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allenlondon@ Well as accurately as history can tell us, the Buddha had been a prince who was appalled by the suffering and deplorable conditions he found surrounding him in a society dominated by Hinduism. Buddhism was the result of his search for a solution to life’s agonizing problems. Similarly, Muhammad was highly disturbed by the idolatry and immorality he saw in the religious practices around him. He later claimed to have received special revelations from God, which formed the Quran and became the basis of a new religious movement, Islam.
Protestantism grew out of Catholicism as a result of the Reformation that began in the early 16th century, when Martin Luther protested the sale of indulgences by the Catholic church at that time.
Thus, as far as the religions now in existence are concerned, there is no lack of information regarding their origin and development, their founders, their sacred writings, and so on. But what about the religions that existed before them? And the ones even before those? If we go back far enough in history, we will sooner or later be confronted with the question: How did religion begin? Clearly, to find the answer to that question, we must look beyond the confines of the individual religions.