How many recognized religions are there in the world

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How does a cross-eyed person's view differ from others? What can you learn from the sound of someone's voice? What are the most widely practiced religions of the world? Asked by Charlene Dupree of Toronto There are some 4, religions of the world. Get our Tech Resources. Share Copy. Corrections Send us news. Other stories you might like He called himself the King of Fraud. Microsoft engineer fixes enterprise-level Chromium bug students could exploit to cheat in online tests Ability to block 'view source' for specific URLs hasn't actually worked for years.

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BT's Plusnet shows Google how it's done as email woes enter their third day Call that an outage? Shinto is religious tradition native to Japan. Initially an informal collection of beliefs and mythologies, Shinto was less a religion than a distinctly Japanese form of cultural observance.

The first recorded use of the term Shinto can be traced to the sixth century CE and is essentially the connective tissue between ancient Japanese customs and modern Japanese life. The primary focus of Shinto is the native belief in kami spirits and interaction with them through public shrines. These shrines are an essential artifact of — and channel for — Shinto observation. More than 80, Shinto shrines dot Japan. Traditional Japanese styles of dress, dance, and ritual are also rooted in Shinto customs.

Shinto is unique among religions. As a reflection of Japanese identity, Shinto observance is not necessarily limited to those who view themselves as religious adherents. Sikhism is a monotheistic faith emerging from and remaining concentrated in the Punjabi region that traverses Northern India and Eastern Pakistan.

The Sikh religion came into focus during the late 15th century and draws its tenets of faith, meditation, social justice, and human equality from a scripture called the Guru Granth Sahib. The first spiritual leader of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, lived from to and taught that a good, spiritual life must be intertwined with a secular life well-lived. He called for activity, creativity, fidelity, self-control, and purity. More important than the metaphysical, Guru Nanak argued, is a life in which one enacts the will of God.

Guru Nanak was succeeded by a subsequent line of nine gurus, who served as spiritual leaders. The tenth in this line of successors, Guru Gobind Singh, named the scriptures as his successor. This was the end of human authority in the Sikh faith and the emergence of the scriptures as a singular spiritual guide.

Today, the more than 28 million estimated adherents of Sikhism are largely concentrated in India, making it the seventh largest religion in the world. In fact, Zoroastrianism was soon adopted as the official state religion of the Persian Empire and remained so for nearly a thousand years.

What followed was centuries of persecution and suppression by Muslim conquerors, to the point of almost entirely snuffing out Zoroastrian teachings and practices in the Arabic-speaking world. These practices have seen a small resurgence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, with some Iranians and Iraqi Kurdish populations adopting Zoroastrianism as a mode of resistance to theocratic governance. Countless religious traditions inform the inhabitants of the African continent, each with its own distinct practices and beliefs based on region and ethnicity.

Many share common threads, including the belief in spirits, respect for the dead, and the importance of the intersection between humanity and nature. Also common: many of these religions rely on oral history and tradition, rather than scriptures. Though Christianity and Islam are today the dominant religious traditions in Africa, informal estimates place the number of adherents to Traditional African Religions at million. The following list — borrowed from Wikipedia — identifies some of the best known or most prominent of these religions:.

The European slave trade and the practices of colonization created what is known as the African diaspora. Here, individuals, families, and whole groups were displaced from the communities or tribes they called home on the African continent.

The result was the proliferation of innumerable religious groups around the Caribbean, Latin America and the southern United States during the 16th through 18th centuries. Each had its own linguistic, spiritual, and ritualistic customs, generally rooted in their respective histories and their new geographic surroundings.

Often, like the traditional African religions they emerged from, these groups shared common threads regarding reverence for the spirits, veneration of the dead, and similar creation mythologies.

Though too extensive to name, the following list — borrowed from Wikipedia — identifies the most notable African diaspora religions:. Native American religions encompass the broad and diverse set of customs, beliefs, and practices observed by the indigenous populations that thrived in the Americas before the arrival of European colonists. The diversity of customs and beliefs represented here is as diverse as the major population centers, tribes, and small nomadic bands that inhabited the Americas for millennia.

Theologies vary widely, representing a range of monotheistic, polytheistic, and animistic beliefs. Also highly variant are the oral histories, principles, and internal hierarchical structures of these different indigenous groups. Some religions emerged around established kingdoms and settlements — especially in the monarchical societies of pre-Latin America — whereas others emerged around tribes that moved within and between regions. Some common threads include the belief in spirits and a sense of connectivity with nature.

Though many individuals and families descended from these tribes do practice some of the customs of their ancestors, indigenous religious customs have befallen the same broader fate as the Native American peoples. The arrival of Europeans signaled the beginning of a cultural, spiritual, and actual genocide, one that wiped out tribes wholesale through violence, disease, and religious conversion.

Some religions would disappear entirely. Other religions are still practiced by dwindling populations, many living on reservations. Wikipedia identifies a few major native American religions:. This is by no means a complete list. It is, by its intent, a concise look at major world religions. Truthfully, this subject defies brevity. Each religion or tradition represented here, and the countless not represented here, offer worlds unto themselves, replete with scriptures, histories, leaders, events, codes of ethics, richly drawn mythologies, and unwavering adherents.

You could spend a lifetime studying each of these traditions. Of course, many people do! But we hope this is a helpful place to start. And if we missed anything, let us know. Lord knows, somebody had to come up with the idea for each of these religions in the first place.

Are you ready to discover your college program? Popular with our students. Highly informative resources to keep your education journey on track. Many other religions stem from the beliefs of these three religions. Hinduism and Buddhism both have their origins in Northern India. There are also several different religions practiced by Native Americans, the African diaspora, and Africans. Many people are not very positive about religion. However, religion is vital for many reasons.

It also gives people hope. Many say their belief in God, or a higher power, helps them through difficult situations. Having a religion also gives them peace about what happens after they die.