Which was the first religion

Answer 1

The first organized Christian religion was Catholicism. This is recorded in documents dating back to 100 AD, shortly after the completion of Revelations. This document traces the first three Popes and was used as a resource when writing the Liber Pontificalis. This document was written around 600 AD and was a complete list of Popes beginning with Peter the Apostle of Christ. The Bible that many newer religions use today to justify their church was disputed until the Catholic Church, around 400 AD through the Council of Rome, investigated and distinguished inspired books from the uninspired writings. This canon is the same as is used in the Catholic Church today. It wasn't until Martin Luther that changes were made to this canon for use by Protestant religions. These changes include the removal of 7 Old Testament books and the addition of the word "alone" in Romans 3: 28. In fact, Luther's first translation did not have Jude, James, Hebrews and Revelations as inspired, though he put them in the Apocrypha section. It is also true that every Christian religion in existence today stems from the Catholic Church.
Christians date the origins from when Jesus rose from the dead.

Jesus had been born a Jew and he had some different ideas. Some people decided to follow his ideas which formed the bases for Christianity

Answer 2

It was the belief that * Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came from the Father and is God. * He lived and performed miracles as a testimony to His deity. * He died and rose again as substitionary payment for the sins of the world. * Turning from sin and trusting in His sacrifice results in salvation from the eternal damnation earned by sinning. * Faith is given to people as a gift of God. * One who thus trusts in Christ is a new creature, capable of choosing to do God's will, by following the lead of the Holy Spirit who indwelled him when he trusted in Christ. In other words they believed all the things which are in The Bible, even before they were written. That this is what was believed is evident as you read the historical books of what happened after Jesus death and resurrection.

Answer 3

No-one can possibly know that, but it would have been a tribal religion of some sort. Humankind has always had a desire to worship and pay homage to a Deity, which is evidence that there is one since although people are not born atheist, there is no such thing as a 'religion gene'.

Answer 2

Archaeology has shown that no ancient society ever existed that did not believe in the supernatural, though some quickly reverted to idolatry.
Based upon a massive worldwide study of the most ancient inscriptions and the earliest levels of civilization, Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt (in his twelve-volume Der Ursprung Der Gottesidee) concluded that the original belief was monotheistic; a belief in One God (see footnote 1, below). It was a simple belief in the Creator (Dyeus Pater; Sky-Father) with no imagery of any kind. It gave way relatively quickly to polytheism and idolatry, but its traces could still be seen by the careful researcher.

Answer 4

Sun Worship was first religion. This made a lot of sense because everything comes from the sun. It later developed into Sol Invictus religion and had Mithra as its God on earth leader. It was adopted in large part by the Christian religion that we know today. ( but they have forgotten and will deny it) The Halo around the heads of saints is the sun.

The sun gave man corn and oil. Two things most necessary and valuable from early time to today. So the sun god is also the Oil God and the Corn god. We still worship this god in our daily lives and need him for corn and oil.

Toady as yesterday, we would all perish without corn and oil. Both come from the almighty SUN that lights our days and gives us our calendar.

I would demur...before there was monotheism, there was polytheism and animism. -nelbg

Answer 5

Scholars are uncertain as to the very earliest form of Christianity, or even how early it really began. It is clear from Paul's epistles that by the forties or fifties of the first century CE, there were rival groups of Christians who believed very different things, and even taught a "different Christ". Certainly, a bewildering variety of ideologies and practices had emerged in the name of Jesus by the turn of the second century.

Some talk in terms of two distinct groups - a Christ cult and a Jesus school. There is evidence that all the New Testament epistles were based on entirely different theology to that found in the New Testament gospels. At some stage, Christianity coalesced around a 'centrist' version that would become the Catholic-Orthodox Christianty that eventually dominated, and Gnostic Christianity.

Rudolf Bultmann of Germany's Marburg University, acknowledged by many as the twentieth century's most influential theological thinker, condemned as useless further attempts to try to reconstruct the Jesus of history:

I do indeed think that we can now know almost nothing concerning the life and personality of Jesus, since the early Christian sources show no interest in either, are moreover fragmentary and often legendary.

Answer 6

One thing that researchers agree upon is that mankind has always believed in a Higher Power. Archaeology has shown that no ancient society ever existed that did not believe in the supernatural.

• Link: Can you show me that God exists?
  

Based upon a massive worldwide study of the most ancient inscriptions and the earliest levels of civilization, Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt (in his twelve-volume Der Ursprung Der Gottesidee) concluded that the original belief was monotheistic; a belief in One God (see footnote 1, below). It was a simple belief in the Creator (Dyeus Pater; Sky-Father) with no imagery of any kind. It gave way relatively quickly to polytheism and idolatry, but its traces could still be seen by the careful researcher, just as (for example) Proto-Indo European has left indelible marks within the later languages. Other traditions also are traceable worldwide, such as the religious significance of the number seven, and the immortality of the soul.

The process by which the awareness of One God gave way to a belief in many gods, has been described by Scandinavian researchers (see footnote 2) as splitting ("Gottespaltung"): the people gradually viewed God's attributes of truth, righteousness, fertility etc., as separate from Him, and afterwards personified and worshiped the attributes themselves, until God was largely forgotten.

According to Jewish tradition also, (Rashi commentary, Genesis 4:26), monotheism is more ancient than polytheism. Maimonides describes the process by which polytheism began: "A couple of centuries after the Creation, mankind made a great mistake. They said that since God had created the stars and spheres and placed them on high, accordingly it is fitting for people to praise and glorify them and to treat them with honor. They perceived this to be the will of God, that people should exalt and honor the stars. They began to praise and glorify them with words, and prostrate themselves before them, because by doing so, they would (according to their false conception) be indirectly honoring God too."

• Link: The full quote from Maimonides
  

This descent into polytheism contributed to the gradual weakening of any sense of religious belief and was also used as justification for excessive and licentious behavior, since the caprices which were narrated concerning the idols were adopted as an excuse to imitate their putative actions.

The original belief is what Abraham reinstated through his teaching of ethical monotheism.

See also the other Related Link.

• Link: Abraham's monotheism
  

Footnotes

1) Albright, "From the Stone Age," p.170; and J.A. Wilson, "The Culture of ancient Egypt," p.129. Also Baron, "A Social and Religious History," vol. I, p.44 and 311. Also James Meek, "Hebrew Origins," p.188, quoting Langdon, Lagrange and John Ross. Also Martin Nilsson, Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaften, 2nd ed., p.61, 141, 220 and 394.

2) G. W. Anderson, in "The Old Testament and Modern Study," p.287. Also Friedrich Baethgen, in Beitraege zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte, p.288. Also Pallotino, "The Etruscans," p. 158 and 167.

Answer 7

Catholicism is the original Christian religion.

Answer 8

Technically Roman Catholicism could be viewed as the first denomination prior to any large splits, although as such it would be pre-denominational.

Answer 9

Islam

Answer 2:

The oldest recognized religion with Scripture that taught man of his Creator (Brahmana) is Hinduism (c. 2900 BCE).

Answer 10

Animism was undoubtedly the first religion in the world. Later came worship of Mother Earth and of the sun and moon gods.