Religion

Fishers of Men by Adriaen van de Venne, 1614

Religion comprises a number of different sets of beliefs, values, and practices relating to ethics, metaphysics, and the divine.

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Since the 19th century, it has been widely assumed that the spread of industrialized society would spell the end of religion. Marx, Freud and Weber—along with innumerable anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and psychologists influenced by their work—expected religious belief to wither in the light of modernity. It has not come to pass. Religion remains one of the most prominent features of human life in the 21st century. While most developed societies have grown predominantly secular, with the curious exception of the United States, orthodox religion is in full bloom throughout the developing world.

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Types of Definitions

Beyond the general definition given above, the word religion is generally used in three different ways.

Functional definition

Religion is any set of beliefs and practices that have the function of addressing the fundamental questions of human identity, ethics, death and the existence of the divine (if any). This broad definition encompasses all systems of belief, including those that affirm the existence of one god, and those that affirm the existence of many gods. For example:

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Religion consists of those actions, purposes, and experiences which are humanly significant. Nothing human is alien to the religious. It includes labor, art, science, philosophy, love, friendship, recreation — all that is in its degree expressive of intelligently satisfying human living.

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Formal definition

Religion is any set of beliefs which makes claims that lie beyond the realm of scientific observation, according to some authority or personal experience with the divine. This narrower definition places "religion" in contradistinction with secular humanism, atheism, objectivism, and agnosticism. (e.g. "I'm not religious — I'm an atheist.")

Organizational definition

Defines religion as the formal institutions, creeds, organizations, practices, and rules of conduct, of all major, institutionalized religions. This definition places "religion" in contradistinction to "spirituality," and therefore does not include the claims "spirituality" makes to actual contact, service, or worship of the divine. In this definition, however, religion and spirituality are not mutually exclusive: a religious person may be spiritual or unspiritual, and a spiritual person may be religious or non-religious. (e.g. "I'm not religious because I don't go to church—but I do believe in God.")

Nature of Religion

Topics addressed

Jesus Christ, oil painting by Roland Walleij.

Generally, the different religions and the non-religious all have different answers for the above concerns, and many religions provide a range of answers to each question. Religions are systems of belief which typically seek to answer questions about the following issues:

• Creation beliefs, which seek to explain the origin of the universe, the Earth, life, and humanity;
• Beliefs regarding the existence (or non-existence) and nature of Deity (or Deities) (cf. God), the divine, the sacred and the supernatural;
• Beliefs regarding human nature;
• Beliefs regarding right and wrong;
• Beliefs regarding the appropriate means and methods for relating to the divine, the sacred, other people, animals, the natural world around us, and ourselves;
• Beliefs regarding the nature of morality and ethics, including moral objectivism and moral relativism;
• Means to identify and celebrate the experience of supreme value;
• A sense of identity seeking to achieve completeness in relation to all wants and desires;
• Development of a purpose in life, and the identification of appropriate goals for life;
• An ethical framework, including a definition of activities which are "good" and "bad";
• Beliefs regarding other possible states of being like heaven, nirvana, Dharma Yukam, purgatory or hell, and how to prepare for them;
• Explanations for and understandings of the existence of evil and suffering, and the articulation of a theodicy;
• A set of values that drive human behavior.

Practices or traditions

Religious symbols of three of the "Abrahamic" monotheistic religions(Jewish, Christian, and Muslim).

Adherents of a particular religion typically gather together to celebrate holy days, to recite or chant scripture, to pray, to worship, and provide spiritual assistance to each other. However, solitary practice of prayer and meditation is often seen to be just as important, as is living out religious convictions in secular activities when in the company of people who are not necessarily adherents to that religion. This is often a function of the religion in question.

Practices based upon religious beliefs typically include:

• Prayer
• Worship
• Regular assembly with other believers
• Fasting
• Pilgrimage to a holy place / region
• A priesthood or clergy or some other religious functionary to lead and/or help the adherents of the religion
• Ceremonies and/or traditions unique to the set of beliefs
• A means of preserving adherence to the canonical beliefs and practice of that religion
• Codes for behavior in other aspects of life to ensure consistency with the set of beliefs, i.e., a moral code, like the ten yamas (restraints) of Hinduism or the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, flowing from the beliefs rather than being defined by the beliefs, with the moral code often being elevated to the status of a legal code that is enforced by followers of that religion
• Maintenance and study of scripture, or texts they hold as sacred uniquely different from other writings, and which records or is the basis of the fundamental beliefs of that religion.

World religions

World map of religions.

The following list gives the approximate number of adherents to the major world religions as of 2005. Christianity is the largest religion in the world by a substantial margin. Islam, however, is growing most quickly, largely because of high population growth in Islamic areas of the world. If present growth rates continue, Islam may become the largest world religion within decades.

1. Christianity 2.14 billion
2. Islam 1.5 billion
3. Secular/Irreligious/Agnostic/Atheist 1.1 billion
4. Hinduism 1.02 billion (see below)
5. Buddhism 376 million, not including Chinese folk religion
6. Chinese folk religion 394 million
7. Primal indigenous 300 million
8. African traditional and diasporic 100 million
9. Sikhism 23 million
10. Spiritism 15 million
11. Judaism 15 million
12. Mormonism 12 million
13. Bahá'í Faith 7 million
14. Jehovah's Witnesses 6.7 million
15. Jainism 4.2 million
16. Shinto 4 million (see below)
17. Cao Dai 4 million
18. Zoroastrianism 2.6 million
19. Tenrikyo 2 million
20. Neopaganism 1 million
21. Unitarian Universalism 800,000
22. Rastafari movement 600,000
23. Scientology 500,000

Contrasts Among Religions

Religions diverge widely with regard to the answers they provide to the questions previously listed.

Number of gods

The syllable Aum or ॐ is the primordial mantra in Vedic tradition.

Monotheistic religions assert that there is one god, distinct and separate from Nature as we understand it. Examples include Judaism, Darraghism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam, the Bahá'í Faith, and the dualistic schools of Hinduism, including the Dvaita school of Vaishnavism, and the dualist Saiva Siddhanta school of Shaivism. The more prevalent form of monotheism present in Hinduism which differs from the monotheism prevalent in Semitic religions is monistic theism .

Many Christians believe in trinitarianism, which asserts that there is one god with three persons. (The majority of Christian denominations hold this, with some exceptions, e.g. Oneness Pentecostals, Jehovah's Witnesses, Montanism, Sabellianism, Unitarian Christians.)

