![]() Hinduism is believed to have emerged on the Indian subcontinent between the 15 th and 5 th centuries BCE, making it the oldest of the current world religions. These increases in religious adherents are largely driven by high fertility rates in regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where religious observance is stronger, and low fertility in more secular regions.Īrchaeological evidence suggests that humans have showed proclivities towards belief in the supernatural long before the invention of organized religion, however the roots of today's major religions lie in early antiquity. While in some regions, particularly Western Europe and East Asia, religious adherence is currently in sharp decline, the number of religious adherents as a share of world population is in fact predicted to increase over the coming century. Examples of this trend include hardline Christian conservative movements in the U.S., the resurgence of Christian influence in former-Eastern Bloc states, Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as Hindu nationalism in India. In spite of a trend towards secularism in the 20 th century, whereby there is a strict separation between the religious organizations and the state, the turn of the 21 st century has seen some notable cases of growing religious influence in politics. In addition to their roles as belief systems, religions are also socio-cultural systems which have often historically been tightly linked with governing authority, defining the limits of acceptable behavior and morality, as well as leaders claiming to have been chosen or to represent their respective God(s). Most commonly, religion is associated with a belief in one God (monotheism) or several gods (polytheism), supernatural beings who are often believed to be all-powerful and all-knowing - although this is not always the case, with Buddhism being the most prominent example of a world religion which has no deity or god (nontheism). Religions are generally defined as systems of belief, morality, and behavior, which can be centered on the spiritual, supernatural, and superhuman. ![]() Generally speaking, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism are considered the five major world religions, although Sikhism, Shintoism, or Taoism may also be studied in this field (all three of which have larger follower bases than Judaism). World religions refer to major organized religions that have a significant global influence, with followers all over the world, and a basic understanding of their beliefs among people of other cultures.
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