RELIGIONS

RELIGIONS

Major Religions of the World

1.  Christianity: 2.1 billion

2.  Islam: 1.5 billion

3.  Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion

4.  Hinduism: 900 million

5.  Chinese traditional religion: 394 million

6.  Buddhism: 376 million

7.  primal-indigenous: 300 million

8.  African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million

9.  Sikhism: 23 million

10.                   Juche: 19 million

11.                   Spiritism: 15 million

12.                   Judaism: 14 million

13.                   Baha'i: 7 million

14.                   Jainism: 4.2 million

15.                   Shinto: 4 million

16.                   Cao Dai: 4 million

17.                   Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million

18.                   Tenrikyo: 2 million

19.                   Neo-Paganism: 1 million

20.                   Unitarian-Universalism: 800 thousand

21.                   Rastafarianism: 600 thousand

22.                   Scientology: 500 thousand

During the 1800s comparative religion scholars increasingly recognized Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism as the most significant "world religions." Even today, these are considered the "Big Five" and are the religions most likely to be covered in world religion books.

In Islam, the Qur'an mentions three different categories: Muslims, the People of the Book, and idol worshipers. Initially, Christians had a simple dichotomy of world beliefs: Christian civility versus foreign heresy or barbarity. In the 18th century, "heresy" was clarified to mean Judaism and Islam; along with outright paganism.

Abrahamic religions are the largest group, and these consist mainly of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Bahá'í Faith. They are named for the patriarch Abraham, and are unified by the practice of monotheism. Today, around 3.4 billion people are followers of Abrahamic religions and are spread widely around the world apart from the regions around Southeast Asia. Several Abrahamic organizations are vigorous proselytizers.

Indian religions originated in Greater India and tend to share a number of key concepts, such as dharma and karma. They are of the most influence across the Indian subcontinent, East Asia, Southeast Asia, as well as isolated parts of Russia. The main Indian religions are Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism.

Christianity

Although it does not explicitly appear in the scriptures, essentially all Christians believe and understand what is meant by the Trinity: that God has been revealed as ONE, but in THREE persons: Father, Son, and Spirit. God's existence is not contingent on this world (for instance, within the laws of time, space, etc), which was created by God from nothingness.

Modern Christianity teaches that Jesus died for our sins, and if you believe that, and accept this gift, you will be saved. Original Christianity taught that being baptized was everything, but you must "believe" for baptism to work.

All things (heaven, earth, people, animals, etc) were made by God and was made for God.

Every person has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and will be held accountable on the day of judgment, which all people would be found guilty and cast into hell. Except...

God is merciful and loves us, so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to bear the sins of His people (those who would put their faith in and believe in Him as LORD and Saviour) to suffer and die on a cross for the remission of sins.

Jesus died and was resurrected on the third day, vindicated by God, the Father. Jesus then ascended to His throne in heaven.

The greatest commandment is to love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The second greatest is to love your neighbour (all people) as you love yourself.

The only deity in Christianity today is God. However, the Nicene Creed of 325-381 CE defined God as a remote and ineffable Holy Trinity, who is God the Father, Jesus Christ (God the Son) and the Holy Ghost, one God and indivisible.

Some smaller modern Christian denominations do not believe in the Holy Trinity. The answer to this question, that would be applicable to these groups, is simply God (God the Father).

One modern Christian denomination, the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), believes in a plurality of gods, but that we only need concern ourselves with the Holy Trinity.

ISLAM

The teachings of Islam are based on Quran (Holy book of God revelation to prophet Mohamed) and Prophet Mohamed (peace be upon him) sayings and practices.

 

The basic teachings of Islam are that 1. God is One. 2. God communicates with human beings through human prophets, to some of whom He has given codified books of revelation. 3. God has created angels, intelligent beings without free will. 4. On the Day of Judgment, God will assemble everyone who has ever lived to be judges. 5. Some aspects of life are pre-ordained.

In Islam, the term "worship" covers any action that one does in accordance with the will of Allah. It can be mental, physical, spoken, or otherwise. All such actions will be rewarded.

There are five acts of worship that are so fundamental that the Prophet grouped them together as the five pillars of Islam. Every Muslim is expected to fulfil these obligations.
They are called five pillars because they are as essential in the faith of Islam as pillars essential for a building. Islamic pillars are the basis of Islamic belief. The five pillars are the extension of Islamic theology into action, that is, they make belief into praxis. Failing to fulfil them, or any one of them, intentionally and without justification, you are expelled from the Islam faith. The 'Five Pillars' of Islam are the foundation of Muslim life:

The 5 pillars of Islam are:

1: Testimony (Shahadah or Declaration of Faith)

2: Prayer

3: Payment of Zakah (specific charity) for the poor

4: Fasting the month of Ramadan

5: Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj); if affordable

Islam, in its universal sense, means submission to God, the Creator, the one and only one God. Accordingly it is, basically, the mission of all prophets including Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad (Peace be upon them). Islam per Torah revelation is called Judaism. Islam per the Bible revelation is called Christianity. Islam per Quran revelation is called the very name Islam. That is why Jewish and Christians are called in Quran 'People of the book' and not called unbelievers.