Henotheistic religions assert that there are many gods and/or deities of varying attributes, but one god is ultimately supreme. Examples include Zoroastrianism and Hinduism (especially Shaivism and Vaishnavism), that acknowledge angels, demons, devas, asuras, or other gods of whom the one god is greatest, as well as many animistic traditions, particularly in Africa.

Some Deists believe that there was a god at the beginning of the universe, but either that god has ceased to exist (see Second Coming for an example of this applied to Christianity), or has ceased to interact with the material world. Polytheistic religions such as Greco-Roman religion and certain aspects of Mormonism assert that there are many gods. Most Hindus, following Smartism, believe in the existence of God with multiple aspects.

Pantheistic and Panentheistic, or "natural" religions believe that god and everything in nature are aspects of a continuous spiritual plane, and are thus essentially inseparable. Pantheistic religions equate all of existence with the divine (the creator and the created are one), whereas panentheistic religions hold that the created universe is within the creator. Examples include (to various degrees): the pantheistic and panentheistic schools of Shaivism and Vaishnavism in Hinduism, Ayyavazhi, Shintoism, and some animistic traditions.

Non-theistic religions (such as Buddhism) make no claim as to the existence or non-existence of a god or gods. Atheistic religions (such as Jainism and Secular Humanism) do not believe in a god or goddess. Agnostics will often talk in terms of not knowing the number of gods, whether it be thousands, one, or zero.

Gender of gods

Some religious individuals describe their gods as being without gender, and embodying both traditionally masculine and traditionally feminine attributes. Others describe their gods as being without gender, but having many traditionally masculine or feminine characteristics. Still other religions describe gods as being tangibly masculine or feminine. Examples include traditional mythological religions.

Sources of authority

A Qur'an leaf from Spain, late 1100's

• Sacred Texts provide authority to believers who regard the text as authoritative, divinely dictated, divinely inspired, and/or inerrant. Examples include the Qur'an, the Vedas, the Akilattirattu Ammanai, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and the Bible; in a wider sense, sacred imagery, sacred music etc. also belong to this category.
• Prophets/Messengers provide authority to believers who regard the prophet/messenger as having either spectacular personal insight, or direct personal communication with the divine. Examples include Jesus, Buddha, Moses, Ayya Vaikundar, Bahá'u'lláh, and Muhammad;
• Science and Reason provide authority to non-believers who regard science and reason as providing answers to many of the fundamental questions asked and answered by religion. Examples include Secular Humanism, and some atheists;
• Tradition provides authority to believers who regard the customs of their ancestors to be particularly important and a source of Divine Truth; examples include Shamanism and some aspects of Shintoism;
• Personal experience provides authority to believers who believe they have had personal contact with a deity or deities, or some other event of particular religious significance to them.

Organizational structure

• Centralized religions develop a highly structured organization intended to develop and assure doctrinal purity, and aid believers in their efforts to live by that faith. Examples include Roman Catholicism, early Islam, and Hasidic Judaism.
• Decentralized religions develop independent of any centralizing force, and therefore demonstrate a great deal of variety with regard to belief and practice. Examples include Hinduism, the mythologies of ancient Greece and Egypt, and modern Pagan revivals such as Wicca or Ásatrú (see also Neopaganism).

Ethical focus

Behavior-based religions emphasize the importance of a believer participating in certain customs, rituals, and behaviors. Examples include Hasidic Judaism, and many animistic traditions. Spiritual Philosophy religions emphasize extensive practical teachings for achieving human happiness or equanimity in the natural world with a lesser focus on the supernatural. Examples: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. Others like Hinduism emphasize such beliefs but still do believe in a personal, supreme god which can be expressed in a variety of ways. Relationship-based religions emphasize the maintenance of a proper relationship with the divine, either by Personal Relationship (in the case of Evangelical Christianity), by obedience and submission to god's (allah's) will (in the case of Islam), or repentance and forgiveness for sin (in the case of traditional Christianity). Ideologically-based religions emphasize the achievement of some earthly ideological goal. Some, such as Communism, developed the traditionally "religious" attributes of "sacred" texts, rituals, and the near-deification of certain leaders.

It should be noted that, to one degree or another, most religions draw from all types of ethics; however, most traditionally emphasize one over the other.

Afterlife

The afterlife is a fundamental belief in Judaism. It is written explicitly in the Torah, "And the Almighty formed the man of dust from the ground, and He blew into his nostrils the SOUL of life" Genesis 2:7 . King Solomon refers to the afterlife when he says, "The dust will return to the ground as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7

Hinduism asserts that humans are continually reborn, until they reach Moksha, a state of union with god or Saguna Brahman expressed as Vishnu or Shiva or as what followers of the Advaita school believe, union with the Impersonal Absolute and that one's good or evil behavior in this life determines the course of one's next life; accordingly, Hinduism does not believe in eternal damnation as god gives us many chances through subsequent reincarnations until we reach moksha. However, many Hindus believe there is a purgatory-like state analogous to Christianity where Yama, the Hindu deva, or Lord of Death, punishes humans before they reincarnate again.

Ayyavazhi like Hinduism asserts that humans are continually reborn, until they reach Dharma Yukam, the union with god as one. There are also claims that Ayyavazhi tells about hell, in the background of some quotes from Akilattirattu Ammanai. However it accepts the ultimate oneness, particularly in Thiruvasakam - 2, and therefore indirectly contrasts with the concept of hell.

Theravada Buddhism asserts that a person's Karma is continually reborn until they attain Nirvana, and that rebirth is undesirable; Mahayana Buddhism is more in line with Hinduism with regard to certain beliefs on reincarnation. However, Buddhism's state of nirvana is not analogous to the Hindu concept of Moksha as Nirvana is a state of non-being or voidness and does not focus on the concept of a personal, supreme being that is allowed in Advaita and is mandated in the strict theistic schools such as those of Ramanuja and Madhva.

Christianity and Islam have a Heaven and Hell, and god as judge to decide our eternal fate. Beyond that common ground, however, belief varies widely within the religions. Catholicism asserts that individuals are saved by declaring faith in god, but are still subject to punishment for unrepented sin at death, which is purified in purgatory.

