"world's religions" being "the big 3", or is it also inclusive of things like Buddhism, Hinduism, Native americans, etc?

I'll have to watch. :-)

I'd say many religious beliefs (ancient and modern) have roots in ancient Sun worship. For instance, the Aztecs of Mexico sacrificied humans to "feed" the sun, and for the sun to keep coming after darkness. Compare them to the ancient Babylonian sun worship of Tammuz. Nimrod (the supposed grandson of Noah) founded Babylon, and after dying his wife Semiramis deitified him as the Sun God, she later had a baby that she said was Nimrod coming to life again. Then, there were many Sun God related worshiping, and many other cultures had this too.

There's not enough evidence that supports that there was originally one first civilization with first beliefs and views. Though, I think there existed a very similar and influencial type of thinking within Ancient India, Near East, Egypt, Hellas, etc. However, the problem is that each civilization had their own way of interpreting it because many of these "ideas" were not passed down, but somewhat mentioned within each culture. For instance, Atlantis was first mentioned by Plato, but there were other cultures who believed that there was a first civilization that got destroyed because they were self-conscious.

Now going back to the Aztecs, how could there be such similiar ideas about the sun? Could it be that humans think very similar? I agree with that. However, I also believe that civilizations in the Americas came from the old world. Thus, this idea could've been brought from other cultures. Additionally, their city, Tenochtitlan, was set inside of a circular canal of water, just how Plato described Atlantis. Could it be a coincidence?

George Carlin is a sun worshipper:

nogod.tribe.net/thread/cb2...04bf7b2d855

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Funny stuff.

Religion (really ancient or otherwise) is rooted in understanding the unknown, or even unknowable. This means that things like the sky and earth, the sun and moon, the oceans and mountains all have a religious aspect to humans (esp. early humans). A good read is almost anything by Marcia Eliade, but _The Sacred and The Profane_ will get to your question.

By-the-by...for the Greeks the primary Gods/Goddesses were always Sky and Earth: Uranus/Gaea, Chronos/Gaea, Zeus...Zeus is not a sun god, Apollo would be closer to that (but more so with the Romans, where he does tend to out strip Jupiter--sky--in worship, but perhaps not in rank).

Guthery makes a very good point about understanding early religion. God is often predicated of things rather than things predicated of God. So where we say "God is Love" the Greeks would say "Love is a God". Why, because it gives us/them some way of dealing with things sublime and out of our control (life, death and the like).

Moreover, we see in things like Bacchus cults a diversity of worship. It's not fair to say that the Bacchates felt like the sun was primary to their devotion or that thier religion was rooted in the sun god. Although, by divine lineage, Bacchas can no doubt be traced to a sky god. Still, the point is that the worship is not "rooted" in Sun Worship.

So, in short the answer to your question is No.

Vale!

in any event, the basic idea that all of the worlds religions are "rooted" in any one symbol is absurd.

well to me the sun is a light in turn that light however anyone interpets it is a source of life we would all die without it .the sun is good ,if not god himself .

Nope!

As was pointed out, Apollo the sun god was a lesser diety and the son of Zeus and his sister, Hera.

In the raven stories, the sun wasn't even a god. Instead, it was an object stolen by powerful beings and raven had to use its sorcery to steal the sun back and return it to the sky.

In Christianity, the sun isn't even a consideration as a thing of veneration. Instead, the triad of God's three aspects, the father, the son and the holy ghost, symbolize the mind, the body and the spirit while creating a multifaceted godhead.

Bhuddism is focused on the teachings of Bhudda, who was a holy man who became a deity. The worship of Bhudda has nothing to do with the worship of the sun, but rather with becoming the embodiment of the teachings of Bhudda. Which is why the addage about killing Bhudda if you see him on the road exists. The idea being that Bhudda must exist within one's spirit and not as an autonomous manifestation. The Bhudda on the road is a false Bhudda, a trick.

The examples of religions without sun worship, or the sun as a primary diety are countless.

Mithras as a sun deity was the product of a warrior cult religion. There were other major deities which coexisted with Mithras and it was customary to give those other deities their due as was given to Mithras. Ancient religions weren't big on exclusivity when it came to deities except on an individual level where a person might dedicate themselves to the worship and service of a particular deity.

Perhaps the largest festival of Sun worship is still celebrated in India (in the province of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh) in the month of October-November every year. Called Chhath, in this festival millions of devotees offer their prayers to the setting and rising Sun.