Major Religions of the World
world religions
Buddhism- the oldest of the three major world religions. It originated in ancient India in the VI-V centuries. BC e. The founder is Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha). Main directions: Hinayana and Mahayana. He flourished in India in the 5th century. BC e. - the beginning of the 1st millennium AD e.; spread throughout the Southeast and Central Asia, partly in Central Asia and Siberia, having assimilated elements of Brahminism, Taoism, etc. In India, by the 12th century. dissolved in Hinduism, greatly influencing it. He spoke out against the predominance of external forms of religious life (including ritualism) characteristic of Brahmanism. At the center of Buddhism is the doctrine of the "four noble truths": there is suffering, its cause, the state of liberation and the path to it. Suffering and liberation are subjective states and at the same time a certain cosmic reality: suffering is a state of anxiety, tension, equivalent to desire, and at the same time a pulsation of dharmas (primary elements of being and psychophysical elements of a person's vital activity); liberation (nirvana) - a state of unbound personality by the outside world and at the same time the cessation of the excitement of dharmas. Buddhism denies the otherworldliness of liberation; in Buddhism there is no soul as an immutable substance - the human "I" is identified with the cumulative functioning of a certain set of dharmas, there is no opposition between subject and object, spirit and matter, there is no God as the creator and certainly the highest being. In the course of the development of Buddhism, the cult of Buddha and bodhisattvas (ideal beings acting as mentors and models and leading people along the path of moral perfection to achieve nirvana) gradually developed in it, sanghas (monastic communities) appeared.
Christianity- religion, the basis of which is faith in Jesus Christ as the God-man, the Savior, the incarnation of the second person of the triune deity. The communion of believers to divine grace is carried out through participation in the sacraments. The source of the creed of Christianity - Holy Tradition, the main thing in it is Holy Bible(Bible); in importance it is followed by other parts of the Sacred Tradition (“The Creed”, decisions of the Ecumenical and some local councils, individual creations of the Church Fathers, etc.). Christianity arose in the 1st century. n. e. among the Jews of Palestine, immediately spread to other peoples of the Mediterranean. In the IV century. became state religion Roman Empire. By the XIII century. all of Europe was Christianized. In Rus', Christianity spread under the influence of Byzantium from the end of the 10th century. As a result of the schism (separation of churches), Christianity in 1054 split into Orthodoxy and Catholicism. From Catholicism during the Reformation in the 16th century. emerged Protestantism. Total number There are more than 1 billion adherents of Christianity.
Islam- monotheistic religion, its followers are Muslims. It originated in Arabia in the 7th century. Founder - Mohammed. Islam developed under the significant influence of Christianity and Judaism. As a result of the Arab conquests, it spread in the Near and Middle East, later in some countries of the Far East, South-East Asia, Africa. The main principles of Islam are stated in the Qur'an. The main tenets are the worship of the only almighty God - Allah and the veneration of Muhammad as a prophet - the messenger of Allah. Muslims believe in the immortality of the soul and afterlife. Five main duties (pillars of Islam) prescribed to adherents of Islam: 1) belief that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah (shahada); 2) five daily prayers (salat); 3) charity in favor of the poor (zakat); 4) fasting in the month of Ramadan (saum); 5) pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj), performed at least once in a lifetime. Holy Tradition is Sunnah. The main directions are Sunnism and Shiism. In the X century. a system of theoretical theology - kalam - was created; The legal system of Islam is developed in Sharia. In the VIII-IX centuries. there was a mystical current - Sufism. The number of followers of Islam is about 900 million people. In almost all Muslim-majority countries, Islam is the state religion.
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Today it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question which of the religions is the oldest, which arose first. Archaeological excavations give more and more new ground for the next conclusions regarding the emergence of religion.
Islam is a young religion
Surrendering oneself to God - this is translated from Arabic as "Islam". This religion, which is one of the world's, originated only in the seventh century. Its followers are Muslims, whose communities are in one hundred and twenty countries. Twenty-three percent of the world's population is Muslim. In forty-nine states they are in the majority.From a historical point of view, this is a very young religion. Gaining personal experience, not harming anyone, openness to the gaze of God - this is what lies at the heart of Islam. Believers believe that only God decides when to create a soul, and when to dissolve it, respectively, it does not appear with birth and does not disappear at the moment of death of a person. According to Muslims, only Allah decides the fate of a person.
This religion can be called the youngest also because the average Muslim is only twenty-three years old.
