How many religions are there in the world and why are there so many of them?
According to the information publication comandir.com, religion is a set of views on the existence of Higher powers. Also, compliance with established rules, rituals and norms of behavior. Currently, there are several world religions, as well as a huge variety of movements and beliefs.
Christianity arose about 2 thousand years ago. Built on the assertion that God is Love. Also, the God-man Jesus Christ gave his life for the salvation of humanity. Thanks to his sacrifice, people received the opportunity for a new life. This religion has branches into Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism. Nowadays, there are about 2.5 billion Christian believers around the world.
Islam is considered a young religion, but the number of believers has reached 1.5 billion people around the world. The founder of Islam is the prophet Muhammad. The Koran is considered the main book of religion, where all the prescribed rules for believers are indicated.
Buddhism denies the existence of a Godhead. The founder of the religion is considered to be Siddhartha Gautama or Buddha, who lived in India. The main truths of religion are that there is suffering in everything. To get rid of it, you need to defeat desire. The number of Buddhists now reaches about 7-8% of the total population of the planet.
of Judaism is considered separately . It is considered one of the most ancient in the world. The religion is built on the 10 commandments given to Moses by the Lord. The Old Testament is considered the main book of religion.
It is known that even in ancient times there was polytheism or polytheism. Most religions were founded by people (prophets). It is believed that such a number of religions are associated with different philosophical beliefs and diversity of worldviews. Thanks to this, every person has a chance to find their own path and come to God.
Judaism
Judaism is the third and final Abrahamic religion, and probably the oldest. Jewish followers of this religion make up just 0.2% of the world's population and have a long history of persecution and discrimination, which is now known as anti-Semitism. Adherents of Judaism believe in one, all-powerful God and Moses as their prophet of the Promised Land.
The ideas of Judaism, which are contained in the Torah, are believed to have been taught to Moses, and thus the teachings were transmitted to the people. Judaism is an exclusively peaceful religion and ardently advocates nonviolence as well as the prevention of all forms of violence.
What religion do scientists consider correct?
This question has worried humanity for a long time. Every religion in the world has the right to exist. Each has its own principles and rules, but almost all of them claim that God is one. Some scholars explain the concept of the correctness of religion in its creation. For example, it is believed that Christianity was created by God, and all other religions by specific prophets.
There is a theory that the correctness of a religion depends on what value a person wants to achieve. Of course, the main value of any religion is faith. If peace and harmony of the soul is important to a believer, then Buddhism will be right for him. Believers for whom Divine love comes first will choose Christianity.
Some scientists are confident that the concept “correct” cannot be used in relation to religion. First of all, this concerns the people who profess it. Therefore, it is necessary to judge their qualities and understanding of their worldview. This can always lead to misunderstandings and conflicts.
Probably, the correctness of any religion can be judged when it is able to instill peace and joy in a person’s heart. There is a version that a religion that can harm a person, turn him against others, breaking rules and commandments cannot be considered correct.
It is probably impossible to say exactly which religion will be considered correct. Regardless of religion, every believer should have God in their soul. For this you just need unity with the world and God.
Wicca
Wicca came to the attention of the world community already in the 20th century, and now this belief is traditionally identified with “witchcraft.” Wicca was founded by retired civil servant Gerald Gardner. It is a pantheistic religion that worships a "Great Goddess" and a "Horned God" that can be found in various pantheons in various world contexts.
Wiccans, the followers of Wicca, consider their deities to be receptacles of power, and their religious practice is based on channeling that power through divine connection, such as for healing. The Wiccan precepts emphasize healing, harmony, peace, and compassion for one and all.
Jainism
Jainism deserves special attention in any and every list of peaceful religions. Having emerged in India slightly earlier than Buddhism, Jainism is also one of the oldest religions in the world. The fundamental principle of Jainism is ahimsa, or non-violence, which is why it is one of the most peaceful religions known to mankind. This ideal of non-violence is strictly followed, with monks and nuns even covering their mouths with a piece of cloth to prevent their breath and sound from harming microbacteria. One British manager is known to have said: “The more one follows Jainism, the less one needs to worry about it.”
