What is the absolute oldest creation story?

[PryOpenUr3rdEye]

I was thinking... Lets go with the whole "rock creates the ripples in the pond" approach to this.

What is the absolute oldest creation story? And preferably not one thats been horribly tampered with throughout the years (I think you know what I mean).

My line of thought was, if we wanted to figure out where we came from, then why wouldn't we analyze the oldest story known, instead of the most popular? A kind of getting closest to the source sort to speak. And how many of these creation stories use the notion of a great flood? It seems to be a common theme throughout the ages.

Oh, and one more thing... Why only 2 of each animal??? We all know thats not enough to sustain a sufficient breeding colony to ensure the species survival...unless thats all they needed (implying some sort of controlled breeding by unknown beings?)

[Cadetak]

We don't know what the first creation was because way back when we lived in caves and such nobody really recorded anything. We could find the first known creation story...The oldest off the top of my head would be all those religions that worshiped the sun.

You can sustain a sufficient breeding colony with only two of each animal...its called God Magic.

[PryOpenUr3rdEye]

So...with God Magic, can I stop worrying about all those animals on the endangered species lists?

[Cadetak]

So...with God Magic, can I stop worrying about all those animals on the endangered species lists?

Sure if you had God Magic you can do whatever you want.

[PryOpenUr3rdEye]

Sure if you had God Magic you can do whatever you want.

Haha, thats funny

[norwood1026]

Are you talking about oral or written religion? Some people believe that Mother Earth was worshipped as a Goddess as far back as Paleolithic times 30,000 years but who really knows going that far back. I've heard that some people believe that Hinduism is one of the oldest because it was one of the first written religions. All in All I don't think we'll ever know.

[PryOpenUr3rdEye]

Are you talking about oral or written religion? Some people believe that Mother Earth was worshipped as a Goddess as far back as Paleolithic times 30,000 years but who really knows going that far back. I've heard that some people believe that Hinduism is one of the oldest because it was one of the first written religions. All in All I don't think we'll ever know.

Am I the only one who's depressed that we're a species who's lost their own history???

[Cradle of Fish]

Am I the only one who's depressed that we're a species who's lost their own history???

Well, a gigantic percentage of our history is lost anyway, because we didn't have writing, and cave paitings are fairly recent. It's not something you should get depressed about.

[Belle.]

Am I the only one who's depressed that we're a species who's lost their own history???

No I am sure you are not but why not look into Archaeology? You'd be surprised what you can learn from stones and bones. Historical sources are usually written from the victors very subjective experience anyway.

Have a look at some indigenous societies that have a strong oral traditions as well.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Belqis

[PryOpenUr3rdEye]

No I am sure you are not but why not look into Archaeology? You'd be surprised what you can learn from stones and bones. Historical sources are usually written from the victors very subjective experience anyway.

Have a look at some indigenous societies that have a strong oral traditions as well.

Yeah, I get more upset over all the ancient libraries burnt and destroyed during conquest. Such a foolish thing to do...

[Belle.]

Yeah, I get more upset over all the ancient libraries burnt and destroyed during conquest. Such a foolish thing to do...

I am a librarian - so yep I agree

Imagine what amazing stuff would have been in the Library of Alexandria.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Belqis

[fullywired]

I think the oldest written one (not oral) was probably the Sumerian.

Hairston posted a good link in another thread about them http://hometown.aol.com/josh882424/history.html

fullywired

[doktorhook]

I think the oldest written one (not oral) was probably the Sumerian.

Hairston posted a good link in another thread about them http://hometown.aol.com/josh882424/history.html

fullywired

You beat me by a little more than two hours

[norwood1026]

I’m tempted to say that Paganism as a whole would be the oldest oral religion just because of the fact that before

B.C there are examples here & there of worship of Pagan Gods. Most reference books list Hinduism as the oldest world religion. This is probably because Hinduism has the oldest recorded written roots which lie in Dravidianism. Dravidianism is estimated to have been practiced around 6,000 to 3,000 BCE and as such predates the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Babylonian cultures. But like anything it comes down to what you believe in your heart more then anything else.

That link you posted doktorhook talk about what might be the oldest known civilization not much about religion.

[macro]

I'm inclined to agree with folks who have said that the oldest written creation story is the Sumerian one. Also, we've got to bear in mind that what's written first is not necessarily what happened first or what's the most true. The biblical creation story is a polemic against many other creation stories, and as such it assumes their existence.

[sandee]

I was thinking... Lets go with the whole "rock creates the ripples in the pond" approach to this.

What is the absolute oldest creation story? And preferably not one thats been horribly tampered with throughout the years (I think you know what I mean).

My line of thought was, if we wanted to figure out where we came from, then why wouldn't we analyze the oldest story known, instead of the most popular? A kind of getting closest to the source sort to speak. And how many of these creation stories use the notion of a great flood? It seems to be a common theme throughout the ages.

