Religions

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[edit] Religions

[edit] The World's Top 10 Religions

  • 10 – Juche (“Self-Reliance)

Followers – 19 million

Founder – Kim Il Sung, 1950’s

View of God – None


  • 9 – Sikhism (0.36%)

Followers – 23 million, chiefly in Punjab, India

Founder – Guru Nanak, 1469

View of God – Monotheism

View of the Afterlife – Transmigration of the soul (reincarnation) and eventual merging with the divine

Means to God – The Five “K’s”:

1. Kesa (“long hair”)

2. Kangha (“comb”)

3. Kacha (“short pants”)

4. Kachu (“metal bracelet”)

5. Kirpan (“weapon”)


  • 8 – African Traditional Religions (Including Primal Indigenous Religions 6%)

Followers – 100 million, in Africa plus places where Africans were enslaved

View of God – Animism/Polytheism

Means to God – Sacrifices


  • 7 – Primal Indigenous Religions (including African Traditional Religions 6%)

Followers – 300 million, including shamans (Siberia) and pagans (in Asia and India) and smaller, pre-literate tribal belief systems

Views – Similar to #8


  • 6 – Buddhism (6%)

Followers – 376 million

Founder – Siddharta Gautama (563-483 BC)

View of God – No belief in personal creator God

View of Afterlife: Reincarnation based on karma until achieving Nirvana (“snuffed out like a candle”)

Means to God – The Four Noble Truths

1. Life means suffering.

2. The origin of suffering is attachment.

3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.

4. The Eightfold Path to the cessation of suffering.


  • 5 – Chinese Traditional Religion (6%)

Followers – 394 million mostly in China and where Chinese live

Founders – Lao-Tse (604-531 BC) and Confucius (551-479 BC)

View of God – No particular deity/impersonal force (though Lao-Tse did become venerated generations later)

Means to God – Not stressed, more of an ethical system than a religious one


  • 4 – Hinduism (14%)

Followers – 900 million

Founded – 1800-1000 BC

View of God – Pantheism (belief that the whole of reality is divine or god)

View of Afterlife – Reincarnation until achieving Nirvana (“snuffed out like a candle”)

Means to God – The Transmigration of Souls/Reincarnation/Karma


  • 3 – Secularism/Nonreligious/Agnostics/Atheists (16%)

Followers – 1.1 billion (nonreligious Westerners, agnostics and atheists in current and formerly-communist countries)

View of God – None

View of Afterlife – None


  • 2 – Islam (21%)

Followers – 1.3 billion

Founder – Mohammed between AD610-632

View of God – Monotheism, Allah

Means to God – The Five Pillars of Islam

  • 1. The profession of faith in the one God and in Muhammad as his Prophet.

2. Prayer five times a day.

3. The giving of alms to the poor.

4. Fasting during the month of Ramadan.

5. The hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, at least once in the lifetime.

View of the Afterlife: Paradise


1 – Christianity (33%)

Followers – 2 billion

Founder – Jesus Christ

View of God – Monotheism

Means to God – Atonement/Substitution

View of Afterlife - Heaven


  • Pray for those following another path realize that something is missing in their lives and begin earnestly searching for the Truth.”
  • “God has…planted eternity in the human heart…” Ecc. 3:11
  • “There is a path before each person that seems right but it ends in death.” Prov. 14:12


[edit] All Religions

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