Agnosticism
Agnosticism is a special religion, because its true beliefs are philosophical. Followers of Agnosticism are constantly searching for an answer to the question: “Is God a divine or supernatural being?” That is why it is the religion of philosophers. Its followers are always in search of God, and the roots of this religion go far into the past - around the 5th century. BC, so there are now about 640 million religious philosophers worldwide.
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Christianity
Christianity is the largest monotheistic religion in the world, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. It has more than 2.4 billion followers around the world who call themselves Christians. According to Christianity, Jesus Christ is the son of God, as well as the Savior of all mankind. The Holy Scripture of Christianity is the Bible, but despite this, Christianity is the most ancient religion of the world, which is followed by many countries - Europe, North America and Oceania, and it also quickly spread throughout India, Syria, Ethiopia and even Asia, due to which Hinduism is rapidly declining .
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The most numerous religions in Russia
As for Russia, despite the fact that according to the Constitution the country is a secular state, the majority of Russians profess Christianity, and more specifically one of its branches is Orthodoxy. There are no exact data on the number and share of believers of various religions in Russia. However, in approximate percentage terms, the share of Orthodox Christians in the country, according to various estimates, ranges from 70 to 80%. The remaining share consists of Muslims (about 10 - 15%), other religions, as well as atheists.
However, there are other popular data, the source of which is the All-Russian Representative Survey with a sample of more than 56,000 people. According to this survey, the most common religions in Russia are :
- Orthodox - 41%
- Believers without religious affiliation - 25%
- Atheists - 13%
- Muslims - 4.7%
- Christians - 4.1%
- Muslims (Sunni) - 1.7%
- Orthodox outside the Church - 1.5%
- Pagans - 1.2%
- Buddhists - 0.5%
- Old Believers - 0.5%
- Protestants - 0.5%
- Muslims (Shiites) - 0.5%
- Catholics - 0.5%
- Jews - 0.5%
- Hindus - 0.5%
- Pentecostals - 0.5%
And that’s all for today about the most widespread religions in the world! I hope you liked the article, add the site to your bookmarks and subscribe to new articles via email subscription. Success and harmony friends, see you again on the pages of the Tyulyagin project!
Taoism
Taoism is an ancient system of Chinese thought and philosophy, beliefs and practices, which was later formalized as a religion in the modern sense. Taoism is deeply philosophical in nature and seeks to explain the natural order, the balance between the constituent elements of the world and other such things. Taoism is a unique tradition; his followers believe in the concept of yin-yang, in the existence of a natural order that man should not disturb. Thus, religion stands for peace, harmony and coexistence without interfering with the normal way of life of our neighbors.
Sikhism
Sikhism, another religion native to the Indian subcontinent, arose relatively recently, more precisely in the 15th century. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak, the first of the eleven gurus, as a monotheistic religion based on the sacred text Guru Granth Sahib. Sikhism is one of the youngest faiths, but it has approximately 25 million followers worldwide, making it the fifth largest religion.
At the heart of this beautiful tradition is the message of religious harmony, love, peace, tolerance and brotherhood. The Sikh community is considered one of the most peaceful and hardworking communities in the world. Nanak himself was an extremely vocal critic of religious fundamentalism, ritual practices, inequality and the like.
Choose the only religion that connects you personally with the Living God
Let's figure out what faith is. Without pretending to be a dispassionate sage, I propose a definition accepted by the absolute majority of the world's population who consider themselves believers. They really know what they're talking about. This definition of faith is given in the New Testament, which is almost 20 centuries old:
Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the assurance of things not seen.
For example, people believe that if they do their daily work, then on a certain day they will receive an agreed payment for their work. It happens differently, but that's usually what happens. People believe that the earth rotates on its axis. We have never seen this, but we analyze the consequences of this rotation - the change of day and night, therefore we believe our school teacher. Time after time, the expected comes true (day and night), and we are convinced of the invisible (the rotation of the planet) from the consequences (actions) of this invisible.
Likewise, every person who seriously takes up the question of the existence of God cannot completely calm down without answering it in the affirmative. After all, it is natural for the soul of every person to feel the presence of God - in His creation, for example.