What was ancient Christianity like?
The traditional worldview of the population has undergone significant changes with the advent of new religion- Christianity. It appeared at the end of the first century BC - in the first half of the first century AD in the Eastern Mediterranean. 
With the advent of Christianity, the mythological idea of life and the world order began to crumble, and there was a belief in a savior god who could save every person. Justice became the main attribute of a just and pure god.
The cults of the Eastern Mediterranean manifested themselves in various forms. In the end, the soil was prepared for the spread of Christianity, since it was in it that the trends that had arisen by that time found their greatest embodiment. In early Christianity, suffering was deified, since God's grace opened exclusively to the suffering. Faith called for unity in love, not dividing people into strangers and friends.
Christians perceived themselves on earth as temporary wanderers. At the center of the teaching, at the same time, was precisely man, bearing responsibility for his actions and having the opportunity to choose his path to the Kingdom of God. This was the beginning of the transformation of Christianity into a world religion.
At first, the followers of the preacher Jesus were only a small group. The doctrine of it arose in the first half of the first century AD. Jesus, continuing the prophetic movement, at first acted as a prophet. He opposed ritual regulation, formal rituals, which influenced the further spread of Christianity.
The idea of Christian mercy was to help all those who suffer, and the causes of these sufferings are not important, it does not matter whether it is a woman or a man, a poor man, a cripple or a harlot. Mercy was for the individual. Christianity said that anyone can be saved through faith. Gradually, Christianity, conquering the souls of people, began to turn into a world religion.
The oldest religion on earth
The oldest religion in the world of the now known (we do not take into account the primitive cults) is Zoroastrianism. The exact chronologization of the teaching that originated in Iran is difficult due to the prescription of years. Most experts agree that the roots of Zoroastrianism go back to the sixth millennium BC, which means that the age of Zoroastrianism exceeds 7 thousand years. The first written monuments of this religion appeared at the turn of the new era However, at that time, Zoroastrianism was already extremely ancient. The first material sources of the teachings were written down in the now dead language of the Avesta - that is holy book Zoroastrians. 
The central place of Zoroastrianism is occupied by the deity Ahura Mazda - the beginningless creator of all things, the father of all the laws of the universe and the leader of the side of Good in the fight against Evil, which occurs in the world without his permission. His only prophet among the people was Zarathustra, who, according to the teachings, conveyed to the people the truth about God's revelation and opened their eyes to bad customs: bloody raids on neighboring tribes, looting, teachings of priests that encourage violence.
Zoroastrianism had a huge impact on the Abrahamic religions, including the largest ones: Judaism, Christianity, Islam.
What other ancient religions are there
Several of the most ancient religions are known. One of these is the religion of the Sumerians. They had a rather complex pantheon of gods. Man had to subordinate his life to the service of these gods. Intermediaries between people and the seven main gods were the gods, who were called the Anunnaki. 
One of the most unusual is the religion of the Incas. Their pantheon is very diverse, as, conquering new peoples, they added their deities to their pantheon. Of the modern world religions, the most ancient is Buddhism. It appeared more than two and a half thousand years ago. The basis was the ancient teachings of India - the desire for the divine principle, nirvana and enlightenment. This can be achieved only by rising above all attachments, through meditation and self-improvement. It is known about such ancient religions as the religion of the Druids, Celtic beliefs, shamanism, etc.
New religious movements appear almost every year. The site has a detailed article on the youngest religion.
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The followers of Jesus Christ are united in more than 100 churches, movements and sects. These are Eastern Catholic churches (22). Old Catholicism (32). Protestantism (13). Orthodoxy (27). Spiritual Christianity(9). Sects (6). This is the largest world religion both in terms of the number of adherents, which are about 2.1 billion, and in terms of geographical distribution - in almost every country in the world there is at least one Christian community.
On the issue of relationships Christianity and science, one can see two extreme - although dominant, but equally incorrect points of view. Namely, firstly, that religion and science are in no way consistent with each other - religion, brought to its ultimate "foundations", does not need science and denies it, and vice versa, science, for its part, excludes religion to the extent that it is able to explain the world without resorting to the services of religion. And, secondly, that between them, in fact, there are no and cannot be any fundamental disagreements - already due to the different subject matter and different directions of "metaphysical" interests. It is not difficult to see, however, that both points of view (1) presuppose each other dialectically and (2) are similarly, dialectically (“antinomically”, etc.) determined in relation to one principle (“unity” of the world, being, consciousness, etc.) - in the first case negatively, in the second - positively.
