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Major Religions of the World

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Kat:
I did a internet search and put all this together and thought it was very interesting, so I'm posting it here.

Major Religions of the World

Christianity (2.1 billion)

* One God being that exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the trinity.
* The beliefs are based on the teaching of the New Testament, that Jesus is the divine Son of God and born into flesh as Messiah, to be a sacrifice to save sinners.
* Those that accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and repent of their sin, go to heaven. If a person does not believe that Christ is the Son of God and Savior, then their destiny is eternity in hell.
Islam (1.5 billion)

* One almighty god, named Allah, creator of all there is and totally sovereign over it.
* Last prophet Muhammad.
* If one faithfully serves Allah and practices good deeds and strict disciplined religious rituals, then at death that one may enters paradise or otherwise they will be eternally punished in hell.
Hinduism (900 million) 

* One being of ultimate oneness, Brahman.
* God manifests through infinite representations of gods and goddesses, which becomes incarnate within idols, temples, gurus, rivers, animals, etc.
* Reincarnation with the goal to become free from the law of karma... evil actions in a previous life, justifies experiencing tremendous hardships in next life.
* It's about striving to be free from continuous reincarnations, the cycle of rebirths and to finally be at rest.
Buddhism (376 million)   

* No god
* Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama, born in the 5th or 6th century BC) never claimed to be divine, but have spiritual enlightenment.
* Reincarnation – reaching for spiritual enlightenment through self-discipline and removing sensual desires, to purify one's heart and the attachment to ones self.
* They seek freedom from the continuous cycle of life and death (reincarnation).
Chinese Traditional (Folk) (400-800 million)

* Involves household ancestor worship, shamanism, spirit mediumship, magic, ghosts and other spirits, and aspects of animism and local temples housing various gods and festivals.
* Folk religions may overlap with an individual's belief in Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, or other traditional Chinese religions.
* At the moment of death, Chinese believe one's spirit is taken by messengers to the god of walls and moats, Ch'eng Huang, who conducts a kind of preliminary hearing. Those found virtuous may go directly to one of the Buddhist paradises, otherwise it's the tenth court of hell (where they undergo a fixed period of punishment in one or more levels of hell) and then reincarnation/rebirth.
Primal-indigenous (300 million)

* The worship of one god while acknowledging the existence of others. God dwells within all things and all things are spiritual in nature.
* All of existence is thought to be connected, including life and death, humans and animals, the physical world and spirit world, etc.
* The tribe, which extends beyond just persons and includes nature, animals, and objects both animate and inanimate, is central to the individual's sense of self.
* Rites of passage are of great importance as a state of transition and life does not end with death, but continues in another realm. Some believe the afterlife is a spirit world similar, but better than life on earth... "the happy hunting ground."
African Traditional & Diasporic (100 million)

* Differing from region to region most African societies believe in a single supreme creator God - Chukwu,Nyame,Olodumare,Ngai,Roog, etc. Some in a dual or twin Divinity such as Mawu-Lisa.
* Some believe in the personification of supernatural spirits, yet others believes that it is the manifest destiny of all human beings to merge with the divine creator.
* It's oral rather than scriptural - belief in spirits and other divinities - veneration of ancestors - use of magic - traditional medicine.
* The role of humanity is generally seen as one of harmonizing the natural with the supernatural and the goal of life is to become an ancestor after death.
* Some believe in reincarnation, and others that the dead will reappear in another form, such as a totem animal.
* But the separation between the supreme being and humankind remains unavoidable and natural for the departed, even though the dead are able to rest there and be safe. 
Sikhism (20-30 million)

* Their belief is in the concept of the oneness of God.
* Founded during the 15th century on the Indian subcontinent by Guru Nanak and continued to progress through the ten successive Sikh gurus.
* There is one primary source of scripture for the Sikhs: the Ādi Granth—literally, The First Volume created by Guru Arjan in 1604, the Gurū Granth Sāhib is the final version of the scripture created by Guru Gobind Singh.
* They believe the soul reincarnates when the body dies and that good or bad actions in this life determine the life form into which a soul takes rebirth. No afterlife in either Heaven or Hell.
Spiritualism (15 million)

* The spiritualists understand God as infinite intelligence.
* Communion with the spiritual world is both possible and desirable, and spiritual healing is the natural result of such communication. They believe that spiritual entities exist such as souls in the afterlife, spirits, deities and mediums.
* The individual survive the deaths of their bodies by ascending into a spirit existence and a person’s condition after death is directly related to the moral quality of their human existence and reformation is never closed against any soul here or hereafter.
Judaism (14 million)

* G-d exists, is one and unique, is incorporeal, is eternal.
* Prayer is to be directed to G-d alone and to no other.
* The words of the prophets are true, Moses' prophecies are true, and Moses was the greatest of the prophets.
* The written Torah (first 5 books of the Bible) and oral Torah (teachings now contained in the Talmud and other writings) were given to Moses.
* G-d knows the thoughts and deeds of men and will reward the good and punish the wicked.
* The Messiah is yet to come and the dead will be resurrected.
Secular/nonreligious/agnostic/atheist (1.1 billion)

* Self-explanatory.

lilitalienboi16:
There are only 14million jews in the world?

Kat:

Well those are close estimates, there could be discrepancy from site to site and those are rounded off numbers as well. Here is a more exact number about Judaism though.

The world's core Jewish population in early 2013 was estimated at 13.9 million people (around 0.2% of the world population).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population_by_country

There were quite a few surprises in that research for me.

mercy, peace and love
Kat

ez2u:
well does that leave us?

Rhys 🕊:
Thanks for putting together........hard to pick one to join

Might stay as a Bible Truthsism  ;)

Rhys

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