Religion and History

Religion and history and inextricably linked to each other. With the evolution of man and the advancement of technology comes the growth of various religious practices. The religions of the world have a rich history that influences many cultures in the society up to today.

When people talk about the history of religion, it usually refers to the writings of the recorded human religious ideas and experiences. It began about 5,000 years ago when writing was invented in the Near East. As for the prehistory of religion, this is usually associated to the study of the religious beliefs of man which existed before the first written records were made.

Here are some significant events in the history of religion.

During the Prehistoric era, there have been many important events in history and religion that influenced the beliefs and traditions of present religions. There has been evidence found of the first intentional burial of a dead human being done in 300,000 BC. Some of the sites where these ancient burials and old buildings can be found include Atapuerca in Spain, where bones of more than 32 people were found in a pit. The first ritual burial of man was evidently done in 42,000 BC.  There have also been discoveries of the increased usage of red ochre in 100,000 BC at some middle Stone Age Sites. Later on, in history, red ochre was considered to have played a vital role in various rituals of different communities. Some discoveries have been made that proved the traces of python worship back in 70,000 BC in Botswana’s Ngamiland region. This bore some resemblance to the ritual of “Snake Worship”, which was practiced later on by the ancient civilization in the Indus Valley.

In 3000 BC, writing was invented in Sumer and although it was first used in accounting, it was later on used to record myths and religious and supernatural events. There have been discoveries that the Pyramid Texts composed in 2494 BC were the oldest religious texts that are known in existence. In 2300 BC, the earliest Confucian writing was composed, which incorporated the ideas of heaven and harmony. In 2200 BC, citizens of the Minoan Civilization started to worship different goddesses. In 1850 BC, Abraham from the Old Testament of Christianity’s Bible is thought to have lived and in 1500 BC, the earliest Vedas, which are large body of writings that originated in Ancient India were composed. They considered the oldest sacred texts of the religion of Hinduism.

Later on, during the Axial Age, which was from 800 to 200 BC, there were a lot of historical events that culminated in the development of monotheism and monism, along with Platonic realism as well as Neoplatonism in Hellenistic philosophy. The events during this time also resulted in the formation of the notion of atman as the philosophy of Buddhism and Hinduism as well as the notion of Tao in the religion of Taoism.

From the Middle Ages up to our present day, more and more developments contributed to the formation and evolution of the older religions such as Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism, Shintoism as well as the newer religions such as Scientology. Today, the largest religion would still be Christianity, with more than two billion followers from all over the world. They believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and founder of the Church.