Judaism divided into 11 currents: Orthodox Judaism, Litvaks, Hasidism, Orthodox Modernism, Religious Zionism, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, Reconstructionist Judaism, Humanistic Judaism Movement, Renovationist Judaism of Rabbi Michael Lerner, Messianic Judaism. Has up to 14 million followers.
The positive aspects of the interaction between science and the Torah are as follows. According to the Jewish worldview, the world was created for the sake of the Torah and the Torah was the plan for the creation of the world. Therefore, potentially they form a harmonious whole.
Islam breaks up into 7 currents: Sunnis, Shiites, Ismailis, Kharijites, Sufism, Salafis (Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia), radical Islamists. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims. Muslim communities exist in more than 120 countries and unite, according to various sources, up to 1.5 billion people.
The Qur'an encourages the development of science and scientific knowledge encourages people to think about natural phenomena and study them. Muslims believe scientific activity act of a religious nature. On my own example, I can say that when working under contracts in Muslim countries, I always met with a warm welcome, respect and gratitude. In the Russian regions, they strive to get information “for free, please” and forget to say thank you.
Buddhism consists of three main and many local schools: Theravada - the most conservative school of Buddhism; Mahayana - the latest form of development of Buddhism; vajrayana - an occult modification of Buddhism (Lamaism); Shingon-shu is one of the main Buddhist schools in Japan, belonging to the Vajrayana direction. The estimate of the number of followers of Buddhism ranges from 350-500 million people. According to the Buddha, “everything we are is the result of our thoughts, the mind is everything.”
Shintoism – traditional religion Japan. Forms of Shinto: temple, imperial court, state, sectarian, folk and domestic. Zealous supporters of Shintoism, who gave preference to this particular religion, turned out to be only about 3 million Japanese. The development of science in Japan speaks for itself.
Religions of India. Sikhism. Religion based in Punjab, in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent. 22 million followers.
Jainism. Dharmic religion, which appeared in India around the 6th century BC. e., preaches non-harm to all living beings in this world. 5 million followers.
Hinduism. A religion that originated in the Indian subcontinent. The historical name of Hinduism in Sanskrit is sanatana-dharma, which means "eternal religion", "eternal path" or "eternal law". It has its roots in the Vedic civilization, which is why it is called the oldest religion in the world. 1 billion followers.
The privileged caste is the Brahmins. Only they alone could be clergymen. Brahmins in ancient india had great benefits. In addition to the monopoly on professional religious activities, they also had a monopoly on pedagogical and scientific activities.
Religions of China. Taoism. Chinese traditional teaching, including elements of religion, mysticism, divination, shamanism, meditation practice, science.
Confucianism. Formally, Confucianism never had an institution of the church, but in terms of its significance, the degree of penetration into the soul and education of the consciousness of the people, it successfully played the role of religion. In imperial China, Confucianism was the philosophy of scholarly thinkers. Over 1 billion followers.
African traditional religions. Confessed by about 15% of Africans, include a variety of representations of fetishism, animism, totemism and ancestor worship. Some religious performances are common to many African ethnic groups, but usually unique to each ethnic group. Has 100 million followers.
Voodoo. The general name for religious beliefs that appeared among the descendants of black slaves taken from Africa to South and Central America.
It is difficult to say anything about the place of science in these religions, since there is a lot of magic there.
Shamanism. The name of a complex of people's ideas about the ways of conscious and purposeful interaction with the transcendental ("other world") world, primarily with spirits, which is carried out by a shaman, is a well-established name in science.
Cults. Phallic cults, the cult of ancestors. In Europe and America, the cult of ancestors ceased to exist long ago, having been replaced by the study of pedigrees. It still exists in Japan today.
Religion is a system of cultural values, patterns of behavior and worldview. Religious people believe in supernatural powers adhere to certain rules of behavior and traditions. Religious beliefs include:
- ritual processes;
- sermons;
- festivals;
- meditation;
- prayers, etc.
They have their own history and places that are sacred.
Today there are about 10 thousand different faiths. More than half of the world's inhabitants are associated with one of the four major faiths: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism. The most widespread religion in the world has 2.5 billion followers. People who do not adhere to any of the faiths and do not identify themselves with religious movements are atheists and agnostics.
