Is This List Of Religious Origins Accurate?
I read it somewhere on here the other day and saved it. It looks good to me but I can’t help but think some people will disagree with some of it.
Tracing roots of religious groups—
Who Founded Your Religion??
By, ANN LANDERS
Monday, November 11, 1996 —Sacramento Bee:The Scene
————————————–…
If you are a member of the Jewish faith, your religion was founded by Abraham about 4,000 years ago.
If you are Hindu, your religion developed in India around 1500 B.C.
If you are a Buddhist, your religion split from Hinduism and was founded by Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama of India, about 500 B.C.
If you are Roman Catholic, Jesus Christ began your religion in the year 33.
If you are Islamic, Mohammed started your religion in what is now Saudi Arabia around 600 A.D.
If you are Eastern Orthodox, your sect separated from Roman Catholicism around the year 1000.
If you are a Lutheran, your religion was founded by Martin Luther, an ex-monk in the Catholic Church, in 1517.
If you belong to the Church of England (Anglican), your religion was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1534
because the pope would not grant him a divorce with the right to remarry.
If you are a Presbyterian, your religion was founded when John Knox brought the teachings of John Calvin to Scotland in
the year 1560.
If you are Unitarian, your religion group developed in Europe in the 1500s.
If you are a Congregationalist, your religion branched off from Puritanism in the early 1600s in England.
If you are a Baptist, you owe the tenets of your religion to John Smyth, who launched it in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1807.
If you are a Methodist, your religion was founded by John and Charles Wesley in England in 1744.
If you are an Episcopalian, your religion was brought over from England to the American colonies and formed a separate religion founded by Samuel Seabury in 1789.
If you are a Mormon (Latter-day Saints), Joseph Smith started your church in Palmyra, N.Y., not Salt Lake City, which would have been my guess. The year was 1830.
If you worship with the Salvation Army (yes, it’s a religious group, not just an organization that collects money in kettles
on Christmas and serves dinners to the homeless), your sect began with William Booth in London in 1865.
If you are a Christian Scientist, you look to 1879 as the year your religion was founded by Mary Baker Eddy.
If you are a Jehovah’s Witness, your religion was founded by Charles Taze Russell in Pennsylvania in the 1870s.
If you are Pentecostal, your religion was started in the United States in 1901.
If you are an agnostic, you profess an uncertainty or a skepticism about the existence of God or a higher being.
sarahlau on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 12:30 am
Looks pretty good.
For those that are commenting on the Baptists origins, what many of you are thinking of is the Anabaptist movement, which is nothing like the Baptist church. Mennonites and Amish, etc., owe their origins to the Anabaptists.
Kevin S on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 12:54 am
Looks good to me too, but many will look at who founded the Roman Catholic Church and completely disagree, although It is the truth, but better known then, as the Universal Church.
usafbrat on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 1:13 am
Good to know. If you’re Wiccan, your religion was started in the UK in th 1940’s, but people will insist that it started a zillion years ago because people don’t know the difference between continuing religions and reconstructed ones.
Ignore the Catholic haters. Anyone but them is going to hell, blah, blah, blah.
Religious Does Not = Christian! on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 2:09 am
There’s a table of some dates in the first reference.
The second reference has a huge list of religions and dates can be gotten by clicking each one.
duke_of_ on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 2:59 am
Oh my gosh! It’s from my hometown newspaper!
But, yeah, I agree with above ^^.
Jews, for example, wouldn’t say that Abraham started the faith. G-d did, with his covenant to Abraham.
“If you are Islamic”? How about if you’re Muslim.
And they left off atheists, for some reason.
Silly Salamander on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 3:03 am
It’s kind of right but the Catholic church as what was recognized by us was started some time in the fourth century in Rome… You could say Emperor Nero partially endorsing the church is what got it started. He wasn’t a christian – his mother was and he gave the early church resources and attention at the request of his mother.
but some of the various religious scandals need to be detailed. Most offshoots of christianity are the result of conflict and scandals:http://www.freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Rel…
slice314 on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 3:51 am
This is simplistic and not completely accurate.
Baptists came about in Germany and in the United States. The Unitarians separated from the Congregationalists.
Skeptic on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 4:08 am
It’s not completely accurate. Jesus Christ did not start the Catholic Church.
Then why don’t they follow his commandments?
Not anti Catholic at all. I just know that Jesus Christ started Christianity, not the Catholic Church.
star on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 4:17 am
You are totally wrong on Catholicism which began with Constantine in about 325 AD. Jesus started Christianity, definitely not Catholicism.
oldguy63 on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 4:18 am
Not really. It is, at best, grossly over-simplistic.
Judaism, for instance, may have origins that go back around 3000 years (or even further), but anything recognisable as what we now call Judaism only emerged out of Canaanite religion much later, probably in the exilic period.
The origins of Hinduism (a complex web of popular Indian traditions) stretch over a very long period of time. The oldest traditions are about 3500 years old, but Hinduism – like Judaism – formed gradually, and over a long period of time.
The split between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches may only have been formalised in the 11th century, but it stretches back much further – at least to the writings of St Augustine in the West, and the Greek Fathers in the East. In reality, the two Churches were separate even before the Roman Empire split in half, and it could be argued that the split goes back to the early Church, when St Paul preached to the Romans in the west, and the Church of Jerusalem looked east.
