Religion is commonly defined as a group of beliefs concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, and rituals associated with such belief. It is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system." In the course of the development of religion, it has taken many forms in various cultures and individuals.
Occasionally, the word "religion" is used in the more restrictive sense of "organized religion" - that is, an organization of people supporting the exercise of some religion, often taking the form of a legal entity
Present day adherents
The following statistics show the number of adherents in all known approaches, both religious and irreligious worldwide. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism is the largest world religions today. Approximately 75% of humanity belongs to one of these 4 religions. Christianity is the religion with the largest number of professed religious adherents, followed by Islam. The third-largest group of approximately 1 billion people adheres to irreligious approaches which include Humanism, Atheism, Rationalism, and Agnosticism. Hinduism with 1 billion adherents is the third largest religion followed by 19 smaller groups of religious adherents. The figures below are necessarily approximate. They are as of 2005:
- Christianity 2.14 billion
- Islam 1.5 billion
- Secular/Irreligious/Agnostic/Atheist 1.1 billion
- Hinduism 1.02 billion
- Buddhism 376 million, discluding Chinese folk Religion
- Chinese folk law 394 million
- Primal indigenous 300 million
- African traditional and diaporic 100 million
- Sikhism 23 million
- Spitism 15 million
- Judaism 15 million
- Mormonism 12 million
- Baha'i Faith 7 million
- Jehovah's Witnesses 6.7 million
- Jainism 4.2 million
- Shinto 4 million
- Cao Dai 4 million
- Zoroastrianism 2.6 million
- Tenrikyo 2 million
- Neopaganism 1 million
- Unitarian Universalism 800,000
- Rastafari movement 600,000
- Scientology 500,000
In its Yoga stream, Hinduism is even more widespread all over the world with 20 million practitioners in the United States and there are more than 100 million who practice Hinduism in Yoga form worldwide. After including them, Hinduism has around 1.1 billion followers worldwide.
It should also be noted that many consider Mormonism to be a distinct denomination of Christianity because of their fundamental belief in Jesus Christ. However, it has been deemed appropriate to list Mormonism as a separate religion for practical purposes.
Shinto is a special case due to shrine-reporting versus self-reporting. Since the 17th century, there have been laws in Japan requiring registration with Shinto shrines. Because of this, 75-90% of all Japanese are listed on shrine rolls, greatly inflating the apparent number of adherents. When asked in polls, only about 3.3% of Japanese people identify themselves as "Shinto." However, many who do not consider themselves "Shintoists" still practice Shinto rituals.
In ranking religious denominations, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest single denomination within Christianity, Sunni Islam within Islam, and Vaishnavism within Hinduism. It is difficult to say whether there are more Roman Catholics or Sunnis, as the numbers are roughly equal, and exact counts are impossible.
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion centered on Jesus of Nazareth, whom Christians call Jesus Christ, and the New Testament accounts of his life and teachings. With an estimated 2.1 billion adherents in 2006, Christianity is the world's largest religion.
Christianity began as a Jewish sect. Christians call the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament. Like Judaism and Islam, Christianity is an Abrahamic religion.
In the Christian scriptures, the term "Christian" is first attested in Acts 11:26: "And in Antioch Jesus' disciples were first called Christians" (Gr. χριστιανους, from Christ Gr. Χριστός, which means "the anointed one").
Islam
Islam (Arabic: الإسلام; al-islām) is a monotheistic religion based on the Qur'an. Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam is an Abrahamic faith. With 1.5 billion adherents, it is the world's second largest religion. Followers of Islam are known as Muslims. Muslims believe that God (Arabic Allah) revealed his word to humanity through many earlier prophets, and that Muhammad was the final prophet.
Hinduism
Hinduism (Sanskrit/Hindi, Hindū Dharma-, also known as Sanātana Dharma , and Vaidika Dharma ) is a religion originating in the Indian subcontinent, based on the Vedas, and one of the oldest religious traditions still practiced today. The term Hinduism is heterogeneous, as Hinduism consists of several schools of thought. It encompasses many religious rituals that widely vary in practice, as well as many diverse sects and philosophies. Many Hindus venerate an array of deities, and consider them as manifestations of the one Supreme monistic Cosmic Spirit Brahman while others focus on a singular concept of God, such as in Vaishnavism and Saivism. Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world with approximately 970 million adherents (2005 figure), approximately 900 million of whom live in India. The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal is the only nation in the world with Hinduism as its state religion.
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the Budda, Siddhartha Gautama, who lived in the 5th Century BCE. Buddhism spread throughout the ancient Indian sub-continent in the five centuries following his death, and propagated into Central, Southeast, and East Asia over the next two millennia. Today, Buddhism is divided primarily into three traditions, Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Buddhism continues to attract followers worldwide, and, with around 376 million followers, it is considered a major world religion.
A Buddha is considered to be a person who discovers the true nature of reality through years of study, investigation of the various religious practices of his time, and meditation. This discovery is called enlightenment. This name applies to any person who has become awakened to or enlightened by the principles of Buddhism. Gautama Siddhartha was only one of many persons who could be called buddhas. According to the Buddha, any person can follow his example and become enlightened through the study of his words, and by leading a virtuous, moral life. In general, the aim of Buddhist practice is to end all kinds of suffering in life. To achieve this state, adherents seek to purify and train the mind by following the Noble Eightfold Path, and eventually to gain true knowledge of reality and thus attain liberation (Nirvana).
