All Religions Are Not the Same!

To understand religion's we have to take a look at their origin. This is not as easy as it seems. Religions probably began almost simultaneously with language but there is no direct evidence as to what the first religion was. The first religious symbols and representations we find are about forty three thousand years ago in Australia. This was roughly seven thousand years after humankind began its journey out of Africa. We can speculate but we do not know that they've must have carried a religion with them when those one hundred fifty brave people crossed the bottom of the Red Sea. With no archaeological record we just don't know.

For any understanding of modern religions we must fast-forward to about 5000 years ago to when writing first began. There is enough archaeological evidence to be fairly certain that religion was a common factor of almost all societies but we don't really know what the story was until people started to write it down. We can look at archaeological relics and speculate as to why people created them but our speculation must be from a modern prospective looking back.

Our first look at the origins of modern religion occurs almost simultaneously in ancient Samaria and in the Indus Valley. In Samaria we find stories and myths that are to provide the basis of the big three Western religions Judaic, Christian and the Islamic. In the Indus Valley we find the origins of the Hindu religion. The Hindu religion predates the Western religions and provides the seeds for most of the other religions of the East.

Judaism evolved as a tribal religion borrowing ideas such as the flood from Samaria but its main purpose was to unite the tribes of Israel and reassure them that they were God's chosen people.

Christianity came much later and was an offshoot of Judaism. It really did not gain significance or strength until the fourth century CE when the Emperor Constantine embraced it as a way to unite his empire.

Islam also traces its roots back to Judaism but when it split the split was more complete and more finite. The Prophet Mohamed's major contribution was to unite the warring tribes of the desert. He may or may not have had a hand in the origin of the Qur'an but that is a different story.

The common denominator and similarity of the three major Western religions are that they all were a method of uniting people against a common enemy. Religion served its main purpose; as a bond to unite people and give them a common interest.

While the Western religions grew, separated and evolved the older Hindu religion in the East was doing much the same. It began as a tribal religion in the Indus valley and as it spread south and east it grew and changed.

Buddhism separated from the Hindu religion about 2500 years ago and much as Christianity represented at reformation of Judaism, Buddhism was a refinement of the Hindu religion.

Far to the East and later Confucius developed his ideas. As people from China traveled west they encountered Buddhism and returned home with the ideas that mingled with the ideas of Confucius and formed a unique Chinese form of Buddhism.

There are two other areas of religious thought it cannot be ignored because of the influence they have had on modern religions. These are the pagan religions of Europe and Central Asia and the religion and philosophy of the Greeks. The influence of the Greeks can be seen in all three of the Western religions and in the Hindu religion in the East. The influence of the pagan religions can be seen most directly in Christianity. The story of Christ is a collection of pagan stories woven together to form the story of a new God Man.

How do these religions differ? They differ considerably in their worldview. The religions of the West see life as a struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The religions of the East are much less concentrated on this idea. They view life as an effort to keep things in balance.

The Western religions gave birth to the idea of sin. The concept of revolves around the idea that God gave a set of laws and that when man transgresses these laws he has committed a sin. They go beyond this with the idea of original sin. With the concept of original sin all men are considered sinful or bad and as a result in need of a savior. The Western religions thoughtfully provide this savior.

In the Eastern religions the concept of sin never caught on. Humankind was not considered evil or sinful by nature. This is one of the major differences between Eastern religion and Western religion.

When we stop and take a look at religions, from their early development to their current worldview we see that they are in fact very different. All religions are not the same.