The Church of England may have cast off the authority of Rome in 1536, but it could be argued, too, that its authority goes back to the foundation of the Ecclesia Anglicana by St Augustine of Canterbury in 597AD. Also, Episcopalians ARE Anglicans – no need to separate them out.
Islam looks upon itself as the faith of Abraham and Moses, and indeed it has much continuity with Judaism and Christianity, so it is perhaps unsatisfactory to simply say that it was founded in the 620s.
And so on.
Cake or Death? on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 4:50 am
Historically accurate but many will argue.
Catty on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 5:24 am
you are incorrect on the baptist
annabaptist were here long before John Smyth.
your information is not correct
God's servant on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 5:25 am
I would say that Christianity as we know it began with Saul/Paul some time much later than 33AD, or with the Council of Nicea.
Rev. Neil
Neil5624 on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 6:11 am
You left out all Indigenous religions–Native American African. Australian Aboriginal …and so on
pappy12a on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 7:01 am
It’s what my secular history books say.
Darth Eowyn on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 7:39 am
Hmm, don’t see any form of paganism on there.
Cheryl E on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 7:51 am
Ok, if you say this list is accurate, I’ll accept that. So, is there a point to your question?
Jimbo on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 8:15 am
Your accurate on most of the ones that I know about.
Catholics are the one’s who claim that Christ founded their church. Many Christians would argue that Constantine founded it and then proceeded to “back date” it or claim roots that weren’t really his to claim.
So, this one is very much subject to interpretation. It’s probably reasonable to state two different opinions on the matter.
Ender on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 9:13 am
I don’t know that much about Non-Catholic Abrahamic religions so I can’t comment on your Protestant time line, but you are mistaken about the Catholics being the first Church. The word doesn’t even appear in the Historical record until around 106 AD in a letter from Ignatius of Antioch and referred to those groups who believed that Jesus existed as a material being who suffering and death were real rather than as being of pure spirit whose suffering and death were merely symbolic, Ignatius considered the second groups heretics. By that time the Coptic Church was already established and independent of Bishops centered in Rome and elsewhere. What people fail to consider in examining the history of the Christian Churches is the human element involved. Missionaries had to adapt their message to the cultures in which they found themselves and elements of those cultures inevitably became intertwined with the faith, Christmas Trees and the Easter Bunny being classic examples. This has resulted in a living and evolving faith with it’s core message constantly being re-expressed for new audiences because a Church, like any other political/economic organization, which stops growing and expanding starts to whither and decay. The Vatican was once the closest thing to a world government that has ever existed, but because they thought that couldn’t change they made no efforts to ensure that it didn’t change and their day passed, just as did the Empires of Rome, of Spain, of France, and of Great Britain, adapt or die is the way of the world, people need to understand that.
That said, I would propose that the dates you give are not so much founding dates for New Religions but simply the dates when new interpretations of Old Religions were offered and found their audience.
rich k on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 9:52 am
We know that the Jewish culture and religion did not appear until around 1300, it is also arguable that the religion that they follow did not develop until the sixth century BCE. Prior to this time, they also worshiped a goddess/consort.
The start of Christianity is debatable, at a minimum it would have started 4 to 7 years earlier. Additionally, there we several “sects” of it originally with varying believes and probably did not coalesce into a unified belief until well into the second century.
Pirate AM™ on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 10:12 am
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (“Mormon Church” is only a familiar nickname) was restored to the earth by Jesus Christ through His chosen prophet, Joseph Smith. So from an Ann Landers limited point of view, maybe it was Joseph, but in reality it was Jesus Christ Himself. This is the same church you find in the New Testament, having Christ’s authority and continuing revelation, restored to prepare all mankind for the Second Coming of Christ.
Please check out http://www.mormon.org and http://www.LDS.org for more information.
Michael V on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 10:46 am
I’m sorry, but however hard you’d like to believe that Roman Catholicism started in 33 AD, it is not true. The church did not become Roman until at least 300 AD, and was not called catholic until after the Council of Nicea, This is from the Nicean Creed (we believe in one holy catholic church) which was about the FIRST time that all the various sects were drawn together under one authority.
Kryten on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 11:39 am
Mostly accurate, but Christianity was not founded by Jesus Christ, but by Paul, the renegade Jew who invented the Christian Messiah. Jesus of Nazareth NEVER came to found any religion, let alone a heretical Jewish sect.
egyphile on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 12:09 pm
What an excellent list! I really didn’t know the dates and locations of most of those sects. Great info! Thanks.
Garen on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 12:41 pm
Jesus isnt Catholic. And no, Pentecostal’s religion is the only religion that can be traced back to the New Testament of the Bible. Because we Pentecostal’s baptize in the name of Jesus Christ who is 1 God, which is traced back to what John the Baptist did.
I'm The Banana King! on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 12:58 pm
“If you are Eastern Orthodox, your sect separated from Roman Catholicism around the year 1000.”
false
Orthodox was the original church
Viva La Resistance (Honor&Glory) on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 1:43 pm
No.
The Pentecostal Church started in the upper room in the book of Acts.
And no amount of thumbs down will change this Biblical fact.
The Pastor Soleil on Thu, 26th Nov 2009 2:02 pm
There was no Catholic Church in 33AD. The word “Catholic” came about many years later and its first known use was more like around 100 AD. You can disagree with me all you want. I wouldn’t expect anything different from you anyhow.
>>Has nothing to do with “permission”. I know a schmuck when I see one.