Heh, my fault - I simplified it a little forgetting this is HN :D To answer your point - the answer is yes, and no. Ultimately it is next to impossible to be

Heh, my fault - I simplified it a little forgetting this is HN :D To answer your point - the answer is yes, and no. Ultimately it is next to impossible to be sure (assuming we can take the critical rather than the religious view of the history) when/where/how Judaism appeared. At the time pretty much every country had their own God or gods and considered them superior to the others (though, ironically, appear to have been accepting of the other gods - just considered them inferior). General thinking simply says that at that time one particular country believed in one God - they were imprisoned for the Babylonians for a long while but the religion survived very devoutly. I'm not sure what the common thinking is about why Judaism survived beyond that and grew to be so important. Then, yes, Judaism influenced or started pretty much all of the modern religions. EDIT: I find the birth of religions a fascinating subject, but I'm still churning through the birth/development of Christianity so not back to Judaism yet. All my knowledge above comes from a wonderful book called "A Little History of the World" which touches on the subject briefly.