How many religions are there in the world? Major world religions

For a very long time in a man such a wonderful feeling has arisen, like faith in God and higher powers that determine the destinies of people and what they will do in the future. There is a huge number of religious denominations, each of which has its own laws, procedures, memorable dates of the calendar, prohibitions. How old are the religions of the world? - a question that is difficult to give an exact answer.

Ancient signs of the origin of religions

It is known that religious customs in various forms began to exist already a huge number of years ago, but only now the concept of religion has spread very widely and was cultivated. Previously, people were peculiarly holy and blindly believe that life can be bestowed on 4 elements: air, water, earth and sun. By the way, such a religion exists to this day and it is called polytheism. How many religions exist in the world of basic? Today there are no prohibitions on this or that religion. Therefore, more and more religious currents are being created, but there are still basic ones, and there are not so many of them.

Religion - what is it?

In the concept of religion, it is customary to include a certain sequence of rituals, rituals and customs, committed either daily (an example here is daily prayer), or periodically, and sometimes even once. This includes the wedding, confession, communion, baptism. Any religion in principle is aimed at uniting completely different people into large groups. Unfortunately, this is often used by the founders of sects that have a huge number of adepts. Despite some cultural differences, many religions are similar in message to believers. The difference is only in the external design of rituals. How many major religions exist in the world? This question will be answered in this article.

The most important religions in the world are Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. The latter religion is practiced more in the countries of the East, and Buddhism is practiced in the Asian countries. Each of the listed religious branches has a history that lasts more than several thousand years, as well as a number of indestructible traditions that are observed by all deeply religious people.

Geography of religious currents

As for geographical fragmentation, here about 100 years ago there was an opportunity to track the predominance of a confession, but now it does not exist in sight. For example, earlier, more convinced Christians lived on the territory of Africa, Europe, South America, the Australian continent.

Muslims could be called residents of North Africa and the Middle East, and those who settled in the Southeastern part of Eurasia were believed in the Buddha. On the streets of Central Asian towns, Muslim mosques and churches of Christian faith standing almost side by side can now be seen more and more often.

How many major religions are there in the world?

As for the question of knowledge of the founders of world religions, most of them are known to all believers. For example, Jesus Christ was the founder of Christianity (according to another opinion, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit), the founder of Buddhism is Siddhartha Guatama, whose other name is Buddha, and, finally, the foundations of Islam were laid by the Prophet Muhammad.

An interesting fact is that both Islam and Christianity come from a single faith, which is called Judaism. The receiver of Jesus in this faith is Isa Ibn Mariya. There are related to this branch of faith and other famous prophets who were mentioned in the Holy Scripture. Many believing people believe that the Prophet Muhammad appeared on earth even earlier than people saw Jesus.

Buddhism

As for Buddhism, this religious confession is rightfully recognized as the oldest among all that is only known to the human mind. The history of this faith has an average of about two and a half millennia, perhaps even much more. The origin of a religious trend called Buddhism began in India, and Siddhartha Guatama became the founder. Faith, the Buddha himself reached gradually, step by step, moving towards the miracle of enlightenment, which then the Buddha began to generously share with himself such sinners. The Buddha's teaching became the basis for writing a holy book called the Tripitaka. To date, the most common stages of the Buddhist faith are such as Hinayama, Mahayama and Vajayama. Adherents of faith in Buddhism believe that the main thing in a person's life is a good state of karma, which is achieved only through the accomplishment of good deeds. Each Buddhist himself goes the way to purifying karma through deprivation and pain.

Many, especially today, wonder how many religions in the world exist? The exact number of them is difficult to call. Practically every day new directions and branches appear. But the basic ones still exist. And the next religious trend is one of them.

Christianity

Christianity is a faith that was founded many thousands of years ago by Jesus Christ. According to scientists, the religion of Christianity was laid down in the 1st century before the era of mankind. This religious stream appeared in Palestine, and the eternal fire descended to Jerusalem, where it still burns. Nevertheless, there is an opinion that people have learned about this faith even earlier, before almost a thousand years. There is also an opinion that for the first time people met not with Christ, but with the founder of Judaism. Among Christians, there are Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants. In addition, there are huge groups of people who call themselves Christians, but believe in completely different dogmas and attending other public organizations.

Postulates of Christianity

The main indestructible postulates of Christianity is the belief that God has three guises (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), faith in saving death and in the phenomenon of reincarnation. In addition, followers of Christianity practice belief in evil and good, represented by angelic guise and devilish.

Unlike Protestants and Catholics, Christians do not believe in the existence of the so-called "purgatory", where the souls of sinners go to heaven or hell. Protestants believe that if the belief in salvation is preserved in the soul, then a person is guaranteed to go to heaven. Protestants believe that the meaning of the rites is not in beauty, but in sincerity, which is why rituals are not distinguished by pomp, and their numbers are much smaller than in Christianity.

Islam

As for Islam, this religion is considered relatively new, as it appeared only in the 7th century BC. The place of appearance is the Arabian Peninsula, where the Turks and Greeks lived. The place of the Orthodox Bible occupies the Holy Quran, which contains all the basic laws of religion. In Islam, as in Christianity, there are several areas: Sunnism, Shiism and Kharijitism. The difference between these directions from each other is that the Sunnis recognize as the "right hand" of the prophet Mohammed of the four caliphs, and besides the Koran, the collection of the prophet's instructions is considered a sacred book for them.

The Shiites believe that the successors of the prophet's business can only be blood heirs. Kharijites believe in almost the same, only believe that inherit the rights of the prophet can only blood descendants or proximate persons. How many religions in the world, so many opinions. Unfortunately, representatives of not all religious movements completely accept the existence of another direction. Often this leads even to wars.

The Muslim faith recognizes the existence of Allah and the Prophet Mohammed, and also hold the opinion that life after death exists, and a person can be reborn into any living being or even an object. Any Muslim faithfully believes in the power of holy customs, because every year he makes a pilgrimage to holy places. Truly, the holy city for all Muslims is Jerusalem. Salat is a mandatory rite for every adherent of the Muslim faith, and its main meaning is prayer in the mornings and evenings. Prayer is repeated five times, after which the faithful try to observe the fast by all rules.

In this faith there is a month of Ramadan, during which believers are forbidden to entertain, but are allowed to devote themselves only to prayer to Allah. The main city of pilgrims is Mecca.

And, no matter how many world religions exist in the world. The main thing is that they all have one goal - to inculcate a person with love for God.

Unity and differences of major religions

The commonality of all religious confessions is hidden and at the same time simple in that all offshoots teach tolerance, love of God in all manifestations, mercy and kindness towards people. Both Islam and the Christian faith propagandize the resurrection after the earthly death, for which rebirth follows. In addition, Islam and Christianity together advocate the phenomenon of fatalism and believe that fate is predetermined by heaven, and to correct it in the power only Allah or, as Christians call it, Lord God. Although the teaching of Buddhists is strikingly different from Christianity and Islam, these "branches" unite what is glorified by a certain morality, to stumble under which anyone is inadmissible.

Common traits have also the instructions given to the Almighty sinners. Buddhists have dogmas, Christians have commandments, and among devotees of Islam, these are excerpts from the Koran. How many religions in the world did not exist, they all bring the person closer to the Lord. The commandments for each faith are the same, only they have a different retelling style. Everywhere it is forbidden to lie, kill, steal, and everywhere call for mercy and tranquility, for mutual respect and love for one's neighbor.