PURPOSE | CONTEMPORARY FAITH

ContemporaryFaith.com's mission is to serve as a brief informational compendium of the most prominent religious and philosophical beliefs, religions, worldviews, ideologies, and theories in history and today.

As a time reference for the advancement of civilizations, it is suggested to consider the oldest abstract engravings ever discovered by archaeologists, to this day, dating from about 540,000 years ago, and which were found in a shell in Trinil, Indonesia. This archaeological object is believed to have been carved by Homo erectus, known as: Java Man. And also consider the carvings that were discovered on a bone found in Bilzingsleben, Germany, which were probably created around 370,000 years ago.

On the other hand, until a few years ago it was estimated that the first known abstract representations in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia were created around 40,000 years ago, but certain recent finds in Botswana, and the objects found in the Blombos Cave, in South Africa (during, 2008), they are from about 73,000 years ago. Therefore, based on this new archaeological information, scientists are reconsidering their calculations about the appearance of the first objects with abstract representations. And as an example of a more elaborate art are the drawings of the caves of Altamira, in Spain and Lascaux, in France; about 35,000 years ago and 25,000 years ago, respectively; As for the oldest religious temple known to date, it is found: Gobekli Tepe, located in present-day Turkey. The creation of this place of worship was probably around 11000 BC. C., about five thousand years before the beginning of the Sumerian civilization, of Mesopotamia.

Important: Because the sources of information do not always coincide in terms of the temporal estimates that they offer about the origins and events of religions (for example, some sources of information maintain that Druids came into existence around 500 BC ., but others point out that they are older than the Egyptian religion of 2500 BC; or, others maintain that the Hindu religion originated around 1500 BC, but this perspective does not take into account that the records of the roots of their existence predate the polytheistic religions of Mesopotamia of 5000 BC); therefore, it should be considered that the dates indicated on this website should serve only as a general reference.

For a detailed description of the evolution of religions in the world, it is suggested to read the following works by Mircea Eliade:

A History of Religious Ideas, Vol. 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries.

A History of Religious Ideas, Vol. 2: From Gautama Buddha to the Triumph of Christianity.

A History of Religious Ideas, Vol. 3: From Muhammad to the Age of the Reformations.