Philosophy of Religion |
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Chapter 1. OVERVIEW |
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Section 5 . Religions of the World |
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There have been many forms of social and individual experience that have been characterized as religious by scholars. Some of the forms of religious belief and association and action are no longer experienced by humans. Others are quite actively experienced and constitute some of the most important elements in the lives of humans all over this globe. Those that are still being practiced are often termed "living". At the start of this millennium there are over 6.2 billion people on the planet earth. Most of them would declare that they are religious in some way. Rough estimates are made that place people in the various traditions. Here is a tabulation from adherents.com and available at: http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html (Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.) Last modified 13 June 2001.
This information is from Adherents.com
: a growing collection of over 62,000 adherent statistics and religious
geography citations -- references to published membership/adherent
statistics and congregation statistics for over 4,200 religions,
churches, denominations, religious bodies, faith groups, tribes, cultures,
movements, ultimate concerns, etc. The three religions that are proselytizing religions, seeking more members actively are: Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Islam is the fastest growing of the traditions and will most likely have the most adherents in the world by 2020. Characteristics of Religion These are the common characteristics or family traits of those members of the category or “family” of religion. Just as with family members not every member must have every trait but most have most of the traits. The more any human phenomena demonstrates these traits the more likely it is that it will be included into this category of social institutions known as religion. Common Characteristics: (family traits)
This text will present information the largest of the world's religions in chapter two. in that presentation it should become fairly obvious how those religions do exemplify the characteristics or traits listed above that has each of them accepted as a "religion". |
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