Traditional Protestantism asserts that individuals are saved purely by declaring their belief in the saving power of Jesus's death and resurrection. Some other Christians believe that individuals choose their own heaven or hell: if a person chooses to live in a self-created "Hell on Earth," they continue to choose that after death, and god ultimately gives them what they wish: distance from god and joy. On the other hand, people that seek "Heaven on Earth" continue to seek heaven after death, and god gives them what they desire: nearness of god, and Joy. See, for example, "The Great Divorce," by C.S. Lewis.

Under most traditional Islamic belief, god judges us on the basis of our adherence to the five pillars of Islam, including acknowledgement of god (Allah), Muhammad, and living according to god's laws of 'Justice', 'Faith', and 'Mercy', and rewards us according to our acts on earth.

The Bahá'í Faith asserts that a person's soul continues to progress in the spiritual worlds of god after death until it reaches god. The purpose of this world is for the soul to acquire spiritual qualities (or virtues) so that it is closer to god once physical death occurs.

Rastafarians believe in physical immortality. Once their God Haile Selassie calls the 'Day of Judgement' and takes them home to Africa and Zion they will live with him forever in their current physical bodies and on this current physical plane.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that until 'Armageddon', the dead are in a sleeping state, unable to hear prayers or intervene in the physical world. 144,000 "anointed" ones ascend to heaven to rule beside Jesus Christ after Satan is defeated in Armageddon, and subsequently abyssed. The dead who had not come to know Jehovah are resurrected and are gradually granted perfection on a paradise earth. After 1000 years, Satan is unsealed and allowed to tempt mankind once more. Those who sin then die forever with Satan, and Jehovah takes over rulership from Jesus.

Ethnic and universal religion compared

Religions can be of a universal or ethnic nature, although not all religions fall into either of these categories.

A universal religion is one in which participation in the religion is seen as open to people of all ethnicities, and thus not tied to any particular ethnicity. Religions of this type tend to be active in missionary activities and sometimes tend toward exclusivism because, it is believed, the beliefs of the religion in question are available and applicable to all people. However, other members of universal religions may ascribe to pluralism or inclusivism, seeing their religion as free from ethnic identity, but not necessarily the "only path." Examples of universal religions include Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

An ethnic religion is a religion that is closely related to a specific ethnic group or groups. The religion is part of the ethnic identity and the two may be considered inseparable. Often ethnic religions will not accept converts from outside the ethnic group. Members of an ethnic religion may believe themselves to be a chosen people. Generally, ethnic religions have smaller numbers of adherents, with the exception of Hinduism due to India's large population. Examples can include Druze, Hinduism, Judaism (depending on sect), Yazidi, Zoroastrianism

Approaches to relating to the beliefs of others

Adherents of particular religions deal with the differing doctrines and practices espoused by other religions in a variety of ways. All strains of thought appear in different segments of all major world religions.

Exclusivism

People with exclusivist beliefs typically explain other religions as either in error, or as corruptions or counterfeits of the true faith. Examples include:

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. John 14:6

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• The Qur'an states:

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O you who believe! Do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people. (Qur'an, Surah 5:51)

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• Judaism maintains that God said to Israel through Moses:

You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Exodus 19:4-6 (KJV)

Inclusivism

People with inclusivist beliefs recognize some truth in all faith systems, highlighting agreements and minimizing differences, but see their own faith as in some way ultimate.

Christianity

Jesus said,

He who is not against me is for me. Mark 9:40

Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Luke 12:10

The Apostle Peter wrote of God:

He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2Peter 3:9

Islam

Main Article: Islam

The Qur'an states:

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Only argue with the People of the Book in the kindest way - except in the case of those of them who do wrong - saying, 'We have faith in what has been sent down to us and what was sent down to you. Our God and your God are one and we submit to Him.' (Holy Qur'an, Surat al-'Ankabut; 29:46)

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Among the people of the Book there are some who have iman in Allah and in what has been sent down to you and what was sent down to them, and who are humble before Allah. They do not sell Allah's Signs for a paltry price. Such people will have their reward with their Lord. And Allah is swift at reckoning. (Holy Qur'an, Surat Al 'Imran; 3:199)

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...You will find the people most affectionate to those who have iman are those who say, 'We are Christians.' That is because some of them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant. (Holy Qur'an, Surat al-Ma'ida; 5:82)

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Judaism

The Talmud states: "The righteous of all peoples have a place in the World-To-Come" (Tos. to Sanhedrin 13:2, Sifra to Leviticus 19:18), and affirms that the great majority of non-Jewish humanity will be saved, due to God's overwhelming mercy (BT Sanhedrin 105a).

The Torah mentions a number of righteous gentiles, including Melchizedek who presided at offerings to God that Abraham made (Genesis 14:18 ), Job, a pagan Arab of the land of Uz who had a whole book of the Hebrew Bible devoted to him as a paragon of righteousness beloved of God (see the book of Job), and the Ninevites, the people given to cruelty and idolatry but accepted by God when they repented (see the Book of Jonah).

Rabbinic tradition asserts that the basic standard of righteousness was established in a covenant with Noah: anyone who keeps the seven commandments of this covenant is assured of salvation, no matter what their religion. This is standard Jewish teaching for the past two thousand years.

Bahá'í faith

Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith states:

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The fundamental principle enunciated by Bahá'u'lláh, the followers of His Faith firmly believe, is that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is a continuous and progressive process, that all the great religions of the world are divine in origin, that their basic principles are in complete harmony, that their aims and purposes are one and the same, that their teachings are but facets of one truth, that their functions are complementary, that they differ only in the nonessential aspects of their doctrines, and that their missions represent successive stages in the spiritual evolution of human society.

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Hinduism

A well-known Rig Vedic hymn stemming from Hinduism claims that "Truth is One, though the sages know it variously."

