Q&A

What’s the oldest religion in the world?

“Religion” is a slippery term. If we take it to mean an organised system of practices and beliefs, upheld by wider political structures and authorised by traditional teachings and ritual specialists (such as priests), then the oldest surviving religion might be Zoroastrianism. Early forms likely emerged among semi-nomadic groups in Central Asia in the late second millennium BC, from where Zoroastrianism spread to what is now Iran, and became the dominant religion of the Achaemenid, Parthian and Sasanian empires.

Traditionally, Zoroastrianism is said to have been founded by the priest Zarathustra (in Greek, “Zoroaster”). He