What are the chief aspects of the primal religions?

Answer 1

There are three main religions around the world: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.

Christianity: Christianity has hundreds of known denominations, and they all believe different things. Something they can all agree on is that there is an omniscient and all-powerful god named "God" who had a son called Jesus Christ. Catholicism --the largest denomination of Christianity-- dictates that Jesus was actually a manifestation of God himself, and while he walked the Earth from 0 AD to 33 AD, his supernatural activities were recorded and compiled into the New Testament of the Holy Bible. He conveyed his code of morals and ethics through parables, which allow for their messages to survive for generations, but also make them open to interpretation. The most general guidelines reside in the Ten Commandments: don't kill, don't steal, keep the Sabbath Day holy, don't use God's name in vain, don't commit adultery, don't lie, honor your parents, and don't be jealous. People who follow the commandments go to Heaven for all eternity when they die, and people who disobey go to Hell for all eternity when they die. Hell is generally defined as the absence of God, whereas Heaven is merely being in His presence.


Judaism: The Bible is composed of two sections called --you guessed it-- the New and Old Testaments. The Christians believe in both, but the Jews only recognize the Old. They don't call it the Old Testament, thought. They call it the Torah. The Torah contains tales of the prophets like Elijah, Moses, etcetera, etcetera. Basically, the Jews believe that there is a God, but Jesus was not his son. He was only a prophet, and when the actual Messiah (savior) does come, the world will end, everyone will be judged, and good and bad people will go to Heaven and Hell, respectively.


Islam: Muhammad founded Islam, and he dictated the Five Pillars of Islam. These are the shahadah, the Salah, the Zakat, the Sawm, the Hajj. The shahadah is the basic creed of Islam, the basic prayer that dictates their beliefs: "I testify that there is none worthy of worship except God and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of God." The Salah is the requirement for praying toward Mecca five times a day, the Zakat is the practice of giving to the poor, and the Sawm is the mandatory fasting during the religious season of Ramadan. The Hajj, possibly the most well-known Pillar, is the pilgrimage that every Muslim must make to Mecca before he or she dies.

Answer 2

Primal religions typically involve animism (belief in spirits in nature), ancestor worship, rituals centered around the natural world, and a close connection to the land and community. These religions often focus on oral traditions, rituals of healing and protection, and a cyclical view of time.