RELIGION: What We Believe - Introduction
Part I of IV
On earth over the last 3,500 years, religions have evolved in what appears to be a pattern. Hinduism (1500’s BC), Judaism (1000’s BC), Buddhism (500’s BC), Christianity (0’s BC), and Islam (500’s AD) have emerged and set a tone for societies within which we live.
These major religions have accepted the Hindu principles of monotheism and the eternal soul.
Each religion after Hinduism has had a basic concept to present to our world. Judaism, by accepting the basic Hindu concepts, bridged the West with the East by providing a conduit by which these concepts were able to filter through to Western religions.
Buddhism identified the irrationality of human suffering and offered a solution to this problem. Christianity introduced the warmth of love to our perception of human interactions toward each other.
Islam introduced justice, the means of discouraging interference with the journey of others.
Two points stand out in this process of global religious emergence.
First, no rationality had been put forward that explains the reason for the emergence of each of these basic premises.
Second, these religions each popped up at surprisingly consistent 500 year intervals.
The emergence of the new major religious contributions to humankind ended with Islam in the 500 AD’s.