Albert Einstein: “The harmony of natural law reveals a Reason so superior to us that, in comparison with it, all systematic thought and action of human beings turns out to be an extremely insignificant imitation.”
The random origin of life on Earth is a fantastic theory.
About 20 logical proofs of the existence of God have been formulated, including those formulated in the works of prominent thinkers of mankind. You can easily find them online. But what about personal experience?
When asking what faith to accept, a person implies a choice of religion. What is religion? This is a Latin word, verb. Religare translates to “to reunite.” Whom does religion reunite? What did people even mean by this word? It connects the Living God and people (you and me, that is). Therefore, if we are told that faith is an amorphous, abstract and vague concept (“I believe in my heart”, “there is something, but religions are wrong”), then this is not an answer to the question, but an evasion of the answer. Faith finds its confirmation and expression in religion, the specific actions of a person to connect (by conscious and two-way contact) with the God in whom they believe.
If we choose the profession of a doctor, we study for many years, get a job in a specific hospital, enter into an employment contract and grow in our skills, constantly improving our professionalism. We do not become a “doctor at heart” by working in another specialty. If we want to make sure that the Sun rotates around its axis, we don’t particularly trust the teacher, or Nicolaus Copernicus, who by the way said:
“Who else could have placed this lamp (Sun) in a different or better position?”
— we can personally monitor changes in the night starry sky, the daytime movement of the Sun, video recordings of the earth’s surface from orbital space stations. It would be strange to say that the earth stands still simply because we do not see its round shape, or do not fall on its side from its rotation. It is also absurd to say that there is no God because we have not seen Him. After all, we see the consequences of His existence - the endless visible world, living creatures, ourselves, for some reason always looking for an answer to the question of the existence of God until we finally receive it.
So, when choosing a faith, we must choose one that truly reunites us (religare) with the God who exists, and not with the fruit of someone’s imagination. But how can you personally verify the truth of this or that religion?
Of course, you can simply study the religions of the world by re-reading (preferably in the original languages) their main religious books, and then think about who is right. This is what the world-famous American Seraphim Rose did. Studied comparative religion. They write that he personally went through literally all the Eastern teachings! He ended his life as an Orthodox Christian and monk.
But what if we personally turn to God? After all, if God answers your prayer, you will make the main decision in your life, which will determine your fate in eternity. This appeal to God, a person’s conversation with Him, is called prayer. But how to pray? There are not and cannot be any secret tactics and rituals in this matter - because then people would not be placed in equal conditions in their opportunities to turn to their Creator. It is logical to listen to how those who really know how to pray and are certainly recognized as prayerists teach how to pray.
On the holy Mount Athos - the place of the ascetic labors of the Monk Paisius the Holy Mountain.
Let us turn to the facts of miracles through prayer. Everyone knows that holy people perform miracles through prayer. Their contemporaries came (and still do) to them in huge crowds. You can’t deceive people - if no obvious miracles happen, no one will besiege the prayer book. I’ll be honest, I just haven’t heard of many obvious miracle workers outside the Orthodox Christian Church. Let us choose from them a widely known, revered saint, close to our time. Quite recently, in 1994, Elder Paisius the Svyatogorets, known throughout the planet, passed away, about whose miracles videos were made and books were written. There are a huge number of facts of miracles performed through his prayer on the Internet. The elder has already been canonized (that is, recognized as a saint). Here is one of his simple instructions in prayer:
— Father, what does prayer mean to you?
— I’m sending a signal, asking for help. I constantly ask for help from Christ, from the Mother of God, from the saints, for myself and for others. If I don't ask, I won't get it.
I remember during the civil war we were surrounded by rebels, one thousand six hundred people. There were only one hundred and eighty of us. We fortified ourselves behind the mountain. If the rebels had captured us, they would have killed everyone. I tried to install an antenna to contact the center. But nothing worked: she was shot down by fire. The captain shouts: “Throw it, come here, help carry the grenades.” Sometimes he ran to the machine guns to check how things were going there. And as soon as I left, I immediately ran to the radio. While he was giving orders, I tried to install the antenna, and then ran again to help carry boxes so that the commander would not swear. Eventually, with the help of a stick and a plow, I was able to raise the antenna and establish communication. He said only two words. And that's it, that was enough! In the morning, aviation arrived and we were rescued. Just kidding, one hundred eighty people were surrounded by one thousand six hundred and managed to get out?