Krishna, incarnation or avatar of Vishnu, the supreme God in Hinduism, said in the Gita: In whatever way men identify with Me, in the same way do I carry out their desires; men pursue My path, O Arjuna, in all ways. (Gita:4:11);

Krishna said: "Whatever deity or form a devotee worships, I make his faith steady. However, their wishes are only granted by Me." (Gita: 7:21-22)

Another quote in the Gita states: "O Arjuna, even those devotees who worship other lesser deities (e.g., Devas) with faith, they also worship Me, but in an improper way because I am the Supreme Being. I alone am the enjoyer of all sacrificial services (Seva, Yajna) and Lord of the universe." (Gita: 9:23)

Pluralism

Main article: Religious pluralism

People with pluralist beliefs make no distinction between faith systems, viewing each one as valid within a particular culture. Examples include:

The Qur'an, revealed through Muhammad, states, "Those with Faith, those who are Jews, and the Christians and Sabaeans, all who have Faith in Allah and the Last Day and act rightly will have their reward with their Lord. They will feel no fear and will know no sorrow." (Qur'an, Surat al-Baqara; 2:62)

The Christian writer Paul wrote,

God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favouritism. All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themseleves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them.) Romans 2:6-15

Syncretism

Main article: Syncretism

People with syncretistic views blend the views of a variety of different religions or traditional beliefs into a unique fusion which suits their particular experience and context. Unitarian-Universalism is an example of a syncretistic faith.

Religion and Spirituality

It is common to distinguish the concept of "religion" from the concept of "spirituality."

Individuals who subscribe to this distinction see spirituality as a belief in ideas of religious significance (such as God, the Soul, or Heaven) without being bound to the bureaucratic structure and creeds of a particular organized religion. They choose the term spirituality rather than religion to describe their form of belief, perhaps reflecting a large-scale disillusionment with organized religion that is occurring in much of the Western world (see Religion in modernity), and a movement towards a more "modern" — more tolerant, and more intuitive — form of religion.

Many members of organized religion, of course, see no significant difference between the two terms, because they see spirituality at the heart of their religion, and see the church organization as a means of preserving that spirituality. Many of them associate themselves with an organized religion because they see the religious community as a means of maintaining and strengthening their faith in fellowship with other believers. They may see amorphous "spirituality" movements as "religions of convenience," in which individuals can choose whatever beliefs make them feel comfortable at the time, without being bound to any external standard of accountability.

Finally, it should be noted that many individuals, while still associating themselves with an organized religion, see a distinction between the mundane, earthly aspects of their religion and the spiritual dimension. They note that people may take part in organized religion purely for mundane reasons, for example, gaining security from such things as regular attendance at churches or temples, or the social comfort of fervently agreeing with other believers; they note that this sometimes is done without a corresponding spiritual dimension. They then conclude that such behavior is "religious" without being "spiritual." Further, some aspects of religion (for example, the Catholic Inquisition or Islamic Terrorism), are seen by many although not all as completely contrary to the teachings of the religions' founders, who many believe taught tolerance and love. In support of this belief that religions may "lose their way," many cite things such as Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees, who represented organized religion in his context.

Mahatma Gandhi who was born a Hindu wrote the following about religion in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth:

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Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty.

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He then went on to say:

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As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side.

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Gandhi was criticizing the aspects of organized religion. He also said the following about Hinduism:

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Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

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As a result, many who consider themselves deeply involved with the divine may have come to reject much of the recognised aspects of established religion, in an effort to free themselves of the mundane trappings or perceived corruption of "religion". An example of such individuals are Christian anarchists.

Religion and Mythology

Main Article: Mythology

The word "myth" has two meanings, according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

1. a person or thing having only an imaginary or unverifiable existence
2. a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon

Myth as mere story

Ancient polytheistic religions, such as those of Greece, ancient Rome, the Vikings, etc., are often studied under the heading of mythology. Religions of pre-industrial peoples, or cultures in development to industrial conditions, are similarly observed by the anthropology of religion. Mythology can be a term used pejoratively by religious and non-religious people both, by defining another person's religious stories and beliefs as mythology. Here myths are treated as fantasies, or "mere" stories.

Myth as defining and explaining belief

The term myth in sociology, however has a non-pejorative meaning, defined as stories that are important for the group and not necessarily untrue. Examples include the death and resurrection of Jesus (which, to Christians, explains the means by which they are freed from sin, as well as being ostensibly historical).

Approaches to the study of individual religions

Methods of studying religion subjectively (in relation to one's own beliefs)

These include efforts to determine the meaning and application of "sacred" texts and beliefs in the context of the student's personal worldview. This generally takes one of three forms:

• one's own — efforts by believers to ascertain the meaning of their own sacred text or other traditions, and to conform their thoughts and actions to the principles enunciated in those traditions. For most believers, this involves a lifetime process of study, analysis, and practice. Some faiths, such as Hasidic Judaism, emphasize adherence to a set of rules and rituals. Other faiths, such as Christianity, emphasize the internalization and application of a set of abstract principles, such as Love, Justice, or Faith. Some believers interpret their scriptures literally, and apply the text exactly as it is written. Other believers try to interpret scripture and other tradition through its context, to derive abstract principles which they may apply more directly to their lives and contexts.

• another's compared to one's own — efforts by believers of one belief system to describe a different belief system in terms of their own beliefs. One example of this method is in David Strauss's 1835 The Life of Jesus. Strauss's theological approach strikes from the Biblical text the descriptions of angels and miracles which, due to his presupposition that supernatural events do not occur, he does not believe could have occurred. He then concludes that the stories must have been inserted by a "supernaturalist" merely trying to make an important story more convincing. In the course of his argument, Strauss argues that the supernaturalist who inserted the angels into the story of the birth of Christ borrowed the heathen doctrine of angels from the Babylonians who had held the Jews in captivity. That is, the New Testament's fabulous role for angels "is evidently a product of the influence of the Zend religion of the Persians on the Jewish mind." Due to his presumption that supernatural events do not occur, he dismisses the possibility that both cultures came to believe in angels independently, as a result of their own experiences and context.

• another's as defined by itself — efforts by believers of one belief system to understand the heart and meaning of another faith on its own terms. This very challenging approach to understanding religion presumes that each religion is a self-consistent system whereby a set of beliefs and actions depend upon each other for coherence, and can only be understood in relation to each other. This method requires the student to investigate the philosophical, emotional, religious, and social presuppositions that adherents of another religion develop and apply in their religious life, before applying their own biases, and evaluating the other faith. For instance, an individual who personally does not believe in miracles may attempt to understand why adherents of another religion believe in miracles, and then attempt to understand how the individual's belief in miracles affects their daily life. While the individual may still himself not believe in miracles, he may begin to develop an understanding of why people of other faiths choose to believe in them.

Methods of studying religion objectively (in a scientific and religiously neutral fashion)

There are a variety of methods employed to study religion which seek to be religiously neutral. One's interpretation of these methods depends on one's approach to the relationship between religion and science, as discussed above.

