Religion goes back at least as far as human civilizations and according to many sources the Egyptians, East Indians, Chinese and Mesopotamians predate the Jews. According to the East Indian calendar, it is said that Rama appeared a million or so years ago (no exact date). Krishna, an Indian king according to the Vedic scriptures appeared about 5,000 years ago, Buddha (and Buddhism) about 500 years before Christ and Jesus a little over 2,000 years ago.
As Rama is the basis of Egyptian religion and its origins date back beyond 3000 BCE it predates Christianity, Judaism, and Islam which are all considered Abrahamic religions (Abraham dates back to 1800 BC). The origins of Hindu tradition have been traced as far as the ancient Vedic civilization (2nd and 1st millennia BCE more than 50,000 years ago and up to 6th Century BCE) and ancient Indus Valley civilization (c3,000 - 1500 BC) so Vedic Hinduism and Zoroastrianism are considered the oldest organized religions.
There are archaeological indications that strongly suggest such spiritual traditions whether Hinduism or not existed long before that (into pre-history). Scholars have largely held that man's first rituals were carried out over 40,000 years ago in Europe but Associate Professor Sheila Coulson, an archaeologist from the Oslo University, claims to have proof that modern humans started performing advanced rituals in Africa at least 70,000 years ago; she discovered, what appears to be, the remains of the world's earliest religious worship site in the remote Ngami land region of Botswana where our ancestors performed advanced rituals, worshiping the python. It’s believed that Australian aboriginal beliefs probably go back 60,000 or more. But Coulson’s discovery strengthens Africa's position as the cradle of modern man.
Nobody actually knows what the first religion was but if you go through the different religious books and study this question deeply, you will find that Sanskrit is the oldest written language writing down religion and therefore Hinduism (although it is not strictly a religion in the formal sense of the word but a spiritual tradition) is the first known religion and therefore considered the first and oldest organized religion of the world.
The latest figures estimating world religious populations show the top 12 religions as: Christianity - 2.1 billion, Islam - 1.5 billion, Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist - 1.1 billion, Hinduism - 900 million, Chinese traditional - 394 million, Buddhism - 376 million, Primal-indigenous - 300 million, African traditional and Diasporic - 100 million, Sikhism - 23 million, Juche - 19 million, Spiritism - 15 million and Judaism - 14 million.
The words ‘traditional values’ are being spoken by many Christians lately. There are several meanings for the word ‘traditional’ some of what I take to be negative such as old-fashioned, unadventurous or conventional meaning being a conformist (a follower). If people used this meaning for the word traditional, Christians would not exist as they were created out of change and are babies in the world of religion. Just because Christians are now the largest population in the world it does not mean that your hate filled ways is what is intended for our world. I don’t want America to go back 150 or more years (prior to 1863) when we had slavery, brothers fighting brothers or even 1920 when women got the right to vote or the 1970s when we still didn’t have equality or even 2008 when taxes for capital gains were lowered. I want to move forward and correct the wrongs that exist. We seem to have no manners. There are less “please, thank you, you’re welcome, and excuse me” spoken. Love is reduced to ‘like’, a thumbs up, a word of approval instead of a true feeling of caring. I remember when a person was arrested for putting money in the parking meters for other people. With this type of government support for a random act of kindness it’s no wonder that people would rather commit a true criminal act. The movie ‘Pay it Forward’ is one of my favorites. The behavior shown in the movie is what we should be doing to make a better country. Generally, I’ve come to believe that we are not rewarding good people.
Christians although considered in existence since Abraham includes Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Episcopalians, and more that came into the world after Jesus was born. These religions were also formed out of a need for change and thank God that there were people that stood for change and those that allowed change to occur. America allows people of all religions to worship and when you look at the world’s population Christians are not the majority and should not be asking Americans to follow the negative meanings of the word ‘traditional’.
There are positive meanings to the word traditional such as customary, expected, usual, established and time-honored. I think these meanings coincide with what Ellen said she believes in (honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you want to be treated and helping those in need). I also think they are the basis for the continual growth of Americans in reaching the expectations of our Declaration of Independence (all men are created equal) and Constitution (to form a more perfect Union). So I say it’s time for Christians to step up and help create the positive change instilled in our doctrines by allowing those that are different from you to coexist here in America and in the world.
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