# The Origins of Religions > An overview of where the world's religions came from and in what order: early burials and spirit beliefs, Göbekli Tepe, the gods of Mesopotamia and Egypt, the Vedas, Zoroaster and early Judaism, the Axial Age of the Buddha, Mahavira, Confucius and the Daoists, the spread of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, Sikhism, faith and empire, and today's religious map. Episode 00 of the Origins of Religions series. Interactive film: https://www.planetpast.com/stories/world-religions-timeline/ Publisher: PlanetPast (https://www.planetpast.com/) · Published 2026-10-13 · Religion, History ## Prologue ### The Origins of Religions *Origins of Religions · Episode 00* One globe, one timeline, every faith. Today about three in four people on Earth identify with a religion. Christians and Muslims together make up more than half of humanity, followed by Hindus and Buddhists. Every one of these traditions was born somewhere, at a particular time, among people facing particular problems. This series goes back to those beginnings. Prologue · Episode 00 of the Origins of Religions series #### The world’s faiths today - **Christians**: 28.8% ~2.3 billion - **Muslims**: 25.6% ~2.0 billion - **No religion**: 24.2% ~1.9 billion - **Hindus**: 14.9% ~1.2 billion - **Buddhists**: 4.1% ~320 million - **Jews**: 0.2% ~15 million Shares of world population in 2020. Each episode separates what historians and archaeologists can show from what each tradition teaches about its own origins. Both are told with respect. Sources: [Pew Research Center: How the global religious landscape changed from 2010 to 2020 (2025)](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/) ## Chapter I · Spirits and city gods ### Spirits, ancestors and the first temples *Chapter I · before 3500 BC* Religion is older than writing, farming and cities. Around 100,000 years ago, people in the Levant were already burying their dead with care, sometimes with red ochre and animal bones. Many archaeologists see this as an early sign of ritual. Hunter-gatherers almost everywhere believed in spirits in animals, rivers, mountains and ancestors. Many such beliefs, from Africa to Siberia to Southeast Asia, survive today. Around 9500 BC, people at Göbekli Tepe in today’s Turkey raised huge carved stone pillars, before farming had fully begun. It may be the oldest known monumental sacred site. Chapter I · Step 1 #### Spirits, ancestors and the first temples - c. 100,000 years ago Burials at Qafzeh and Skhul, Levant - c. 40,000 years ago Cave art in Europe and Southeast Asia - c. 9500 BC Göbekli Tepe Episode 01 explores these first beliefs, including belief in spirits in Southeast Asia. Sources: [Wikipedia: Qafzeh Cave (early burials)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qafzeh_Cave); [UNESCO: Göbekli Tepe](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1572/) ### Gods of the cities *Chapter I · 3500–1200 BC* Temples, priests and kings. When the first cities rose in Mesopotamia and Egypt, religion grew with them. Each city had its own god, a temple at its centre, and priests who ran its land and stores. Kings ruled in the name of the gods, or, in Egypt, as gods themselves. Writing was invented partly to keep temple accounts. In the same centuries, Vedic hymns were being composed in northern India: the oldest roots of Hinduism. Chapter I · Step 2 #### Gods of the cities - c. 3200 BC Writing in Uruk - c. 2500 BC Pyramids at Giza - c. 1500–1200 BC Rigveda composed Episode 02: the ancient gods. Episode 03: Hinduism. Sources: [Britannica: religion](https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion) ## Chapter II · The Axial Age ### One god, good and evil *Chapter II · 1200–600 BC* New ideas between empires. In Iran, the prophet Zarathustra taught of one wise god, Ahura Mazda, and a cosmic struggle between truth and the lie. Scholars date him anywhere from 1500 to 500 BC. In the small hill country of Israel and Judah, worship gradually focused on one god, Yahweh. After Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC, exiles shaped this into the Judaism of the Torah. Meanwhile in India, the Upanishads asked about the self and ultimate reality, and in Greece, the gods of Olympus were honoured in city festivals. Chapter II · Step 3 #### One god, good and evil - ?1500–500 BC Zarathustra (dates debated) - 586 BC Jerusalem destroyed; Babylonian exile - c. 800–500 BC Early Upanishads Episode 04: Zoroastrianism. Episode 05: Judaism. Sources: [Britannica: religion](https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion) ### The Axial Age *Chapter II · 600–200 BC* Great teachers, almost at the same time. Within a few centuries, across Eurasia, new teachers appeared. In India, the Buddha and Mahavira taught paths of liberation outside the Brahmin priesthood. In China, Confucius taught ethics and good government, and Daoist writers taught harmony with the Way. In Greece, philosophers questioned the gods. The philosopher Karl Jaspers called this the “Axial Age”. Historians still debate whether it was one global turning point or a coincidence of separate developments. Chapter II · Step 4 #### The Axial Age - c. 551–479 BC Confucius - 5th century BC Mahavira; the Buddha (dates debated) - c. 470–399 BC Socrates - 4th century BC Daodejing takes shape Episode 06: Buddhism and Jainism. Episode 07: Confucianism and Daoism. Sources: [Wikipedia: Axial Age](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_Age) ## Chapter III · Faiths that travel ### Faiths that travel *Chapter III · 200 BC – AD 450* Missionary religions spread along roads and seas. Buddhism travelled along the Silk Road into Central Asia and China, carried by monks and merchants. Around AD 30, in Roman Judea, the followers of Jesus of Nazareth began a new movement. Within three centuries it had spread across the Roman Empire, and in 380 it became the empire’s official religion. The old gods of Greece, Rome and Egypt slowly lost their temples. Egypt’s last temple, at Philae, closed in the 530s. Chapter III · Step 5 #### Faiths that travel - 1st c. AD Buddhism reaches China - c. AD 30 Jesus of Nazareth - 313, 380 Christianity tolerated, then official in Rome Episode 09: Christianity. Sources: [Britannica: religion](https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion) ### Islam, and Buddhism in the east *Chapter III · 450–800* A new faith from Arabia. In 610, according to Muslim tradition, Muhammad of Mecca received the first revelations of the Quran. Within a century of his death, Islam was the religion of rulers from Spain to Central Asia. In the east, Buddhism reached Korea, Japan and Tibet. In Japan, worship of the kami was organised into what came to be called Shinto. By 800, the great world religions of today were all in place except one. Chapter III · Step 6 #### Islam, and Buddhism in the east - 610 First revelations, by Muslim tradition - 622 Hijra; year 1 of the Islamic calendar - 538 or 552 Buddhism reaches Japan - 7th c. Buddhism in Tibet Episode 08: Shinto. Episode 10: Islam. Sources: [Britannica: religion](https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion) ### Shifts and newcomers *Chapter III · 800–1500* Buddhism fades in India; Islam goes by sea. Buddhism declined in India, its birthplace, as Hindu devotional movements grew and great monasteries like Nalanda were destroyed around 1200. It thrived instead in Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Tibet and East Asia. Islam spread to northern India, West Africa and, through merchants, to the Malay world and Indonesia. In Punjab, around 1499, Guru Nanak began teaching a path beyond the divisions of Hindu and Muslim: the beginning of Sikhism. Chapter III · Step 7 #### Shifts and newcomers - c. 1200 Nalanda destroyed - 13th–16th c. Islam across the Malay world - c. 1499 Guru Nanak, by Sikh tradition Episode 11: Sikhism. Episode 12: Southeast Asia. Sources: [Britannica: religion](https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion) ## Chapter IV · A global map ### Faith follows empire *Chapter IV · 1500–1900* Christianity across the oceans. European empires carried Christianity to the Americas, Africa, the Philippines and Oceania. The religions of the Aztecs and Incas were suppressed, though many of their practices survived inside local Christianity. Christianity itself split: the Protestant Reformation began in 1517. At the same time, Islam and Buddhism kept spreading through trade, teachers and conversion, without empires behind them in many places. Chapter IV · Step 8 #### Faith follows empire - 1517 Protestant Reformation - 1521, 1533 Aztec and Inca empires fall - 16th–19th c. Missions in Asia and Africa Sources: [Britannica: religion](https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion) ### Today’s map of faith *Chapter IV · 1900 → today* Growth, migration and the rise of “none”. In the twentieth century Christianity grew fastest in Africa, and Islam grew with high birth rates in Asia and Africa. Meanwhile, more and more people, especially in Europe, East Asia and North America, describe themselves as having no religion. Migration has put temples, mosques, churches and gurdwaras side by side in cities around the world. Chapter IV · Step 9 #### Today’s map of faith - **Fastest-growing large group, 2010–2020**: Muslims - **Unaffiliated**: ~1.9 billion 24.2% in 2020 Sources: [Pew Research Center: How the global religious landscape changed from 2010 to 2020 (2025)](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/) ## Epilogue ### Where to go next *Epilogue* Each tradition in depth. Religions are born from the worries and hopes of particular societies: harvests and floods, kings and empires, death, injustice and suffering. The episodes that follow go back to each beginning in turn. Start with the first beliefs, or jump to the tradition you want to understand. Epilogue #### Where to go next #### The series - **00** The Origins of Religions (overview) (this film) - **01**The First Beliefs - **02**The Ancient Gods - **03**Hinduism - **04**Zoroastrianism - **05**Judaism - **06**Buddhism and Jainism - **07**Confucianism and Daoism - **08**Shinto - **09**Christianity - **10** Islam (coming soon) - **11** Sikhism (coming soon) - **12** Spirits, Brahmins and the Buddha: Southeast Asia (coming soon) The still images on the chapter cards are AI-generated illustrations; they do not depict religious figures. Outlines are approximate and show only where a tradition was widely practised. Sources: [Pew Research Center: How the global religious landscape changed from 2010 to 2020 (2025)](https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2025/06/09/how-the-global-religious-landscape-changed-from-2010-to-2020/); [Britannica: religion](https://www.britannica.com/topic/religion)