Popular religion
The most widespread faith is Christianity. Some form of Christianity is practiced by 33% of the world's inhabitants. the main idea this denomination is miraculous resurrection Jesus Christ. He came to Earth to convey to people the Word of God, which became the Holy Scripture (Bible). Jesus appeared on Earth to save everyone from sins and tell about reunion with God. But he was betrayed by one of the disciples and crucified on the cross.
Christian belief is faith in Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, and as Savior and Lord. Christians believe in the Trinity, which teaches unity in one Godhead. At the heart of this belief are the commandments that teach compassion for one's neighbor, not to do harm to anyone, to lead a modest and decent lifestyle. Rites include: baptism, confession, wedding, communion.
Existing religions
Religious beliefs have influenced and continue to influence the history of the world. They are called global because they have gone far beyond the boundaries of one country, nation or continent. It is difficult to name the exact number of religious movements, since the number of new groups and branches is constantly growing. Consider the most popular of them.
Christianity
It is the most numerous religion in the world. Christians believe that Jesus suffered, died, descended into hell, and rose from the dead to give to those who believe in him. eternal life and the opportunity to rely on him for the forgiveness of their sins. The creed claims that Jesus physically ascended into heaven, where he reigns with God the Father in union with the Holy Spirit, and that he will return to judge the living and the dead and grant eternal life to his followers.
Throughout its history, this denomination has experienced schisms and theological disputes that have led to the emergence of many different churches and denominations. In the world, the largest branches of Christianity are: Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and thousands of denominations and congregations of Protestantism.
Islam
Islam is based on the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. It is the second denomination in terms of the number of followers known as Muslims. Islam teaches that there is only one God - Allah, and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. The holy Scripture of Islam is the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the literal message of God. For adherents of this faith, it is important to live according to the prescribed rules:
- pray five times a day;
- adhere to the fast called Ramadan;
– to give alms to the poor and, if possible, to come to holy city Mecca.
Hinduism
It is an Indian religion and way of life widely practiced in South Asia. Hinduism is called the oldest religion in the world. Scholars view Hinduism as a fusion of various Indian cultures and traditions. Although Hinduism contains a wide range of philosophies, it is associated general terms, rituals, cosmology, shared textual resources, and pilgrimages to holy sites.
Buddhism
The founder is considered to be Prince Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha), who left home in search of the meaning of life. The principles of Buddhism were kindness, self-discipline, humane attitude towards all living things. The main teachings are the rules that help self-improvement and purify the mind:
- abstaining from bad habits and bad deeds;
- correct understanding of the world;
- perseverance and patience on the way to the goal;
- friendly attitude towards others;
- expelling evil thoughts.
Religious traditions fall into groups ordered by historical origin and mutual influence. Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism) originate in Western Asia, Indian religions - in the Indian subcontinent (South Asia), East Asian - in East Asia.
Indigenous ethnic faiths found on every continent are now preserved as undercurrents (folk creeds) of major creeds. These include:
- traditional African religions;
- Asian;
- Native American beliefs;
- Austronesian and Australian Aboriginal traditions;
- Chinese post-war Shinto.
The most widespread religion
By geographical location and the number of believers, Christianity is the most common faith. It is divided into several areas, including: Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Protestantism.
Catholicism is widespread in Europe, the United States and Latin America. Protestantism became widespread in Western Europe as a protest against medieval moralizing and a way to modernize the church. Orthodoxy is widespread in Russia, the CIS countries and in small numbers in other countries of the world.
Fastest Growing World Religion
In total, all religions of the world in terms of the number of all believers make up 86% of the world's population. The increase in denominations is the spread and growth in the number of religious adherents throughout the world. Statistics are usually measured by the absolute number of followers, the percentage of absolute growth per year, and the increase in the number of converts in the world.
Research conducted in the 21st century shows that Islam is the fastest growing religion worldwide. The religious forecast for 2050 shows that the Muslim population will increase faster than the rest.
ancient rivalry
Almost every religion denies the presence of other religions. Muslims argue that the only God is Allah, Christians deny pagan gods, etc. World history knows many wars that were organized on religious grounds. A long-standing religious rivalry continues between Islam and Christianity. These are the two largest religious groups. And disputes, who is more, Muslims or Christians, do not subside until now. The number of people who converted to Islam is growing rapidly, but this is most likely due to the custom of Muslims to have many children in families.
Whatever faith a person professes, no one should infringe on his rights. The main principle in most religions is love for the outside world and the development of spirituality.