It was then that I understood the great mission of a monk - to help through prayer. The worldly say: “What do monks do? Why don’t they go out into the world to help people?” It’s the same as saying to a radio operator: “Why are you fiddling with the walkie-talkie? Drop it, take the rifle and go shoot.”
Even if we establish contact with all the radio stations in the world, it will not do us any good if we do not have heavenly communication with God, ask and receive help from Him. Blessed are those who have established a connection with Heaven and, through piety, remain in communion with God.
Personally, I also faced the question of faith. I wanted to understand this issue accurately and completely - and I simply sincerely asked God. This is how I began my journey in Orthodoxy, very soon receiving absolutely all the answers to my searches and questions. Faith is not only a rational conviction, but a great personal gift from God to man, so
"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
What faith should a Russian person accept?
In Russia, the absolute majority of believers are Orthodox Christians. Another question is how sincere. It is perhaps easier for a Russian person to accept the faith of his ancestors, which is Orthodoxy. Temples have been opened in which real, effective Sacraments are performed; wonderful spiritual literature is freely available, for which in the era of the USSR one could be put behind bars - from the Holy Scriptures to evidence of miracles through prayer. In addition, the soul of a Russian person is greatly ennobled by generations of pious Christians and the prayers of heavenly patrons.
Many Russian people have the grace of Baptism, which is effective, even if it was not realized. All of the above is addressed to people who are seeking, but are far from the true faith. For a Russian person, the field of spiritual search is usually clear, but people really begin to “move”, as a rule, when a severe shock happens to them - mortal danger, illness, death of a loved one. People give up their free speculations about the dark philosophies of the East and other nonsense, and run to the Church. Here they receive real help, grow spiritually, and are saved if they themselves want it.
Buddhism
It can be argued that among the world's most monumental and most multifaceted religious traditions, Buddhism is best known for its peacefulness. The image of a peaceful Buddhist monk is rightfully traditional. Since its introduction to the subcontinent centuries ago, Buddhism has always stood for peace, justice and a sense of brotherhood. He professed these ideas in different countries, even on different continents, and this teaching still enjoys enormous support today.
Followers of this tradition and even representatives of other teachings respect Buddhism for its rational and scientific philosophy, its inspiring ideal of nirvana, the inner peace and harmony with the universe that Buddhism hopes to impart to everyone.
Shamanism in Korea (10 million followers)
Korean shamanism, or Musok in Korean, is a religion closely related to traditional Korean culture and history. In recent years, shamanism has experienced a revival in South Korea. Even within the totalitarian regime of North Korea, it has been estimated that about 16% of the population continues to live by the beliefs of shamanism. Among the key components of the religion are the existence of ghosts, spirits, and gods, and they are believed to reside in the spirit world. Spiritual leaders in Korean shamanism, known as "Mudangs", are typically women whose function is to serve as intermediaries between the gods and humans.
Hinduism (1.05 billion followers)
Hinduism is one of the Indian religions, which is considered a collection of religious traditions and schools of philosophy that originated in Southeast Asia, mainly in India. The majority of people living in South Asian countries such as India, Nepal and Indonesia adhere to Hinduism. In India alone, about 80% of the population identifies as Hindu. Although not much is known about the birth of Hinduism, the faith began about 4,000 years ago. Due to its status as an ancient belief system, Hinduism is deeply rooted in Indian society. In recent years, many of the practices of Hinduism have become increasingly popular in the West.
Atheism
Atheism in the true sense is the faith of people who have no belief. In a broader sense, this religion consists of the rejection of belief in the existence of gods, spirits, an afterlife, otherworldly forces, etc. Atheism is based on the belief in the self-sufficiency of the natural world and not in the supernatural origin of all religions.
According to statistics, this religion is growing every year. We can talk about the emergence of Atheism as its homeland in America, however, in 2015, more than 61% of the followers of this religion are from China. For the first time, this religion was recognized in the 16th century in France and today has more than 150 million followers around the world.
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