Historical, archeological, and literary approaches

Include attempts to discover the sacred writings at the "dawn of humanity." For example, Max Müller in 1879 launched a project to translate the earliest sacred texts of Hinduism into English in the Sacred Books of the East. Müller's intent was to translate for the first time the "bright" as well as the "dark sides" of non-Christian religions into English.

Critics note that historical, archeological, and literary approaches are scientific insofar as they uncover the facts of ancient religions, and seek to understand and interpret those facts within their context. They assert that the approaches are unscientific, however, insofar as they make value judgments as to which parts of ancient religions are "bright" and which are "dark," because value judgments are beyond the realm of the verifiable phenomena of science.

Anthropological approaches

Includes attempts to lay out the principles of native tribes that have had little contact with modern technology as in John Lubbock's The Origin of Civilization and the Primitive Condition of Man.

The term "religion" is extremely problematic for anthropologists, and approaches to the subject are quite varied within the discipline. Some anthropologists (along with many other academics) take the view that religion, particularly in less technically complex cultures, is a form of proto-science—a primitive attempt to explain and predict phenomena in the natural world, similar to modern science but less advanced.

However, many (if not most) modern anthropologists reject this view (a form of social evolutionism) as antiquated, over-simplified, ethnically and intellectually chauvinistic, and unsupported by cross-cultural evidence. Science has very specific methods and aims, while the term "religion" encompasses a huge spectrum of practices, goals, and social functions. In addition to explaining the world (natural or otherwise), religions may also provide mechanisms for maintaining social and psychological well-being, and the foundations of moral/ethical, economic, and political reasoning.

While many early anthropologists attempted to catalogue and universalize these functions and their origins, modern researchers have tended to back away from such speculation, preferring a more holistic approach: The object of study is the meaning of religious traditions and practices for the practitioners themselves—religion in context—rather than formalized theories about religion in general.

Critics note that this approach is relativistic, informal, and primarily descriptive—possibly putting it outside the realm of science. Anthropologists themselves remain divided on the issue.

Sociological approaches

Attempts to explain the development of the ideas of morality and law, as in for example, Auguste Comte's Cours de philosophie positive hypothesizing in 1842 that people go through three stages of social evolution:

1. Obeying supernatural beings, then
2. Manipulating abstract unseen forces, and finally
3. Exploring more or less scientifically the social laws and governmental structures that work in practice.

Within a sociological approach, religion is but the earliest primitive stage of discovering what is morally right and wrong in a civilized society. It is the duty of intelligent men and women everywhere to take responsibility for shaping the society without appealing to a non-existent Divinity to discover empirically what moral concepts actually work in practice, and in the process, the shapers of society must take into account that there is no Divine authority to adjudicate between what are only the opinions of men and women. Comte wrote, in translation:

“

It can not be necessary to prove to anybody who reads this work that Ideas govern the world, or throw it into chaos; in other words, that all social mechanism rests upon Opinions. The great political and moral crisis that societies are now undergoing is shown by a rigid analysis to arise out of intellectual anarchy.

”

The intellectual anarchy includes the warring oppositions among the world's religions.

Critics note that the sociological approaches are scientific insofar as they note that the three "stages" are empirically observable, but unscientific insofar as they make the value judgment that any one is superior to another, because value judgments are beyond the realm of the verifiable phenomena of science.

Psychological approaches

The Psychology of religion involves the gathering and classification of data (usually wide ranging) and the building of the explanations of the psychological processes underlying the religious experiences and beliefs. It includes a wide variety of researches (psychoanalytical and others) : Sigmund Freud (Oedipus Complex, Illusion), Carl Jung (Universal archetypes), Erich Fromm (Desire, Need for stable frame), William James (Personal religious experience, Pragmatism), Alfred Adler (Feeling of inferiority, Perfection), Ludwig Feuerbach (Imagination, Wishes, Fear of Death), Gordon Alport (Mature religion and Immature religion), Erik Erikson (Influence on personality development), Rudolf Otto (Non-rational experience), James Leuba (Mystical experiences and drugs).

Philosophical approaches

Rationality can classify the views of the world that religions preach as in Immanuel Kant's 1788 Critique of Practical Reason. Within a philosophical approach, the reason for a religious belief should be more important than the emotional attachment to the belief. And in attempting to provide a reasonable basis for morality, Kant proposed the categorical imperative: "Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law."

Critics assert that while philosophical approaches are competent insofar as they logically systematize and compare sets of a priori fundamental values, they are incompetent insofar as they attempt to assert those a priori fundamental values.

Neuroscientific approaches

Seeks to explore the apparent similarities among religious views dominant in diverse cultures that have had little or no contact, why religion is found in almost every human group, and why humans accept counterintuitive statements in the name of religion. In neuroscience, work by scientists such as Ramachandran and his colleagues from the University of California, San Diego suggests evidence of brain circuitry in the temporal lobe associated with intense religious experiences. See also neurotheology, the scientific study of the biological basis of spiritual experience.

In sociology, Rodney Stark has looked at the social forces that have caused religions to grow and the features of religions that have been most successful. For example, Stark, who claims to be an agnostic, hypothesizes that, before Christianity became established as the state religion of Constantinople, Christianity grew rapidly because it provided a practical framework within which non-family members would provide help to other people in the community in a barter system of mutual assistance. Similarly, evolutionary psychology approaches consider the survival advantages that religion might have given to a community of hunter-gatherers, such as unifying them within a coherent social group.

Critics assert that while neuroscientific and evolutionary approaches are scientific insofar as they note the practical advantages religions provide their adherents, they are unscientific insofar as they assert that people subscribe to religions merely in order to take advantage of those advantages, and exclude the religion's purported attraction: closer experience with Truth and God.

Cognitive psychological approaches

This actually takes a completely different approach to explaining religion. Foremost among workers who take such approaches is Pascal Boyer, whose book, Religion Explained, lays out the basics of his theory, and attempts to refute several previous and more direct explanations for the phenomenon of religion. Religion is taken in its widest sense (from holy mountains to ancestral spirits to monotheistic deities). An explanation is offered for human religious behaviour without making a presumption, to the positive or the negative, about the actual subject matter of the religious beliefs. Essentially, the reasoning goes that religion is a side effect to the normal functioning of certain subconscious intuitive mental faculties which normally apply to physics (enabling prediction of the arc a football will take only seconds after its release, for example), and social networks (to keep track of other people's identity, history, loyalty, etc.), and a variety of others. For instance, the same mechanism that serves to link, without explaining, an event (e.g. rustling of tall grass) with a cause (the possible presence of a predator) will help to form or sustain a belief that two random events are linked, or that an unexplained event is linked to supernatural causes. The reasoning would imply that there is no direct causal link between the subject matter of a belief (e.g. whether the ancestors watch over us) and the fact that there is such a belief.

