Oldest Religion? before christ ?

[juantoo3]

Kindest Regards, Q!

Originally Posted by Quahom1

I believe Taoism and the moral code of conduct stemmed from the warring states of China circa 475-221 BCE. Out of the fire, the finest burnished gold emerges.

Also, written languages of China per se, was not "officially" identified until the 1900s BCE (Shang dynasty).

The original post stated that Taoism was written ten thousand years ago. That was my only point, considering that the Chinese state that their cohesiveness as a people, let alone a language written (of any merit) is only 7000 years old.

But I digress.

No, no. The digression is mine, but I hoped to stay fairly close to the topic. I agree with you regarding the written aspect, that is pretty well established. If one can conceive of religion prior to writing, as in oral traditions, I was merely wondering if Taoism may have had some predecessor in animism? In what very little I hear of concerning both, it would seem a possibility...

[Quahom1]

Originally Posted by Awaiting_the_fifth

If I remember my Christian Theology correctly, that's what jesus was doing in the 3 days between dying and rising. He went down to Hell and saved all the people who were good but died before christianity.

Although if you read Dante's inferno, which I think is a fairly good representation of medieval catholic dogma, all these people are in limbo, the first level of hell where they only have a slightly unpleasant eternity.

They were not in the inferno of hell, nor even in one of the levels of hell. They were in a paradise, awaiting salvation. Even Moses and Abraham were there, because they did not always walk with God in their lives. And the Father can not face sin. Hence Jesus had to sacrifice in order for the sin of all to be taken away from the face of God. Even for the faithful.

Which leads me to question, how one of Seth's sons and Elijha were able to be taken straight to heaven without dying...I mean, did these "HUMANS" sin not? If they did not sin, then man can live without sin?

Hmmm, I've got to do more research.

v/r

Q

[Vajradhara]

well... since we are going to speak of the Tao...


i should like to say this...

the Tao does not depend on written texts to exist or not exist. the chinese view of Tao is not the same as Western views of their religions


metta,

~v

[VLreal]

In response to taijasi, in some ways I think you are correct. I believe the human race is much older than we understand. I feel the Old Testament is just as old. The stories in Genesis are about the time of Atlantis and Um. In Genesis 6 giants are mentioned. Isn’t there a similar creation story in all religions? In Genesis 10: 25 it talks about the earth being divided. I think this is speaking about the division of the continents. I don’t think the tower of Babel was a simple brick and mortar tower. It had to be more than that to anger God.

I feel Jesus was the final messenger to reconcile us to God. Through him we are able to be reconciled after original sin. There were other sons of God. This is also mentioned in Genesis 6. Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, born of flesh, a sacrifice for our sins. We shouldn’t try to limit God. I would feel I was being arrogant if I did that. God is great, greater than I feel any of us realize. What we have knowledge of is just the tip of the iceberg. Why we were created and why we are so important to our creator is something I have a difficult time understanding, especially when I see what horrors men are capable of. This is where faith comes in.

[Vajradhara]

Namaste VLreal,


thank you for the post.

no, not all religions share the same basic creation myth. in point of fact, both Buddha Dharma and Tao have very different cosmologies than what one may initially suspect.

welcome to the forum, by the way

metta,

~v

[VLreal]

Thank you Vajradhara. Could you give a basic background on the cosmologies of these religions and how they differ.

[kiwimac]

Certainly from an historical POV ancient Hindic texts (Rig veda etc) are the same age as Zarathustra's Gathas. Even the language is much the same.

Kiwimac

[Postmaster]

After going through one of the discussion topics here, I came up with another question, what is the oldest religion ever?
Now the people who lived before Jesus Christ (to me the first messenger of od that bought an organised and a proper religion) how can they be blamed? they never had any religion? Their ideas of God were based upon trees, moon, son, stones etc. etc. They never taught any religion, what will God do to them ?

We shouldn't worry about this, because we monotheists have faith in Gods divine universal order and see the positive in everything, if you have a large enough heart to ask such a question, then you have nothing to worry about. If humans behave like animals then they deserve the same faith as animas, everyone has a destiny and fait to be a born in the certain time in history, religion, background, ethinicity that suits them. It's all writen.

[juantoo3]

Kindest Regards, all, and especially Vaj!

the Tao does not depend on written texts to exist or not exist. the chinese view of Tao is not the same as Western views of their religions

I can understand this, as I can understand that Animism does not require writing to exist or not exist. I am merely curious if Taoism has any familial connection to Animism?