Taoism

Hinduism.

Most shamanistic religious traditions. Asatru, Druidism, some native american traditions, though most have been warped by modern wicca practice and no longer resemble the way they used to be practiced.

many of the tribal religious traditions from africa, Australia and the americas.

Technically, Mormonism is an older religion than Taoism, but again, that's due to the fact that Taoism isn't a religion.

But, to the best of my knowledge, Zoroastrianism is the oldest religion on the planet...if you're looking for a "source myth" from which all others originated.

Alluvius wrote: Technically, Mormonism is an older religion than Taoism, but again, that's due to the fact that Taoism isn't a religion.

Hmmm... I'd have to disagree. I think the modern following that Taoism has is not based in religious practices, if I am not mistaken it once was a religion with ancient Chinese roots, with monks and scholar-warriors and such. In which case it would make it much older than Mormanism, since Lao Tzu wrote his first work (Tao Te Ching) around 600 B.C.

I suppose most of this is debatable. I guess it depends on what your definition of "religion" is. After all, a lot of Jedi don't consider Force knowledge as religion, and yet here we are studying Jediism. :silly:

Streen, I agree that Taoism predates most existing philosophies. The only reason I said that Mormonism (the newest "accepted" religion I could think of...tho in retrospect I probably should have said Scientology...) was to illustrate the point that Taoism is not a religion. And, as you said, that's probably debatable, dependent on your definition of "religion"...as for me, there's no "god" or moral focus inherent to Taoism. There's no afterlife, or intention to transform people into "good" people or judge "bad" people. There are none of the traditionally accepted "markers" that define a religion as such inherent to Taoism, so I can't call it a religion. To me calling Taoism a religion would be the same as calling the Pacific ocean a "big bath tub"...similar, but oh so very different.

i prefer the term "philosophical lifestyle" to religion...religion sort of indicates a lack of flexibility, where as philosophical lifestyle has inherent flexibility since philosophy is adaptive...always changes with the aquisition of new information...just my thought

Religion/philosphy/belief system? Call it what you want, I've read it's called all those and dates back to the 4000BC. Can anyone place dates on what you've posted

if i was at home with my philosophy book i could place dates on all the religions/philosophies...though i may type it up when i get home and then post it tomorrow or so...

Thanks to the beauty and miracle of google and wikipedia...we can all place dates on everything...what dates are you interested in?

I'd like to back up the people claiming that Taoism has been a religion.

It did not start that way, but it became that way at one point. Now, some people follow it religiously, some follow it philosophically.

Sounds kinda similar to Buddhism, really, in that regard.