Open Origin Religions?

[Brian37]

I didn't say it was the first religion, I said it was the first one we know about to be based on a text, rather than simply having writings about it.

Good, then stop framing it like that. You give religions the excuse they want by saying stuff like that. Just skip that part and tell the truth. There is nothing original about any religion, they all stem from surrounding and prior ideas.

Humans don't exist in a vacuum. They communicate and take ideas from each other. That is the reality.

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What about Hinduism? It's a collection of different believes and is a name given to several religions. It has no known founder and no single authority.

Here is my oversimplified attempt at describing Hinduism:
Hinduism in Bali is so much different from the Hinduism in Mauritius. For a start, they are at different ends of the Indian Ocean but it's actually a mistake to think of Hinduism as being polytheistic. Hinduism is divided into different sects and each sect has their own deity. People pick their favoruite deity to worship.

Also, Sikhism may be another. In Sikhism there are several Gurus and each seems to a built upon the teachings of the previous Gurus. That's if my memory isn't failing.

Jainism could be another. It's so old, much older than Judaism I think, that, like Hinduism, there is no record of a founder. That doesn't mean to said it wasn't founded by a single person but odds are it wasn't.

Just the other day I got called a racist for pointing out to a Hindu that his religion was man made as well. That was despite pointing out people born in India and raised there that are now flat out atheists who reject the religion of the majority. 

Religion is all the same, it is group think based on our species flawed perceptions and gap filling. Nothing bigoted about stating facts anymore than saying the earth is not flat.