10 Examples of Religions

A religion It is a set of cultural, ethical and social behaviors and practices that constitute a worldview and link to the humanity with an idea of ​​the sacred and timeless, that is, they bring a sense of transcendence to the experience of to live. For example: Buddhism, Judaism, Islam.

Religions played a key role in the early stages of civilization, since a moral code, ethical and even a jurisprudence, through which a lifestyle and a specific concept of the duty or purpose of existence is built.

It is estimated that there are around 4000 religions different in the world, each with its communion rituals, its sacred places, its symbols of faith and his own mythology and his own conception of the divine, the sacred and his God of him (or his Gods).

Most profess the faith as one of the highest human values, since they are dogmatic in nature (it is believed without question) and distinguishes the followers of its specific philosophy from the practitioners of other creeds or, also, from the atheists or agnostics.

This concept generally evokes a mixture of hope, devotion, charity and other virtues considered spiritually elevated or enlightening, but it has also served as ideological sustenance for bloody wars, persecutions, discrimination and even governments, as is the case of the Catholic theocracy during medieval Europe and its "Most Holy" Inquisition.

At present it is asserted that around a 59% of the world's population professes some type of religion, although many people profess multiple religions or diverse practices and rituals religious at the same time, regardless of the specific cultural tradition they obey and whether their creed allows it or not. This is one of the forms of the call cultural syncretism.

Types of religions

Three types of religious doctrines are commonly distinguished, according to their conception of God and the divine, namely:

Examples of religions

1. Buddhism. Originally from India, this non-theistic religion often attributes its teachings to Gautama Buddha (Sidarta Gautama or Sakyamuni), a sage whose doctrine aspired to a balance between asceticism and deprivation, and dedication to what sensual. The religion spread throughout much of Asia, and that is why today it is the fourth largest religion in the world, with 500 million followers in two different tendencies: Theravada and Mahayana. It has a large number of schools and interpretations, as well as ritual practices and paths of enlightenment, since it does not have a God dictating sentence to his faithful.
2. Catholicism. Main sect of Christianity in the West, organized more or less around the Catholic Church based in the Vatican and represented by the Pope. They have in common with all Christians the faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah and Son of God, and they hope his second coming, which will mean the final judgment and the leading of his faithful to salvation eternal. His text Sacred is the Bible (both new and old testaments). One sixth of the population The world is Catholic and so are more than half of the world's Christians (more than 1,200 million faithful).
3. Anglicanism. Anglicanism is the name of Christian doctrines in England, Wales and Ireland after the reform suffered by Catholicism in the 16th century (known as the Protestant Reformation). Anglican churches place their faith in the Bible, but reject the future of the Church of Rome, so they gather around the Archbishop of Canterbury. They are known in their entirety as the Anglican Communion, a front of 98 million faithful around the world.
4. Lutheranism. Known as the Protestant movement, it is a sect that adheres to the teachings of Martin Luther (1438-1546) on Christian doctrine, known as the Protestant Reformation, of which they were the first grouping in arise. Although there is not really a Lutheran church, but a group of evangelical churches, its number of followers is estimated to reach 74 million. faithful and, like Anglicanism, accepts the faith of Jesus Christ but rejects the papacy and the need for a priesthood, since all the faithful can act as such.
5. Islam. One of the three great monotheistic religious strands, along with Christianity and Judaism, whose sacred text is the Koran and Muhammad its prophet. While recognizing other texts such as the Torah and the Gospels as sacred, Islam is governed by the teachings (the Sunna) of his prophet, according to two currents of interpretation called Shiite and Sunni. It is estimated that there are in the world around 1200 million Muslims of the mainstream more or less radical in its attachment to religious principles, which makes it the second most faithful religion in the world. world.
6. Judaism. This is the name given to the religion of the Jewish people, the oldest of the three great monotheists, despite being the one with the least number of faithful professed (about 14 million). Its basic text is the Torah, although there is no complete body of the laws of this religion, but it is part of the so-called Old Testament of Christians. However, the Jewish religion unifies its faithful as a belief, a cultural tradition, and a nation, profoundly distinguishing them from the rest.
7. Hinduism. This religion belongs mainly to India and Nepal, and is the third most faithful religion in the world: about one billion followers. It is actually a set of different dogmas, grouped under the same name, without a single founder or any type of central organization, but a multicultural tradition called the dharma. This is the reason why Hinduism, like Judaism, represents not only a belief but also a cultural belonging complete, in which pantheism, polytheism and even agnosticism have a place, since it also lacks a unique doctrine.
8. Taoism. More than a mere religion, it is a philosophical system that pursues the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Lao Tse, collected in the book Tao Te King. They point to a conception of the world governed by three forces: the yin (passive force), the yang (active force) and the CAT (reconciling superior force that contains them), and that man must aspire to harmonize within himself. In that sense, Taoism does not profess a code or dogma to which the faithful must adhere, but a series of ruling philosophical principles.
9. Shintoism. This polytheistic religion is native to Japan and its object of worship is the kami or spirits of nature. Among its practices are animism, the veneration of ancestors, and it has few sacred texts of local origin, such as the Shoku Nihongi or the Kojiki, the latter being rather a text with a historical. It also has no predominant or unique deities, or established methods of worship, and was the state religion until 1945.
10. Santeria (Rule of Oshá-Ifá). This religion is the product of the syncretism between European Catholicism and the Yoruba religion of origin African, and it occurred in the framework of American colonization in which both cultures were contaminated reciprocally. It is a popular religion in Latin America, the Canary Islands and with a presence in Europe and North America, despite be linked with the traditions of the Nigerian peoples scattered as slaves by the conquering hand European. It has been discredited by Eurocentric conceptions, which they have seen in their polytheism and their ritual practices, which often include dancing, alcohol and sacrifices animals, a front for the hegemonic Christian precepts.

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