Religion
A religion is a system of beliefs that asserts the existence of at least one of:
- a human soul or spirit,
- a deity or "higher being", or
- the continuation of the self after the death of one's body.
As an uncountable noun, religion is a "way of living" or the set of customs or rituals that follows from such beliefs.
It is notoriously difficult to define what does and does not constitute a religion, due to the sheer variety of human religious beliefs and practices. Taoism and Confucianism, for instance, are sometimes described as philosophies rather than religions.
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Classification
Many religions are subdivided into sects or denominations, resulting in a huge number of labels for the religious to choose from. The major world religions are typically, however, divided into three large groups:
- Abrahamic religions
- including Judaism, Chistianity, Islam
- Dharmic religions
- including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and sometimes Zoroastrianism (historical precursors of Dharmic religion can be found in Vedic religion)
- Taoic religions
- including Taoism, Confucianism, Jeung San Do, Shinto, Yiguandao, Chondogyo, Chen Tao, Caodaism
Major approaches to religion
- Agnosticism
- Atheism
- Deism
- Dystheism
- Henotheism
- Monism
- Monotheism
- Natural theology
- Nontheism
- Pandeism
- Panendeism
- Panentheism
- Pantheism
- Polytheism
- Theism
- Theology
- Transtheism
Belief systems
(this list will be pared down and merged with the previous one, as necessary...)
- Agnosticism
- Animism
- Antitheism
- Atheism
- Binitarianism
- Deism
- Determinism
- Duotheism
- Dystheism
- Esotericism
- Gnosticism
- Henotheism
- Humanism
- Ignosticism
- Kathenotheism
- Monism
- Monotheism
- Monolatrism
- Mysticism
- New Age
- Nondualism
- Nontheism
- Omnitheism
- Pandeism
- Panendeism
- Panentheism
- Pantheism
- Polydeism
- Polytheism
- Spiritualism
- Theism
- Thelema
- Theopanism
- Theosophy
- Transcendentalism
- Transtheism
Largest world religions
The religious traditions with the most adherents around the world (according to 2005 data) are:
- Christianity (2.1 billion)
- Islam (1.3 billion)
- Non-religious, including secularism, atheism, agnosticism and nontheism (1.1 billion)
- Hinduism (900 million)
- Chinese folk religion (394 million)
- Buddhism (376 million)
- Primal indigenous or "pagan" (300 million)
- African traditional and diasporic (100 million)
- Sikhism (23 million)
- Juche (19 million)
- Spiritism (15 million)
- Judaism (14 million)
- Bahá'í Faith (7 million)
- Jehovah's Witnesses (6.5 million)
- Jainism (4.2 million)
- Shinto {4 million)
- Cao Dai (4 million)
- Zoroastrianism (2.6 million)
- Tenrikyo (2 million)
- Neo-Paganism (1 million)
- Unitarian Universalism (800,000)
- Rastafari movement (600,000)
External links
- adherents.com - This site attempts to track numbers of members of different religions, both in the US and abroad.
- American Religious Identification Survey
