Familar with world religons?

I was wondering anyone who has read about many religons through out the world if you could answer a few questions for me:

What are the oldest well documented religons before Christ?

Also wondering personal opinions on what are the most factual ancient religons

Also what are some good reads on the view point of religons that may have made up gods/prophets such as egypt,christ etc. ?

I have found myself questioning things written in the bible about "only worship christ or you don't have a god". Sorry not exact words obviously. Anyway with just that line I read what if there was no boats were ever made how would anyone else ever have knew there was a Christ?
Always makes me wonder how egypt had sun worship as well as indians in Mexico that were split by large bodies of water. I apologize if this is out of line and premature as I have just started looking into religon and obvious anyone would have such questions when seeing such things. Just trying to learn to find steady ground on what to belive.


I appreciate any leads and info you guys can give me.

Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) was born about 560 BC, and there have been followers since he started to teach.

Hinduism is commonly considered the world's oldest religion, and estimates put it's origin from between 3100 BC to 1300 BC.

There are so many smaller religions that it's impossible to list them all here; This page isn't a bad place to start, if you're after information.

Sun worship isn't hard to explain. What you had were native peoples who observed the sun rising, and setting, and figured out that it made things grow. If we're being honest, it arose simply from ignorance of how things really worked (as was the case with most - if not all - ancient religions).

More on Hinduism

More on Buddhism

More on ancient beliefs

Hope this helps to start with

Actually Hinduism has it's roots from Dravidianism which dates back to around 6000 to 3000BCE which is well before even the Sumarian and Egyptian religions

Oldest Religion

There are probably others that predate even that but due to the lack of writings as well as organized civilizations, such would only be speculations.

Also wondering personal opinions on what are the most factual ancient religons

Well since all religions are faith based, there is little that can be considered "fact based" The religions of today including Christianity can trace their roots back to earlier religions such as Sumarian and Dravidianism so they have as much "fact-basis" as the earlier religions.

The Egyptians had their own Sun god. His name was Aten
ATEN The Great

As mentioned, the earliest pretty much involve Sun worship.

Don't forget the Egyptians (i.e. and their sun god Rah...).

For the oldest/best documented, I'd have to go with the ancient Egyptians on this one...more than 3000 BC, and certainly long-lasting and well-documented.

Hinduism is a close second on that....both in age and documentation.

Don't forget also, that the basics of Christianity, i.e. the Old Testament was all before Jesus...(though not as early as the above)

Most factual? That's largely a matter of opinion. I'd have to go with Buddhism on that one, as it's largely a philosophy, rather than strict dogmatic belief.....

EDIT: Seems we were composing this at the same time, hehe....
I'm not as familiar with Dravidianism....but as the area was pretty much the cradle of civilization, it'd make sense....I just don't know how much of it was actually well documented prior to 3000 BC...

The interesting thing one sees in comparative religion, is how much each religion was influenced by and incorporated the beliefs of others. For example, many of the same people and places are the foundation for Judiasm, Christianity, and even Islam. The veneration of the sun and animals is evident in the first religions, and you'll see this carried even into existing religions. After all, think of the animal sacrifice in the story of Cain and Abel...

Rather than reading, if your local college offers a course in Humanities, I'd recommend taking one, or even a comparative religion class. Just an idea...

[edit on 15-9-2005 by Gazrok]