Critics assert that cognitive psychological approaches are unfalsifiable pseudoscience, because they assert that religious experience is a "side-effect" of another cognitive faculty without showing any actual connection between the two, and without providing any way to falsify the cognitive psychological explanation by showing the religious experience to be genuine.

For a discussion of the struggle to attain objectivity in the scientific study of religion, see Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey, who argues that some studies performed pursuant to these methods make claims beyond the realm of observable and verifiable phenomena, and are therefore neither scientific nor religiously neutral.

Development of religion

Main Article: Development of religion

There are several models for understanding how religions develop.

• Models which view religion as untrue include:
  • The "Dogma Selection Model," which holds that religions, although untrue in themselves, encode instructions useful for survival, that these ideas "mutate" periodically as they are passed on, and they spread or die out in accord with their effectiveness at improving chances for survival.
  • The "Opium of the Masses Model," in which "Religion in any shape or form is regarded as pernicious and deliberate falsehood, spread and encouraged by rulers and clerics in their own interests, since it is easier to control over the ignorant." -- Bertrand Russell Wisdom of the West
  • The "Theory of Religion Model," in which religion is viewed as arising from some psychological or moral pathology in religious leaders and believers.
• Models which view religion as progressively true include:
  • The "Baha'i Prophecy Model," which holds that God has sent a series of prophets to Earth, each of which brought teachings appropriate for his culture and context, but all originating from the same God, and therefore teaching the same essential message.
  • The "Great Awakening Model," which holds that religion proceeds along a Hegelian dialectic of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, in cycles of approximately 80 years as a result of the interaction between four archetypal generations, by which old religious beliefs (the thesis) face new challenges for which they are unprepared (the antithesis) and adapt to create new and more sophisticated beliefs (the synthesis).
  • The "A Study of History Model," which holds that prophets are given to extraordinary spiritual insight during periods of social decay and act as "surveyors of the course of secular civilization who report breaks in the road and breakdowns in the traffic, and plot a new spiritual course which will avoid those pitfalls."
• Models which view a particular religion as absolutely true include:
  • The "Jewish Model", which holds that God relates to humanity through covenents; that he established a covenant with all humanity at the time of Noah called the Noahide Laws, and that he established a covenant with Israel through the Ten Commandments.
  • The "Exclusivist Models," which hold that one particular is the "One True Religion," and all others are false, so that the development of the True Religion is tied inexorably to one prophet or holy book, and all other religions are seen as originating either in human ignorance or imagination, or a more devious influence, such as false prophets or Satan himself.

Religion in modernity

In the late 19th century and throughout most of the 20th century, the demographics of religion has changed a great deal.

Some historically Christian countries, particularly those in Europe, have experienced a significant decline in Christian religion, shown by declining recruitment for priesthoods and monasteries, fast-diminishing attendance at churches, synagogues, etc. Explanations for this effect include disillusionment with ideology following the ravages of World War II, the materialistic philosophical influence of science, Marxism and Humanism, and a reaction against the exclusivist claims and religious wars waged by many religious groups. This decline is apparently in parallel with increased prosperity and social well-being. It appears increasingly common for people to engage in far-ranging explorations, with many finding spiritual satisfaction outside of organized churches. This is a demographic group whose numbers are growing and whose future impact cannot be predicted.

In the United States, Latin America, and Sub-Saharan Africa, by contrast, studies show that Christianity is strong and growing stronger, and many believe those areas to have become the new "heart" of Christianity. Islam is currently the fastest growing religion, and is nearly universal in many states stretching from West Africa to Indonesia, and has grown in world influence in the West. Hinduism, Buddhism, and Shintoism remain nearly universal in the Far East, and have greatly influenced spirituality, particularly in the United States. Explanations for the growth of religion in these areas include disillusionment with the perceived failures of secular western ideologies to provide an ethical and moral framework. Believers point to perceived terrors such as Nazism, communism, colonialism, secular humanism, and materialism, and the havoc wreaked by such movements around the world. Particularly vehement in this regard are Islamic fundamentalists, who view Western secularism as a serious threat to morality itself. They point to perceived decadence, high rates of divorce, crime, depression, and suicide as evidence of Western social decline, which they believe is caused by the abandonment of Faith by the West.

Modern reasons for adherence to religion

Typical reasons for adherence to religion include the following:

• Experience or emotion: For many, the practice of a religion causes an emotional high that gives pleasure to them. Such emotional highs can come from the singing of traditional hymns to the trance-like states found in the practices of the Whirling Dervishes and Yoga, among others. People continue to associate with those practices that give pleasure and, in so far as it is connected with religion, join in religious organizations that provide those practices. Also, some people simply feel that their faith is true, and may not be able to explain their feelings.

• Supernatural connection: Most religions postulate a reality which include both the natural and the supernatural. Most adherents of religion consider this to be of critical importance, since it permits belief in unseen and otherwise potentially unknowable aspects of life, including hope of eternal life.

• Rational analysis: For some, adherence is based on intellectual evaluation that has led them to the conclusion that the teachings of that religion most closely describe reality. Among Christians this basis for belief is often given by those influenced by C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer, as well as some who teach young earth creationism.

• Moderation: Many religions have approaches that produce practices that place limitations on the behaviour of their adherents. This is seen by many as a positive influence, potentially protecting adherents from the destructive or even fatal excesses to which they might otherwise be susceptible. Many people from many faiths contend that their faith brings them fulfillment, peace, and joy, apart from worldly interests.

• Authority: Most religions are authoritarian in nature, and thus provide their adherents with spiritual and moral role models, who they believe can bring highly positive influences both to adherents and society in general.

• Moral framework: Most religions see early childhood education in religion and spirituality as essential to moral and spiritual formation, whereby individuals are given a proper grounding in ethics, instilling and internalizing moral discipline.

• Majesty and tradition: People can form positive views of religion based on the visible manifestations of religion, e.g., ceremonies which appear majestic and reassuringly constant, and ornate vestments.

