# How many original religions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252 "2010-03-21T17:59:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/21 "2010-03-22T04:17:04Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > If you want to pick “sides” then the Abrahamic guys, the polytheists, ancestor worshippers and animists make the starting line up. The “Abrahamic” religions clearly developed from polytheistic religion. ---
**Author:** ![Uncertain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Uncertain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncertain)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/22 "2010-03-22T04:19:08Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > It certainly is fairly likely Islam and all the other Indo-European religions are related and come from the same roots How does Islam qualify as Indo-European? ---
**Author:** ![CTburns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a5b964/32.png) [@CTburns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CTburns)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/23 "2010-03-22T05:24:44Z")
I’m glad that they were finally ab le to get it right. LOL! > [@Johanna](#): > > According to Islam there was only one original religion that began with Adam and Eve. It was called _al-din al-hanif_ (the primordial religion). Islam identifies itself with that, and believes that all the prophets of the Qur’an and Bible were sent to re-establish this primordial religion after people had corrupted the latest install. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/24 "2010-03-22T05:49:39Z")
This is an unanswerable question. First, there is no good way to classify what is or is not a religion. For example, Confucianism seems to straddle that line. Or take Hinduism and Shinto, both of which have variations that focus on the ritual and may not require any specific beliefs. Are these religions? Do we count Neo-Pagans, who often seem to be quite silly? Second, there is no way to define what is an “offshoot” of another religion. For example, Sikhism is deeply influenced by both Hinduism and Islam, but really isn’t too much like either one. Mormonism is classified as “Christian” but seems radically different than any other form of Christianity. Buddhism takes a lot from Hinduism, but seems obviously distinct. Meanwhile, Hinduism has bits and pieces of all kinds of religions, which are incorporated in infinite different ways. And what the heck do you do with mixed religions such as Mayan-Catholicism or Voodun? Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is the question of what to do with folk religions. These beliefs are still actively practiced around the world, and can vary village to village and even from family to family. It’s easy to try to lump them together, but that doesn’t really make sense. The tribe that worships the Bull God by making blood sacrifice probably is baffled as to why they’d be lumped together with the tribe that worships the Fire god through shamanic dancing. Really, the only reason we do lump them together is the old concept of “Believers vs. Pagans.” Even if we did get a count of each different folk religion, could we ever come up with a way to classify what “counts” as it’s own religion? ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/25 "2010-03-22T08:08:36Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > This is sort of like language. We assume that all living languages derive from some common tongue 50k, 100k, or 200k years ago (or maybe even earlier). Same with religion, although we tend to think of pre-civilized peoples as not having organized religions. I find this parallel doubtful. In linguistic doctrine all languages (except perhaps creoles and pidgins) have exactly one primary parent, but religions can be amalgams of different traditions and original ideas. Also, most religious doctrine came _after_ civilizations which had (except in Atlantis-like conjectures) separate origins. (Julian Jaynes offers a very interesting explanation for the origin of neolithic religions from ancestor worship.) At the risk of contradicting what I just wrote, there are theories about common paleolithic mythology. As someone else mentioned, the hypothesized Proto-Indo-European (PIE) religion may be an interesting piece of the puzzle; that religion emphasized a Trinity. (The claim that the Abrahamic religions descend from PIE is very doubtful; better might be to suggest, as I alluded to above, that religions borrowed ideas from each other.) There are _very_ strong similarities, for example, between Hinduism and Irish Druidism, both offshoots of this hypothesized religion. Some people argue that Christianity itself was transformed to conform to aspects of the pagan Roman religion, itself an off-shoot of the PIE religion. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/26 "2010-03-22T13:11:52Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I like Bokononism (from Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle). But the only difference between Scientology, Mormonism, and Catholicism is age. > > [BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Glasgow, Lanarkshire and West | Force is strong for Jedi police](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/8003067.stm) > > Sapo, as I said, you’re free to use any definition you want. But if you’re deciding ahead of time what answer you want to come up with, then none of your definitions mean a thing. There is no answer I want ahead of time. I am just saying I would rather lump than split. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/27 "2010-03-22T15:49:18Z")
> [@Uncertain](#): > > The “Abrahamic” religions clearly developed from polytheistic religion. No argument from me there. It’s just that (IMO) the differences are big enough to warrant a distinction, in the same way that reptiles and mammals shared a way back common ancestor, but they’re not the same today. ---
**Author:** ![Perciful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Perciful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Perciful)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2010, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/28 "2010-03-22T16:47:32Z")
I know this isn’t what you are looking for just thought it was interesting. •‘Archaeologists have discovered what seems to be remains of the world’s earliest religious worship site in the remote Ngamiland region of Botswana. Here, our ancestors performed advanced rituals, worshiping the python some 70,000 years ago. The sensational discovery strengthens Africa’s position as the cradle of modern man. … While, up until now, scholars have largely held that man’s first rituals were carried out over 40,000 years ago in Europe, it now appears that they were wrong about both the time and place. Associate Professor Sheila Coulson, from the Oslo University, however claims to have proof that modern humans started performing advanced rituals in Africa 70,000 years ago. She discovered mankind’s oldest known ritual in Botswana.’–Quote from [AFROL.com](http://AFROL.com). •No doubt its Islam, The first man also the the first prophet was Adam on the Earth, Adam(Peace be upon him) taught that Allah is the name of the God and follow the commands of Allah was the religion. •Vedic Hinduism and Zoroastrianism are considered the oldest organized religions. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/29 "2010-03-24T07:50:31Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > Not to start a debate, but while age is the biggest difference, it’s not the only one. There is no evidence that the founders of the Catholic Church started their church as a deliberate ruse to gain financial benefit from others (not that it hasn’t been used that way since) Here we get into the difference between an organization and a belief system, a difference some people apparently refuse to make. For example, being a cult is a property of a group of people, not a belief system: A cult is an abusive organization that uses religious indoctrination and total social isolation as a mechanism of control. So, in terms of belief systems, Scientology is on par with any other. However, in terms of organizational dynamics, the Church of Scientology is significantly different (worse, mainly) from the modern Roman Catholic Church or your local mosque. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2010, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252/30 "2010-03-24T09:56:47Z")
> [@Uncertain](#): > > How does Islam qualify as Indo-European? The Indo-European region is inclusive of the Middle East (given that it’s sandwiched between and is the primary transit path between India and Europe in ancient times.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-original-religions/533252.md?page=1)