Which is the oldest religion existing at present?
409866
Hinduism. it still includes mother goddess, sun, fire worship and shamans. \n\nwe call it Sanatana dharma. it includes most ancient traditions. yet always modifying itself according to changing ideas. still retaining old traditions and beliefs.\n\nstill for religious practices pots made of bronze are supposed auspicious. that was the first metal man used. \n\nHinduism has a continuous evolution tradition. but it never negated or disregarded earlier beliefs. it just modifies them. \n\nyou want to study religious evolution of man study hinduism. it will go back to stone age and latest off shoot of hinduism Sikh Panth is hardly 400 yers old.
241464
Jerusalem is one of the oldest cities in the world still standing. It has been there at least since 3000 B.C. by the Canaanites and given the name Urr Salem.\n\nMore info:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem
3073
The first religion that has the most followers up to know is the Christianity. The second is the Atheism if you count it as a religion.
811447
Religion doesn't change. It stays in its ancient mindset regardless of how the world around it changes.
152747
Actually religion is much older than science. What the ancients could not explain otherwise was attributed to a creation of a higher power (read God). Scientists are slowly discovering the different facets of this higher power by applying science and technology
534428
What is the name of that religion that Adam and Eve had when they walked with God in the cool of the evening? I forget the name they called it.  Anyway, that was the oldest religion. Read the first couple of chapters of Genesis.
925401
Yes Hinduism.  It still has early elements of Sun worship, mother goddess worship, nature worship even shamans surviving in its folds. It is a tradition which never rejects older theories. But at the same time it is progressive. \n\nNot to forget that Hindus never tried to fix a date and limit the origin of life in time period of a few thosand years ever. It always been aware  of its tradition as being very ancient. Thats because of its continuity.\n\nThere have been many recent archeological discoveries which only indicate the Hindu civilisation is much older that previous scholars wanted to believe. \n\nMostly they were western researchers who tried to fit Harrapa and vedic tradition in Biblic time line. But discoveries like \n\n1. A City Dating Back to 7500 BC, Krishna's city Dwarka \n\n 2. Satelite discovery of disappeared River Saraswati\n\n 3. Satellite Photos of the Ancient (17,50,000 years )\nBridge Between Ramesvaram and Sri Lanka, mentioned in Ramayana and said to be constructed by his army.\n\n4. A 40,000 Year Old Cave Painting South of New Delhi,\n\n5. Ancient City Found Off the Coast of Mamallapuram, \n\ntake it to very long back.\n\nDwarka:\n"Samples collected include artefacts, wood pieces, pottery materials, hearth pieces, animal bones. They were sent to Manipur University, Oxford University, London, Institute of Earth Sciences, Hanover, Germany for analysis and dating. The results were astonishing. It was found beyond doubt that the samples belonged to a period going upto7800 years (BP) Before Present !"\n\nThough Archeologiccal research is a costly affair and heavy population + Loads of sedimentation in Indian basins does not help either. Harrappa itself has 7 layers-Minimum. It wasnt possible to dig more and see if there were still more layers burried under. But other excavations around India definitely enough to prove that it was a widely spread civilisation and not a localised one.\n\nDiscovery of SARASWATI again by NASA and researches in south India also prove that ARYAN Immigration theory is fake:\n\n"strong evidence that the Neolithic people of Tamil Nadu and the Indus Valley people "shared the same language, which can only be Dravidian and not Indo-Aryan." He added that before this discovery, the southernmost occurrence of the Indus script was at Daimabad, Maharashtra on the Pravara River in the Godavari Valley."\nhttp://www.hindu.com/2006/05/01/stories/2006050112670100.htm\n\nCheck out the sources given below for details and images of some of discoveries.
618758
the normal answer would be that, the ancient egyptians are the oldest civilisation on earth older than chritianity. So these eras were the begining of philosphy and researching religion. Religion is almost a science these days , just watch the Di Vinci Code by Dan Brown, and compare this with what our ancestors had to work with. Very primitive, but very impressive if you think about it. \n\nThey had gods for most events, like hunting, death, farming, birth, etc, etc.
480856
From the bottom:\n\nChristianity ISN'T the oldest religion. This is a FACT. For one thing, it's a splinter sect of Judaism, so that had to come first.\n\nWe never called a man 'God' - there was one we called 'Jesus', who may or may not have been the Son of God and possibly part of a Holy Trinity meaning he also was God...but we never actually CALLED him 'God'.\n\nI've only ever been to the USA for a week-long holiday, so I don't think I can accurately judge what can be accomplished there.
307094
Hinduism is the world's most ancient religion.The Vedas which are considered to be primary religious texts of Hinduism dates back many centuries BC before any other known religion would have or known to be existed.
882031
It depends what you mean. If you mean when did people start to worship a God or Goddess, then evidence of early pagan religions have been found in cave paintings! So a long long long time ago\n\nEDIT: Just thought if you mean when did organised religion start, I know that Egyptian civilization can be traced back as far as 5000 bc ish, I think that when the very early form of their religion came into being. Not sure if theres any that are older.
872454
Actually...the oldest known Mosque in the Muslim world is in Mecca...which was first a temple to pagan idols long before Islam declaired it to be their Mosque...see Kabba for details...the Kabba in Mecca has an old meterorite in its walls that Muslims walks around and kiss...they say the blackened stone is suppose to be black from 'soaking' up all the sin...lol? Kinda makes one wonder just why so many people would walk around and around an old ancient pagan temple with a black meterorite in it anyway.
853301
I dont see a question in there,,But thank you so much for the interesting quotes. Unfortunately the Vedas have been percieved in different ways thus resulting in todays confused hindu behaviour who have no clue what they do & why they do it! I strongly believe Hinduism being the oldest religion has paved way to the others & is the most comprehensive & profound religion in existence
1054709
Each religion believes that their god/spirit is the only one. The better question, however, is: Is there really a god in the first place.
429890
that is a wonder to me too, religions, such as the most popualr christianity was invented thousands of years ago and went under many modification, thus protestant, catholic etc.... by some roman or other major ancient empire leader, however, eventually people will come to realize how primitive religion is, compare the significane of religion today with the concept a hundred years ago, back then priests were next to kings and leaders, now ther jus some horny guys wantin to F some kids in church
274209
...worlds oldest profession
1084553
I think religion today  is a matter of comfort. Being seen, being in a community, comfort for the after-life.\n\nReligion was very useful 1000 years ago to keep people down, to control and earn power.\n\nThis was very brief tho.