What Are the Different Types of Religion?

Christianity

Perhaps one of the most, if not the most, identifiable religion is Christianity. Approximately 2.1 billion people in the world follow this religion, and they believe in the practices of Jesus Christ. They also believe in the Ten Commandments, the Resurrection of Christ, and the Second Coming, when God will judge the righteous from the evil. Christianity includes:

Roman Catholics
Protestants
Christian Scientists
Jehovah's Witnesses
Evangelicals
Latter-day Saints

Judaism

Closely related to Christianity is Judaism. They both believe in the same Old Testament Bible. However, Christians believe that Jesus Christ, the son of God, has already come to Earth to save humans from their sins.

Jews believe that we are still waiting for him to come to Earth. There are three main movements of Judaism today:

Orthodox
Conservative
Reformed

Islam

Considered one of the most popular religions along with Christianity and Judaism, Islamics worship Allah, the Arabic word for God. They also believe that no other statue of any sort may be worshipped, which is similar to the practices of the Protestant Christian denomination.

Some statistics suggest that there are more practicing Muslims in the world than Christians.

Primal Indigenous

People who are believers in these types of religions generally have foundations in paganism or shamanism. The religions vary, and primal indigenous is not the name for one singular religion, but rather a group of similar religions. Followers often believe in concepts such as:

Spirits found in nature
Worship and practice of tribal religion

Unitarian Universalism

Perhaps the most liberal religion out there today, Unitarian Universalism encompasses practices from many different religious faiths, but also incorporates elements of spirituality. They say that their mission is to seek the truth via different channels of religion and spirituality. A number of Unitarian Universalist churches are based on Christianity. Some others are based on Buddhism and Paganism.

Shinto

Approximately 80% of people living in Japan claim that they are members of the Shinto religion. However, Shinto is not just a religion, but also a way of celebrating the Japanese culture and history.

In Japan, people will claim to be adherents of a religion if they were baptized into the faith. They do not necessarily practice the religion any longer. They might practice any other of a number of religions, but still also consider themselves Shinto.

Other Religions

Covering every single religion is not possible, because there are so many sects and types. Furthermore, people sometimes take it upon themselves to create their own religions.

What follows is a list of some of the other religions practiced around the world:

Hinduism
Buddhism
Chinese traditional religion
African traditional
African Diasporic
Sikhism
Juche
Spiritism
Animism
Baha'i
Jainism
Cao Dai
General spirituality
Eclectic blends of different religions
Zoroastrianism
Tenrikyo
Neo-paganism
Scientology
Rastafarianism

Why Religions Are Important

We can see religion play a role in a significant number of lives worldwide. Less than 10% of the population claim to be atheists, meaning that they do not believe in any God or gods.

Understanding different religions is an extremely important part of culture, because it is all around us. Furthermore, looking at the practices of different religions, as well as the wide diversity of religions in the world, does not necessarily have to shake our own faiths, but rather provide a much broader perspective on a very important element of life.