Religions
On this page, we have collected articles related to Religions on our website.
Religion is a set of common beliefs and practices pertaining to the supernatural (and its relationship to humanity and the cosmos), which are often codified into prayer, ritual, scriptures, and religious law. These beliefs and practices are typically defined in light of a shared canonical vocabulary of venerable traditions, writings, history, and mythology.
Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, symbols, and holy places, that aim mostly to give meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are sometimes said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life, the universe, and other things.
The world’s principal religions and spiritual traditions may be classified into a small number of major groups, although this is by no means a uniform practice. This theory began in the 18th century with the goal of recognizing the relative levels of civility in societies.
There are different ways of categorization of world religions.
♥ Relatively crude geographical schemes that distinguish Western Religions from Eastern Religions are quite common.
♥ Religions can be categorized by how many deities they worship. Monotheistic religions accept only one deity (predominantly referred to as God), and polytheistic religions accept multiple deities. Henotheistic religions accept one supreme deity without denying other deities, considering them as aspects of the same divine principle; and nontheistic religions deny any supreme eternal creator deity but accept a pantheon of deities which live, die, and may be reborn like any other being.
♥ Some academics studying the subject have divided religions into three broad categories: world religions, a term which refers to transcultural, international faiths; indigenous religions, which refers to smaller, culture-specific, or nation-specific religious groups; and new religious movements, which refers to recently developed faiths.
♥ Religious traditions fall into super-groups in comparative religion, arranged by historical origin and mutual influence.
Religions love, unity, peace, and strength
East Asian Religions
The East Asian religions or Taoic religions form a subset of Eastern religions. This group includes Chinese religion overall, which further includes ancestral worship, Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Taoism, and so-called popular salvationist organisations (such as Yiguandao and Weixinism), as well as elements drawn from Mahayana Buddhism that form the core of Chinese Buddhism and East Asian Buddhism at large. The group also includes Japanese Shintoism and Korean Sindoism (both meaning “Ways of Gods” and identifying the indigenous shamanic religion and ancestor worship of such peoples), which have received influences from Chinese religions throughout the centuries. Chinese salvationist religions have influenced the rise of Korean and Japanese new religions—for instance, respectively, Jeungsanism, and Tenriism; these movements draw upon indigenous traditions but are heavily influenced by Chinese philosophy and theology.
Main articlesConfucian beliefs and the theoriesConfucian practices
History of ConfucianismConfucian TextsConfucian Gods and deities |
Religion in China
Influential Confucians
Other articles |
Religions in Japan
Shinto beliefs and the theoriesShinto practices |
Variations of ShintoShinto DeitiesShinto TextsShinto culture |
Main articlesHistory of TaoismTaoist beliefs and the theories |
Taoist practices
Taoist TextsInfluential Taoists |
| Eastern religions East Asian Religions Confucianism
TaoismShintoShinto-inspired religionsOther ReligionsMongolian religionsVietnamese religions
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Other ReligionsChinese religions
Chinese philosophy schoolsJapanese religionsKorean religions |
Diwali Festival Of Lights Hinduism
Indian Religions
Indian religions, sometimes also termed as Dharmic faiths or Dharmic religions (Dharma), are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent; namely Hinduism (2 schools Vedanta and Yoga, and 7 denominations Ayyavazhi, Vaishnavism, Shaivism, Shaktism, Smartism, and Śrauta), Jainism (Digambara, Śvētāmbara), Buddhism (Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana) and Sikhism. These religions are also all classified as Eastern religions. Although Indian religions are connected throughout the history of India, they constitute a wide range of religious communities and are not confined to the Indian subcontinent.
Main articles |
The Buddha |
Buddhist practices
Buddhist meditationEnlightenment In Buddhism |
Moral discipline and precepts
Topics related to Buddhism |
Buddhist Texts
Vajrayana texts |
Mahayana textsTheravada texts |
Comparative Buddhism |
Buddhist culture |
Essence of Hinduism |
Concept of God |
Hinduism’s Sacred Texts |
Hindu Denomination |
Worship (rituals)
Hindu people |
Other terms and concepts
Hinduism and Other Religions |
HistoryPolitics |
Hindu CultureHindu Festivals |
Main articlesHistoryJain Philosophy |
Ethics of JainismPracticesScriptures and textsTraditions and sectsArt and ArchitectureReligion in India |
Main articlesHistoryBeliefs and Philosophy
Practices |
Scriptures and textsTraditions and sectsComparison with other religionsSee also |
Abrahamic religions
A mosque, a church, and a synagogue together in Istanbul.
