INTRODUCTION

            Human beings have inhabited the world for millions of years; and the oldest religious art, found in caves and on bones, dates as far back as 30,000 years.  It gives us some insight into the beliefs, rituals and experiences of ancient people.

            Before the end of the Ice Age, ice covered seventy-five percent of our planet.  During the warming of the planet and the melt-down, floods occurred.  At the end of that time, new land areas were uncovered and began to produce vegetation and attract animals and people in search of survival, while old land areas were lost under the Sea.  There is no written history that dates past about 6500 B.C. (8500 years ago) but the diligent efforts of Archaeology with its discovery of ancient ruins, skeletal remains, and cave drawings have increased our understanding of the creative mind of the human being and the instinctive belief in an original Creator God.  That belief is unique to our species, and not found in the “animal” kingdom.  These findings inform us that one of the great instincts of human beings is to search for meaning in life, and to devise methods through which to honor that meaning.

            Public and private wars have been fought in the name of “righteous indignation” in support of different belief systems that came from efforts to answer the questions of life.  The activities of whole nations of people are governed by the beliefs of their governmental system.   Many individuals have lived lives of frustration and confusion as a result of the commonly accepted belief system of the culture into which they were born.

            From earliest times, and still today, people share their ideas and form a group with others who have drawn similar conclusions.  They might call their group a religion; others might call it a cult.  But the name they give to their concept of God does not mean that they “worship” a “different god”, only that they hold a different concept of God.  Every religion serves as a way of life, and an opportunity to practice ones’ accepted beliefs.  Religions can be dictated, but beliefs cannot.  It is one’s own experience with that which he or she perceives as God that prompts the acceptance of a religion, or the withdrawal from religion altogether.     

            In this study we will look briefly at the historical and geographical conditions related to the emergence of specific religious views and the situation of the people who accepted them.   Our comparison is not to determine which religion is right and which is wrong, for all are right as a part of the process of discovery for those who truly believe them.  Our examination is not to claim that all religions are basically the same for they are not.  Each has its own path and destination to suggest.   But each does try to answer the questions of how individuals should relate to God and how human beings should relate to one another, in order to be in harmony with God and the Ultimate Purpose of life.  Our intent is to examine the premises of each religion and see how the holding of a premise impacts the thinking, feeling, behavior, attitudes, choices, experiences and life-style of the people who hold it and live as if it were true.    

            Because there are so many religions to identify, we will proceed by first examining the development of traditional religious views in particular land regions.  We will see where those religions were set up as powers in the world, and how people expressed as a group within these various belief systems. Then we will look at the protests that were waged against those traditional views as individuals tried to break the bonds of rigid belief systems that were inflicted upon them at birth.  With each protest, a new religion or system of belief was established in the world, a different track to run on. 

Many individuals have realized that, while religion is a good thing for taking the loneliness out of our search, the subjective discovery is made only within the individual.  If we talk long enough, we discover that no two souls perceive or experience God exactly the same way.  Then we know that our individual relationship with God is unique, and how we relate to God determines what we are willing to believe about God.  With that realization, we can let go of protesting against the beliefs of others, and get on with the joyful business of shaping our own concepts and living our own Truth within the framework of a religion that we enjoy.  Even if we find there is no religion that quite fits our picture of reality, we can choose to coexist respectfully with religions all around us, while embracing none.

When we can trust our own relationship with God that completely, even if no one else in the world agrees with us about Spiritual matters, it just doesn’t matter; because we have found the object of our search, and peace reigns within.   Where there is war or conflict, whether in worldly affairs; in relationships; or inside the self, that conflict is a testimony of unresolved beliefs and grief about some of the major questions of life.