How long has this been going on?

Insane_Duck

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A couple questions.

1. How long has human civilization existed? (I assume starting with agriculture)
2. How long has organized religion been around? (I assume starting with Hinduism)

If any one could find some good sourced dates on these I would be thankful. I can't seem to find any good solid information.
 

Blayz

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Insane_Duck

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MorkandMindy

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1. Ancient History - from Wikipedia History of China

By 7000 BC, the Chinese were farming millet, giving rise to the Jiahu culture.

At Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000-5000 BC have been discovered "featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing." These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_China#cite_note-12


BUT (Wikipedia Ancient History - Prehistory) if you take controlled use of fire as the origin of technology then that goes back to around 800,000 years ago.
 
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Notedstrangeperson

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The oldest civilisations that I know of is Mesopotamia (links here and here), where the practice of farming dates back to an incredible 8000 B.C. It predates Babylon, ancient Egypt and is considered by most scholars to be the 'cradle of civilisation'.

As for religion ... well, that's harder to say. At what point in human history did we become intelligent enough to understand gods and an afterlife? Burial and cave paintings might provide and answer but it's not concrete evidence.
 
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Insane_Duck

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1. Ancient History - from Wikipedia History of China

By 7000 BC, the Chinese were farming millet, giving rise to the Jiahu culture.

At Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000-5000 BC have been discovered "featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing." These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese.


BUT (Wikipedia Ancient History - Prehistory) if you take controlled use of fire as the origin of technology then that goes back to around 800,000 years ago.
Thanks. But wouldn't that but other species of great ape as having civilization? They use technology (tools) as well.
 
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DaisyDay

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Thanks. But wouldn't that but other species of great ape as having civilization? They use technology (tools) as well.
Since this is your question, perhaps you should say what you mean by "civilization".
 
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Insane_Duck

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Since this is your question, perhaps you should say what you mean by "civilization".
Well, for the purpose of what I'm asking, I'll say agriculture.

How long has Hinduism been around in comparison to Judaism?
 
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MorkandMindy

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The oldest civilisations that I know of is Mesopotamia (links here and here), where the practice of farming dates back to an incredible 8000 B.C. It predates Babylon, ancient Egypt and is considered by most scholars to be the 'cradle of civilisation'.

As for religion ... well, that's harder to say. At what point in human history did we become intelligent enough to understand gods and an afterlife? Burial and cave paintings might provide and answer but it's not concrete evidence.


Wikipedia - Burial
The earliest undisputed human burial dates back 130,000 years.


At what point in human history did we become intelligent enough to understand gods and an afterlife?


Not sure that's ever going to happen. It is easy to elaborate on the concept of a god and a Valhalla but not easy to make one that is logically consistent. One question might be whether those in an afterlife can learn. If so then if the afterlife lasts an infinite time then the amount of information will become infinite. If not then there is no perception of passage of time and there might as well not be an afterlife.
 
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MorkandMindy

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It gets played a lot at work out of a CD/radio player way over by the wall, and it gets awfully repetitive.


To experience the agony you need to turn off the picture, be far enough away to miss the quieter bits so you just hear the refrain every time, and play it 20 times in a row


But on youtube with a picture and stereo speakers I have to say it is a whole lot better:

YouTube - ‪ACE How long 1974‬‏
 
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Insane_Duck

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It gets played a lot at work out of a CD/radio player way over by the wall, and it gets awfully repetitive.


To experience the agony you need to turn off the picture, be far enough away to miss the quieter bits so you just hear the refrain every time, and play it 20 times in a row


But on youtube with a picture and stereo speakers I have to say it is a whole lot better:

YouTube - ‪ACE How long 1974‬‏
Ah...... Sorry about that. ^_^
 
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Notedstrangeperson

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Bit of a late reply but I thought this might be interesting: the oldest sign of civilisation dates back to 11,600 years ago (9,600 B.C.) making it over a thousand years older than the earliest known civilisation, Mesopotamia. It's a religious temple in Turkey known as Göbekli Tepe. Strangely there seemed to be no other signs of civilisation - no farms, no houses, not even any graves ...
 
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