• Community and culture: Organized religions promote a sense of community. The combination of moral and cultural common ground often results in a variety of social and support networks. Some ostensibly "religious" individuals may even have a substantially secular viewpoint, but retain adherence to religious customs and viewpoints for cultural reasons, such as continuation of traditions and family unity. Judaism, for example, has a particularly strong tradition of "secular" adherents.

• Fulfillment: Most traditional religions require sacrifice of their followers, but, in turn, the followers may gain much from their membership therein. Thus, they come away from experiences with these religions with the feeling that their needs have been filled. In fact, studies have shown that religious adherents tend to be happier and less prone to stress than non-religious people.

• Spiritual and psychological benefits: Each religion asserts that it is a means by which its adherents may come into closer contact with God, Truth, and Spiritual Power. They all promise to free adherents from spiritual bondage, and bring them into spiritual freedom. It naturally follows that a religion which frees its adherents from deception, sin, and spiritual death will have significant mental health benefits. Abraham Maslow's research after World War II showed that Holocaust survivors tended to be those who held strong religious beliefs (not necessarily temple attendance, etc), suggesting it helped people cope in extreme circumstances. Humanistic psychology went on to investigate how religious or spiritual identity may have correlations with longer lifespan and better health. The study found that humans may particularly need religious ideas to serve various emotional needs such as the need to feel loved, the need to belong to homogenous groups, the need for understandable explanations and the need for a guarantee of ultimate justice. Other factors may involve sense of purpose, sense of identity, sense of contact with the divine. See also Man's Search for Meaning, by Victor Frankl, detailing his experience with the importance of religion in surviving the Holocaust. Critics assert that the very fact that religion was the primary selector for research subjects may have introduced a bias, and that the fact that all subjects were holocaust survivors may also have had an effect. According to Larson, "more longitudinal research with better multidimensional measures will help further clarify the roles of these [religious] factors and whether they are beneficial or harmful".

• Practical benefits: Religions may sometimes provide breadth and scale for visionary inspirations in compassion, practical charity, and moral restraint. Christianity is noted for the founding of many major universities, the creation of early hospitals, the provision of food and medical supplies to the needy, and the creation of orphanages and schools, amongst other charitable acts. Many other religions (and non-religious organisations and individuals, eg: humanistic Oxfam) have also performed equivalent or similar work.

Modern reasons for rejecting religion

Typical reasons for rejection of religion include the following:

• Logical Contradiction: Many major world religions make the claim that they are the one true religion, and that all other religions are wrong (see Exclusivism). Logically, either one exclusive religion is right and all the others wrong, or else all exclusive religions are wrong. Since the vast majority of people believe in a religion they were taught before they were old enough to make a rational choice, it is more rational to reject all exclusive religions rather than to accept one for no better reason that an accident of birth.

• Guilt and Fear: Many atheists, agnostics, and others see religion as a promoter of fear and conformity, causing people to adhere to it to shake the guilt and fear of either being looked down upon by others, or some form of punishment as outlined in the religious doctrines. In this way, religion can be seen as promotional of people pushing guilt onto others, or becoming fanatical (doing things they otherwise wouldn't if they were 'free' of religion), in order to shed their own guilt and fear ultimately generated by the religion itself. The "others" in this case would be non-adherents to said religion. According to people who share this view, this can take forms such as: people looking down on others based on their non-adherence, to people preaching that others need something the religion can provide, all the way to global war.

• Irrational and unbelievable creeds: Some religions postulate a reality which may be seen as stretching credulity and logic, and even some believers may have difficulty accepting particular religious assertions about nature, the supernatural and the afterlife. Some people believe the body of evidence available to humans to be insufficient to justify certain religious beliefs. They may thus disagree with religious interpretations of ethics and human purpose, and theistic views of creation. This reason has perhaps been aggravated by the protestations of some fundamentalist Christians.

• Restrictiveness: Many religions have (or have had in the past) an approach that produces, or produced, practices that are considered by some people to be too restrictive, e.g., regulation of dress, and proscriptions on diet and activities on certain days of the week. Some feel that religion is the antithesis of prosperity, fun, enjoyment and pleasure. This causes them to reject it entirely, or to see it as only to be turned to in times of trouble.

• Self-promotion: Some individuals place themselves in positions of power and privilege through promotion of specific religious views, e.g., the Bhagwan/Osho interlude, Reverend Moon of the Unification Church (sometimes called Moonie movement), and other controversial new religious movements pejoratively called cults. Such self-promotion has tended to reduce public confidence in many things that are called "religion." Similarly, highly publicized cases of abuse by the clergy of several religions have tended to reduce public confidence in the underlying message.

• Promotion of ignorance: Many atheists, agnostics, and others see early childhood education in religion and spirituality as a form of brainwashing or social conditioning, essentially concurring with the Marxian view that "religion is the opiate of the masses", with addiction to it fostered when people are too young to choose.

• Dulling of the mind against reality: Hegel, Feuerbach, and Marx developed atheist views that reality is sometimes painful, there is no God to assist people in dealing with it, and people must learn to deal with problems themselves in order to survive. Per this view, religion in modern times, while it may decrease pain in the short run by providing hope and optimism, in the long run hinders the ability of people to deal with their problems by providing false hope. Hence in 1844, in Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's 'Philosophy of Right', Marx said of religion, "It is the opiate [most likely in the traditional sense of an opium-like drug] of the masses."

• Unsuitable moral systems in mainstream religions: Some argue that simplistic absolutism taught by some religions impairs a child's moral capacity to deal with a world of complex and varied temptations, a world which, in reality, is different from what they have been brought up to think by religion.

• Unappealing forms of practice: People can form a negative view, based upon the manifestations of religion, e.g., ceremonies which appear pointless and repetitive, arcane clothing, and exclusiveness in membership requirements.

• Detrimental effect on government: Many atheists, agnostics, and others believe that religion, because it insists that people believe certain claims "on faith" without sufficient evidence, hinders the rational/logical thought processes necessary for effective government. For example, a leader who believes that God will intervene to save humans from environmental disasters may be less likely to attempt to reduce the risk of such disasters through human action. Also, in many countries, religious organizations have tremendous political power, and in some countries can even control government almost completely. Disillusionment with forms of theocratic government, such as practiced in Iran, can lead people to question the legitimacy of any religious beliefs used to justify non-secular government.