Middle Eastern Religions
Middle Eastern religions originated in the Middle East; namely Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) and Iranic religions. Smaller minority religions, such as the Bahá’í Faith, Druze, Nusairism, Manichaeism, Sabianism, Bábism, Yazidism, Mandaeism, Gnosticism, Yarsanism, Samaritanism, Shabakism, Ishikism, Ali-Illahism, Alevism, Yazdânism and Zoroastrianism are also present in the Middle East.
| Christianity | Islam |
Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament. The Christian faith is essentially faith in Jesus as the Christ (or Messiah), the Son of God, the Savior, and, according to Trinitarianism, God the Son, part of the Trinity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Christianity’s Religious Texts
Christianity’s Religious Texts combine the Jewish Old Testament with the New Testament to form the Christian Bible, which followers refer to as the Holy Scriptures. There are many noncanonical texts in the Christian religion as well.
| History of the Catholic Church |
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Who is Mary, Mother of Jesus?Perspectives on Mary |
Chronology
Marian dogmas
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The Torah Scroll
Judaism
Judaism (יהודה, Yehudah, “Judah”) is the religion of the Jewish people. It is an ancient, monotheistic, Abrahamic religion with the Torah as its foundational text. It encompasses the religion, philosophy, and culture of the Jewish people.
Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenant that God established with the Children of Israel. Judaism encompasses a wide corpus of texts, practices, theological positions, and forms of organization. The Torah is part of the larger text known as the Tanakh or the Hebrew Bible, and supplemental oral tradition is represented by later texts such as the Midrash and the Talmud. With between 14.5 and 17.4 million adherents worldwide, Judaism is the tenth largest religion in the world.
Main articles |
Jewish History |
Development of Rabbinic JudaismOrigins of Rabbinic Judaism Historical Judaism
 The Star of David |
Rabbinic Judaism |
Jewish Culture |
Interactions with other religions |
Al Hakim Mosque, Islamic Cairo.
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion teaching that there is only one God (Allah) and that Muhammad is the messenger of God. It is the world’s second-largest religion with over 1.8 billion followers or 24% of the world’s population, most commonly known as Muslims. Muslims make up a majority of the population in 50 countries. Islam teaches that God is merciful, all-powerful, and unique and has guided humankind through prophets, revealed scriptures, and natural signs. The primary scriptures of Islam are the Quran, viewed by Muslims as the verbatim word of God, and the teachings and normative example (called the sunnah, composed of accounts called hadith) of Muhammad (c. 570 – 8 June 632 CE).
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Faith (iman) breaks down into six axioms (Six articles of faith) Belief in:
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Beliefs and practices of Shia |
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Types of angels
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Beings and Forces in Islam |
The Holy Quran (read more) |
What is Hadith? |
Kwakwaka’wakw Cedar sisiutl mask.
Indigenous (ethnic, folk) religions
Indigenous religions or Nature Religions consist of the traditional customs and beliefs (Paganism, Animism, Totemism, Shamanism) of particular ethnic groups, refined and expanded upon for thousands of years, often lacking formal doctrine.
Main articles: Indigenous Religions and Outline Indigenous Religions
AfricanTraditional African religions
Afro-American religionsEuropeanAustronesianAustroasiaticJapanese |
American
Uralic (Eurasian)AltaicChineseKorean |
Summer and Winter, that’s magic
New Religious Movements
New religious movements, a heterogeneous group of religious faiths emerging since the nineteenth century, often syncretizing, re-interpreting, or reviving aspects of older traditions such as Western esotericism, Modern Paganism, Hindu derived religions, New ethnic religions, Entheogenic religions, New Thought, some inspired by science-fiction, Political Religions, and Parody religions.
A cult is a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal.
The New Age MovementOther new religions |
IrreligionNew Thought |
Modern PaganismEthnic neopaganism
Syncretic neopaganismCult |
Western esotericism |
New ethnic religionsNative AmericanChicano/Mexican-AmericanCargo cultsEntheogenic religionsPost-theistic and naturalistic religionsParody religions |
UFO religionsNew Hindu-derived religionsSciencePolitical Religions |
Mountain of Gods, Nemrut- turkey
Historical Religions
Historical religions of the ancient world shared many of the same patterns with each other even though the cultures may never have had any contact with each other. Such as Prehistoric religion, Ancient Egyptian Religion, Ancient Mesopotamian Religion, Brahmanism, Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia, Inca mythology, ancient Greece and Rome, and their Hellenistic descendants.
Main article: Religions of The Ancient Near East
Common concepts in Historical Religions
The religions of the ancient world shared many of the same patterns with each other even though the cultures may never have had any contact with each other.
Article about Historical Religions
These are the articles about historical religions on our website so far.
Atheism
Atheism
Atheism refers in its broadest sense to a denial of theism (the belief in the existence of a single deity or deities). Atheism has many shades and types. Some atheists strongly deny the existence of God (or any form of deity) and attack theistic claims.
General Atheism Concepts |
Related positions |
What type of thing is atheism?
Types of atheismHistory of atheismPersons influential in atheism |
Atheistic arguments
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