River Runs Through It.

 

[Treeshepherd]

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via

The distance is too great to colonize other worlds, in my opinion. We're stuck on this rock.

But another genesis could occur on another world, by the same 'instruction' that sparked life on this planet. It's the Creator who is motive throughout the universe, not the created.