• Detrimental effect on personal responsibility: Many atheists, agnostics, and others believe that many religions, because they state that God will intervene to help individuals who are in trouble, cause people to be less responsible for themselves. For example, a person who believes that God will intervene to save him if he gets into financial difficulties may conclude that it is unnecessary to be financially responsible himself. (Some believers, however, would consider this a misrepresentation of religion: they would say that God only helps people who take initiative themselves first.) This attitude can be taken to extremes: there are instances of believers refusing life-saving medical treatment (or even denying it to their children) because they believe that God will cure them.

• Tensions between proselytizing and secularizing: Increasingly secular beliefs have been steadily on the rise in many nations. An increasing acceptance of a secular worldview, combined with efforts to prevent "religious" beliefs from influencing society and government policy, may have led to a corresponding decline in religious belief, especially of more traditional forms.

• Cause of division and hatred: Many religions state that certain groups (particularly those that do not belong to the religion in question) are "inferior" or "sinful" and deserve contempt, persecution, and even death. For example, several verses in the Qur'an state or imply that women are inferior to men. Some Christians interpret certain verses of the Bible similarly. At the time of the War Between the States in America, many Confederates used passages from the Bible (those speaking to master-slave relations) to justify slavery. Some have used other Bible verses as a reason to persecute and to deny the civil rights of homosexuals, on the basis that God disapproves of homosexuality, and by implication homosexuals. Many people believe that those who do not share their religion will be punished for their unbelief in an afterlife. There are countless examples of people of one religion or sect using religion as an excuse to murder people with different religious beliefs. The slaughter of the Huguenots by French Catholics in the Sixteenth Century (including the Siege of La Rochelle) is one example. Hindus and Muslims killing each other when Pakistan separated from India in 1947 is another. The persecution and killing of Shiite Muslims by Sunni Muslims in Iraq (including the murder of the eleventh Shia Imam), and the murder of Catholics by Protestants and vice versa in Ireland, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that continues today, provide more examples. According to some critics of religion, these beliefs can encourage completely unnecessary conflicts and in some cases wars. Many atheists believe that, because of this, religion is incompatible with world peace, freedom, civil rights, equality, and good government.

Present day religious trends

In ranking religious coherent bodies or denominations, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest single denomination within Christianity. Sunni Islam is the major denomination within Islam, and Vaishnavism within Hinduism. In comparing between the number of Catholics and Sunnis, the number is still unclear, with most statistics stating the number of Sunnis in the world exceeding the Roman Catholics by a few thousands. There is a problem that scholars nowadays face in rating religion by number of followers. The number of professing secular/nonreligious/agnostic/atheist are 1.1 billion. But there are a lot of non-professing secular/nonreligious/agnostic/atheist population in the western world, the number increasing every year. In that case the number showed for Western religions above, such as Christianity, may be significantly less. In the eastern world, especially among Muslims, the religious beliefs are more strongly footed, with more believers professing the religion actually practising the religion. So there are significantly less non-professing secular/nonreligious/agnostic/atheist population in the east. So for the eastern religions, such as Islam, the numbers shown above hold more accurately. Scholars have come to believe that Islam may be the largest religion in consideration of the fact that Islam has the largest number of sincerely believing adherents.

The present day religious trends are dynamic. Islam is the fastest growing religion. From 1950 to 2000, the number of Muslims in the world have increased by 200%. This is partly due to increasing population in the developing world, but mostly due to high conversion rate in the U.S.A, Canada, and the rest of the western world. Most scholars say that at this rate, Islam will exceed Christianity by 2023 by number of adherents, and by 2025 world adherence of Islam will be 5% more than that of Christianity, and hence it will be the major religion of the world. Every year the rate of growth of Islam increases significantly, and recent political and social events concerning Islam have highlighted Islam significantly.

The percentage of Christian adherence has changed little from 1950 to 2000, as its growth is synchronised with the growth of world population. There has been a recent upheaval of Christian faith in the west. But generally, the number of believers and church attending Christians have decreased significantly since the late 19th century. Some scholars predict that traditional Christianity might be a very minor religion in the US by 2042, and Canada by 2023 due to immigration, rise of new and dynamic cults, and the rise of science and secularism.

There are a lot of scholars who share different outlooks of religious trends. But religion is a dynamic subject and religious beliefs are very much a matter of personal faith, and it's hard to conclude a perfect general trend in religious practice.

Creationary Religions

Judaism

Main Article: Judaism

Judaism is the world's first monotheistic worldview, and is foremost among the three great monotheistic religions, since from it came Christianity and Islam. The foundation and principles of Judaism are found in the Hebrew scriptures or the Jewish Bible, more widely known as the "old testament", which is part of the Christian Bible, along with its history. A proper name for the Bible of the Hebrews is the "Tanakh" which is an acronym for the different sections of it: the Torah, or the Instruction, the Law, the five books of Moses; the Nevi'im, the Prophets; and the Kethuvim, the Writings. The most revered section is the Torah, which is the foundation for the rest.

Christianity

Main Article: Christianity

A Christian is someone who follows the precepts of Jesus Christ. The name "Christ" is derived from the Greek noun Χριστός Khristós which means "anointed one," which is itself a translation of the Hebrew word Moshiach (Hebrew: משיח, also written "Messiah"). Christianity is the world's largest religion. The foundation and principles of Christianity come from the New Testament of the Bible, along with its beginning history.

Islam

Main Article: Islam

Islam is the second-largest religion in the world. Its adherents are called Muslims, its God is called Allah, and its holy book is the Koran (often spelled Qur'an). Muslims believe in creation, and reject any evolutionary idea that conflicts with the Koran, particularly the creation of humans. Historians regard the Arabian Muhammad as its founder in AD 622, although Muslims generally regard Islam as dating back to the Creation. Muslims worship in mosques, their main worship day is Friday, and they believe they will reach Paradise after death if their good deeds outweigh the bad. Islam means "surrender to the will of God."

External Links

• Your brain on culture The burgeoning field of cultural neuroscience is finding that culture influences brain development, and perhaps vice versa.
• Got Questions? Thousands of questions answered about the Bible, God, and the Christian faith
• Ask the Rabbi Questions and answers about Judaism, Jewish culture and Israel
• Islam for Today 25 questions asked about Islam

See Also

• U.S. religious heritage
• Abraham