When And Where World Religions Began

Skeptical Freethought Atheist Musings to Dispel Ignorance and Enlighten the Mind

Posted at August 13, 2008 by Neece

Here is a bit of history for you. It’s a chart of world religions. I find this helpful because it shows that they were all created over time, and implied in this is that they were created by men.

This chart is interesting because obviously a lot of religions and religions-turned-myth are not on here. Also interesting is the fact that most of these are still being practiced. Though this chart doesn’t show it, it seems that since the dawn of man, there has always been a yearning to understand the mysterious, and to name and personify it in some way by creating gods and stories.

And yet, most scientists and great thinkers, the great minds, are and have been atheists, agnostics or deists.

When and Where World Religions Began

4000–2500 BCE	Hinduism	South Asia
1300–1200 BCE	Judaism	West Asia
500–400 BCE	Buddhism	South Asia
	Confucianism	China
	Zoroastrianism	West Asia
	Jainism	South Asia
400–221 BCE	Taoism	China
1st century CE	Christianity	West Asia, Europe
3rd century CE	Manichaeism	West Asia
6th century CE	Shinto	Japan
7th century CE	Islam	West Asia
11th century	Orthodoxy	West Asia
15th–16th century	Sikhism	South Asia
16th century	Protestantism	Europe
19th century	Latter-day Saints	North America
	Babi and Baha’i	West Asia
19th–20th century	Pentecostalism	North America