Religion is an integral part of the life of almost every person. The need to worship higher powers is expressed in spiritual awareness of the world and faith in the supernatural. An interesting question arises about what is the most ancient religion, how it arose and developed.
Having studied all the available information about the Paleolithic period, scientists came to the conclusion that people of this era developed spiritual relations, as indicated by the customs of ritual burials of that time, as well as cave paintings. Most likely, our ancestors believed that deities inhabited the world, and considered various places and objects of nature alive. In addition, the customs of burial give us an idea of faith in the afterlife.
But still, what was the oldest religion? The answers to the question depend on the position taken by various authors studying the origin of man. Some argue that religion was artificially created by man, and was not the result of evolutionary development. So, according to this point of view, a woman and a man knew only one God who created them, they worshiped him, making various sacrifices. The monotheism and sacrifice described in the Bible were the first characteristics of religion in its original form. Evidence of this can be found in the oldest literary monuments of China, Greece, Egypt and the traditions of many peoples.
But there is another point of view based on the theory of evolution of Darwin. According to her, it took a long period of time for the formation and development of religious beliefs. At first, these beliefs were based on the worship of people by spirits, since there was a fear of their power. Israel then reduces the diversity of the gods of various nations to one tribal god, which paved the way for the improvement of religion as such.
Considering which religion is the oldest, it should be noted that in modern times on Earth there are a large number of religious trends, the so-called spiritual knowledge, which are divided into several systems. So, the primary teaching is Aryan - Vedantism (secret studies). Then it was transformed into Brahmanism, and then into Buddhism. Aryan traditions were adopted by the Russian prehistoric religion, so paganism appeared - the worship of the elements. These beliefs were not completely defeated, and after several millennia on their basis the religion of ancient Rome and ancient Greece developed .
The culture of Egypt and Babylon has become the basis for the generation of knowledge that is partially transmitted to us in the Bible (therefore, the view that Christianity is the oldest religion is wrong). On their basis, the philosophy of Plato developed , which had a great influence on the spiritual development of all of Europe. In addition, these teachings formed the basis of the religion of ancient Judea, on which Christianity will continue to rely. The knowledge of ancient Egyptian civilization, Jews and Christians is partially preserved in Islam.
The black race practiced ceremonial magic, preserving the rituals and customs of African sorcerers. The yellow race gave rise to the teachings of Lao Tzu (Daonism), as well as shamanism, Zen Buddhism and Shintu.
Thus, it is impossible to say with accuracy what is the oldest religion on Earth, since from the earliest times all knowledge, rites, rituals and customs spread during the mixing of peoples and the migration of tribes. So, the idea of sacrifice first belonged to the civilization of the black race, later it was adopted by the peoples of all continents and there was more than one millennium on Earth.
Thus, the answer to the question of what is the oldest religion on the planet, is ambiguous, and depends on the worldviews and views of historians.