Oh, and one more thing... Why only 2 of each animal??? We all know thats not enough to sustain a sufficient breeding colony to ensure the species survival...unless thats all they needed (implying some sort of controlled breeding by unknown beings?)

I myself think the oldest is Jesus Christ and perhaps the ark was only big enough for 2 of each and they did have God to ensure they did breed and continue to exsist, Always a pleasure

[doktorhook]

I’m tempted to say that Paganism as a whole would be the oldest oral religion just because of the fact that before

B.C there are examples here & there of worship of Pagan Gods. Most reference books list Hinduism as the oldest world religion. This is probably because Hinduism has the oldest recorded written roots which lie in Dravidianism. Dravidianism is estimated to have been practiced around 6,000 to 3,000 BCE and as such predates the Sumerian, Egyptian, and Babylonian cultures. But like anything it comes down to what you believe in your heart more then anything else.

That link you posted doktorhook talk about what might be the oldest known civilization not much about religion.

Actually it's not my link, the person above me posted it. In any case & to my knowledge, there is no known writting prior to the sumerians. There are examples of writting that happened very close to the same time period & that came from different cultures, but the earliest sumerian writtings deal with their religious beliefs. This doesn't make it the oldest religion in the world (but probably the oldest recorded). There also seems to be a connection between the sumerians & the people of India but I don't know alot about that. I do know that the languages have a great deal of similarities.

[norwood1026]

No I am sure you are not but why not look into Archaeology? You'd be surprised what you can learn from stones and bones. Historical sources are usually written from the victors very subjective experience anyway.

Have a look at some indigenous societies that have a strong oral traditions as well.

Correct but most of that is still a guess it's easy for 20 different people to get 20 different things from something.

[Pythia]

Am I the only one who's depressed that we're a species who's lost their own history???

I'm sure you are not the only one.

How much do you truly know about your great grandmother or your great great grandmother? Is there some written history of your family?

We can mourn the ancient texts all day long, but if we don't know our own background within a century, how can we expect to know it back for thousands of years? And if we are not contributing to written history now, our great great grandchildren will still be lamenting on not knowing their own history.

[Mr Walker]

Possibly the australian aboriginal dreamtime stories, which include creation stories.The aboriginal culture is at least 40,000 years, old and the stories probably changed as little as their culture did before european settlement. Other indigenous cultures would have similar creation stories, but I do not know how old those cultures have been proven to be, and cultures like the native north americans evolved into somewhat more sophisticated societies even before the europeans arrived and so their creation myths may also have evolved, and not be as old as the first wave of migration to N. America.

[Mr Walker]

We have not lost much 'history', in that history, by definition, is after the written word was developed, and enough of this has been preserved to give us some flavour and understanding of early societies. A lot can also be deduced by things like tool making, burial sites and cave/rock paintings and etchings.

For example rock etchings in the sahara region show a much more vegetated and temperate area. Early australian rock art records contacts between aboriginal peole and malays and chinese well before european contact.

Few people realise how much recorded history has survived. For example there are financial records in europe still in existence which go back well over a thousand years. While a lot of religious writings have been destroyed by zealots , who worries about mundane things like financial records? My mother's family has a proven lineage, with written records going back to france in the days before william the conquerer. In fact our family moved to england in or after 1066 with the norman settlers. On the other hand, my father's name only evolved in written form in the 1500's in scotland and it is only possible to trace written evidence back to that time.

Edited January 20, 2008 by Mr Walker

[Greenblue]

It is claimed by H.P. Blavatsky that The Book of Dzyan predates all known religions and that, in fact, all religions derive from it. Parts of it are treated in The Secret Doctrine, a work which contains a wealth of information but is extremely difficult to understand partly because of unfamiliarity with the terminology, religions and myths. You will find it here:

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-0-co.htm#preface

[000000000000000]

ok first of all the flood thing is just like made up to strenghten your belief in god

i saw this show on discovery channel so i have no link but they claimed recently they found an ancient Babylonian text that said there was a great flood in one of their cities and a trader named noah was on his trading boat with goat, sheep, chicken, barley, and other products with his family getting ready to trade when the flood came. and they spent some time off shore but that is all i remember

they even found samples of the ground that go with the year of the flood. but there is no way the bible's version of the flood real because if it was global we should be able to dig up soil samples and it doesnt explain how the world repopulated, plus inbreeding is known to make the resulting animal incredibly weaker and more easily able to get a disease, and i just cant honestly think that a couple of men had enough resources to make an ark that large plus how did the animals get there. its just not true..

hmmm i wonder wat the oldest creation story is. growing up as a catholic the only one i know is the bibles version but im sure the chinese, or jewish, had a creation story especially china because they were an advanced civilization

[~ MacDDT ~]

hmmm i wonder wat the oldest creation story is. growing up as a catholic the only one i know is the bibles version but im sure the chinese, or jewish, had a creation story especially china because they were an advanced civilization

Since you grew up catholic I have a feeling you know the "jewish creation story"better than you realize