<Student Name>
<Name and Section # of course>
<Instructor Name>
There are currently 21 formal religions and belief systems in the world (Taylor, “Top 10 largest religions in the world.”) Some have existed since antiquity while others have been recently created. There are those which are centered on monotheism, some on polytheism, while many do not believe in any God. All these religions govern their followers’ daily lives and have been propagated by certain influential figures, five of which have been discussed below.
Christianity is the world’s largest religion, having about 2.1 billion followers globally (BBC) and one of its major figure heads is Pope John Paul. The main beliefs of Christianity include that Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Old Testament, and that he is the son of God. God sent Jesus to the world to save humans from the consequences of their sins. (ThinkQuest).
Another classical religion is Islam and it was founded by Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) (Infoplease). Islam centers around five main pillars: Belief in the singularity of Allah (God); Belief in the finality of prophet hood with Prophet Muhammad (PBUH); Fasting in the month of Ramadan; giving alms to the needy and going for pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in life.
The main figure in Judaism is their prophet Moses. The Jews believe in a single God with whom they have a covenant relationship; Yahweh and consider themselves as the chosen people from the line of Abraham. (“Top 10 religions of the world.”) They seek to bring holiness in all aspects of their lives.
Zoroastrianism, one of the world’s oldest monotheistic religions, was founded by Prophet Zoroaster. They believe in one God (Ahura Mazda) who created the world; they believe in the purity of elements and consider fire as God’s light or wisdom; they also believe in dualism, which is separation of good and evil, both within the universe and the mind. (BBC).
Buddhism was founded by Siddharta Gautama, also called Buddha, and now has around 350 million followers (“Major religions ranked by size”). Buddhists do not believe in a God and focus on personal spiritual development. They seek ‘nirvana’, or ‘Enlightenment’ through morality, wisdom and meditation.
References
Major religions ranked by size. Major Religions of the World Ranked by number of adherents. Retrieved from www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html#Buddhism
Religions. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved November 17, 2009, from www.bbc.co.uk.
Taylor, A (n.d.). Top 10 largest religions of the world. American LiveWire. Retrieved September 18, 2013 from http://americanlivewire.com/largest-religions/.
Major Religions of the world. Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. from http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0113529.html
The Christian Faith. ThinkQuest. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/J002592/
