Religion Comprising Rituals Moral Codes Superstitions And Mythology

Sociologists and anthropologist have variously defined religion. At the basic level, it is a set of commonly-held beliefs and values followed by a group of people who share a single notion of sacred truth. Religious practices and beliefs may take the form of individual devotional practices or find expression in communal worship.

At its core, religion comprises of a set of beliefs which considers a system of thought, a person, an unseen presence or an object to be supernatural, divine and an embodiment of the highest truths. Besides being expressed in various forms of worship, religion also includes centuries of culture, mythology, sacred writings and history. It is also inextricably linked with a network of rituals, moral codes, superstitions and various institutions, which hold sway over the day-to-day existence of its followers.

On the basis of history and shared influence, religions have been classified into several super groups. The group of Abrahamic religion is the largest and includes Christianity, Islam and Judaism, the first two of which together accounts for half the believers in the world. These religions share the precept of monotheism and trace their origins from the Biblical patriarch Abraham.

The second biggest religious group has its origin in India and includes Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. These religions are unified by their common belief in the concept of karma and the law of dharma. Followers of this group of religion are spread over the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia and East Asia. Sikhism however has some distinct beliefs and shares many ideas with Islam and Sufism.

Far Eastern religions include Shintoism, Confucianism, Taoism, Caodaism, Chondogyo and Yiguando. This group of religious faiths is chiefly followed in countries like China, Japan, Korea and other East Asian countries. Different sects of this group of religion share some common beliefs, central to which is the concept of Tao in Chinese or Do in Japanese. However they are mostly syncretic and have deeply influenced each other since thousands of years.

Other than these groups of organized religion, people in many parts of the world follow ancient religious practices, which pertain to certain tribes and indigenous cultures. This category includes traditional religions of African, Indian, Native American and Australian Aboriginal tribes. All around the world, religious practices and beliefs are in constant dynamic relation with emerging concepts of science, technology and modernity. Religion