Taoism

Streen, I agree that Taoism predates most existing philosophies. The only reason I said that Mormonism (the newest "accepted" religion I could think of...tho in retrospect I probably should have said Scientology...) was to illustrate the point that Taoism is not a religion. And, as you said, that's probably debatable, dependent on your definition of "religion"...as for me, there's no "god" or moral focus inherent to Taoism. There's no afterlife, or intention to transform people into "good" people or judge "bad" people. There are none of the traditionally accepted "markers" that define a religion as such inherent to Taoism, so I can't call it a religion. To me calling Taoism a religion would be the same as calling the Pacific ocean a "big bath tub"...similar, but oh so very different.

i prefer the term "philosophical lifestyle" to religion...religion sort of indicates a lack of flexibility, where as philosophical lifestyle has inherent flexibility since philosophy is adaptive...always changes with the aquisition of new information...just my thought

Religion/philosphy/belief system? Call it what you want, I've read it's called all those and dates back to the 4000BC. Can anyone place dates on what you've posted

if i was at home with my philosophy book i could place dates on all the religions/philosophies...though i may type it up when i get home and then post it tomorrow or so...

Thanks to the beauty and miracle of google and wikipedia...we can all place dates on everything...what dates are you interested in?

I'd like to back up the people claiming that Taoism has been a religion.

It did not start that way, but it became that way at one point. Now, some people follow it religiously, some follow it philosophically.

Sounds kinda similar to Buddhism, really, in that regard.

Rickie wrote: Religion/philosphy/belief system? Call it what you want, I've read it's called all those and dates back to the 4000BC. Can anyone place dates on what you've posted

Bump

I had a look about dates of Taoism being 4000 years old. Ancient Chinese calendars, apparently unreliably, indicated that the Yellow Emperor lived in around 4000 BC, but the date used today was calculated to by a Jesuit Martino Martini in the 17th century.

It looks like Taoism itself might go back to Huang Ti , the Yellow Emperor, who reigned China from about 2696 to 2598 BC.

Going even further, the I Ching is said to have come from Fu Xi who reigned around 2800 to 2737 BC. The I Ching is a Chinese divination system based on nature and might have represented a very early influence on Taoism.

this information is from "the roots of wisdom" fifth edition

Here’s the list of dates for religious and philosophical events

Bce = before current era, ce = current era
2680-2565 bce great pyramids built
Ca 1500 bce moses leads Hebrew exodus
Ca 1500-450 bce Vedas, earliest literature of india composed
Ca 1000 bce chavin culture in peru; olmec culture in mexico
Ca 605 bce lao tzu (founder of taoism)
Ca 600 bce Egyptian book of the dead
Ca 563 bce Siddhartha guatama (Buddha)
Ca 551 bce k’ung fu-tzu (confucious)
Ca 490 bce Protagoras
Ca 470 bce Socrates
Ca 428 bce plato
Ca 384 bce aristotle
Ca 4th century bce perictyone/ diotima of manitea
Ca 29 ce death of jesus
Ca 45 pan chao
Ca 70 romans destroy temple at Jerusalem
Ca 100-300 Buddhism spreads to china
Ca 325 council of Nicaea
Ca 327 macrina
Ca 354 Augustine of hippo
Ca 355 hypatia of Alexandria
Ca 475 fall of roman empire
Ca 529 st. benedict founds monestary at monte casino
Ca 550 buddhism enters japan
Ca 632 muhammad founds islam
Ca 870 al farabi
Ca 1033 anselm of Canterbury
Ca 1098 hildegard of bingen
Ca 1100-1500 islam spreads to eastern Europe, india, and southeast asia
Ca 1126 averroes
Ca 1225 thomas Aquinas
Ca 1347 catherine of siena
1517 martin luther begins protestant reformation
1543 copernican theory of solar system published
1588 thomas hobbes
1596 rene Descartes
1631 anne finch, viscountess Conway
1632 baruch benedict de Spinoza/john locke
1646 gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
1650 sor juana ines de la cruz
1665 isaac newton formulates law of gravity
1685 george Berkeley
1711 david hume
1712 jean-jacques rousseau
1724 immanuel kant
1751-1772 publication of French encyclopedie, grand attempt to summarize all rational knowledge
1759 mary Wollstonecraft
1748 jeremy bentham
1770 g.w.f. hegel
1775 friedrich von schelling
1776 u.s. declaration of independence
1788 arthur Schopenhauer
1789 french revolution
1806 john stuart mill
1807 harriet taylor mill
1808-1826 latin American revolutions overthrow European rule
1813 soren Kierkegaard
1815 elizabeth cady Stanton
1818 karl marx
1820 susan b. Anthony
1823 clarisse coignet
1839 charles sanders peirce
1842 william james
1844 friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
1859 john dewey/Charles Darwin publishes theory of evolution
1860 charlotte perkins gilman
1868 w.e.b. dubois
1872 bertrand Russell
1889 martin Heidegger/Ludwig Wittgenstein
1905 jean-paul Sartre/albert Einstein publishes special theory of relativity
1908 simone de Beauvoir
1921 john rawles
1925 malcolm x
1929 martin luther king jr
1938 robert nozick
1953 cornel west

"Individuals in search of the truth can benefit the most, not by grasping or striving, but by means of a patient, accepting focus on natural patterns and influences that are worthy of being emulated"

"Idiot's Guide to Taoism" by Toropov & Hanson

I'm loving this Taoism stuff!