HINDUISM

Hinduism is not a founder centric religion like the others but a way of life advised by enlightened Rishis (saints). Those who lived east of the river Indus and South of the Himalayas were referred to by others as Hindus.

The purpose of Hindu way of life is to reach / realise one’s real self, the soul within by understanding one’s own mind and body. In Hindu way of life called Sanathan Dharma (righteous living), adult male and female are allowed to marry, have children and live a responsible family life to tide over the desire filled attractions / challenges in life. The children are allowed to play until they are adolescents. Thereafter they have to learn the scriptures about the universe, understand the living things in nature as siblings and understand their own body mind and the soul. Once they are adults, they can either marry to have a family life or continue the studies towards the goal of realising the true self within by the merger of mind with the soul through meditation.

Meditation requires a status of mind without thoughts due to attachment to things or persons outside and / or desires within. As this is found to be not practical for normal people, they were advised to go through family life and learn to control the mind.  During family life, the nature from which they take sustenance and parents from whom they were born are to be taken care of. Once their children are also married off, they can return to meditation. After the family life, one would be more prepared for meditation if the desires and attachments are under control.

The holy books of Hindus are ‘Ramayan’, ‘Mahabharat’ and ‘Bhagavatham’. In addition four Vedas (Rik, Yajur, Sama and Atharva) and Upanishads are available. All of them refer to the body, the mind and how to reach the invisible soul through mind. Various possibilities / situations of the human mind getting weakened or gone haywire are discussed through stories in an effort to educate the readers.

BUDDHISM

Buddha taught Four Noble Truths:

1.  Dukkha: All worldly life is unsatisfactory, disjointed, containing suffering.

2.  Samudaya: There is a cause of suffering, which is attachment or desire (tanha) rooted in ignorance.

3.  Nirodha: There is an end of suffering, which is Nirvana.

4.  Marga: There is a path that leads out of suffering, known as the Noble Eightfold Path.

Most Buddhist sects believe in karma, a cause and effect relationship between all that has been done and all that will be done. Events that occur are the direct result of previous events. One effect of karma is rebirth. At death, the karma from a given life determines the nature of the next life's existence. The goal of a Buddhist is to eliminate karma (both good and bad), end the cycle of rebirth and suffering, and attain Nirvana.

JUDAISM

This is a far more difficult question than you might expect. Judaism has no dogma, no formal set of beliefs that one must hold to be a Jew. In Judaism, actions are far more important than beliefs, although there is certainly a place for belief within Judaism.

The closest that anyone has ever come to creating a widely-accepted list of Jewish beliefs is Rambam's thirteen principles of faith. Rambam's thirteen principles of faith, which he thought were the minimum requirements of Jewish belief, are:

1.  G-d exists

2.  G-d is one and unique

3.  G-d is incorporeal

4.  G-d is eternal

5.  Prayer is to be directed to G-d alone and to no other

6.  The words of the prophets are true

7.  Moses' prophecies are true, and Moses was the greatest of the prophets

8.  The Written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and Oral Torah (teachings now contained in the Talmud and other writings) were given to Moses

9.  There will be no other Torah

10.                   G-d knows the thoughts and deeds of men

11.                   G-d will reward the good and punish the wicked

12.                   The Messiah will come

13.                   The dead will be resurrected

Unlike many other religions, Judaism does not focus much on abstract cosmological concepts. Although Jews have certainly considered the nature of G-d, man, the universe, life and the afterlife at great length (see Kabbalah and Jewish Mysticism), there is no mandated, official, definitive belief on these subjects, outside of the very general concepts discussed above.

Judaism focuses on relationships: the relationship between G-d and mankind, between G-d and the Jewish people, between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, and between human beings. The scriptures tell the story of the development of these relationships, from the time of creation, through the creation of the relationship between G-d and Abraham, to the creation of the relationship between G-d and the Jewish people, and forward. The scriptures also specify the mutual obligations created by these relationships, although various movements of Judaism disagree about the nature of these obligations. Some say they are absolute, unchanging laws from G-d (Orthodox); some say they are laws from G-d that change and evolve over time (Conservative); some say that they are guidelines that you can choose whether or not to follow (Reform, Reconstructionist).