Introduction



SURVEY OF RELIGIONS & CULTS

LECTURE 1a

INTRODUCTION

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.

In one short sentence, religion is the respect for what is sacred, a reverence for God (or the gods).

Wikipedia

The most frequent way of listing world religions is according to what has become known as “The Classical World Religions List.” This list contains the following world religions (in alphabetical order):

· Bahai

· Buddhism

· Christianity

· Confucianism

· Hinduism

· Islam

· Jainism

· Shinto

· Sikhism

· Taoism

· Zoroastrianism

Here is a listing of the ‘authoritative book’ for each false religion:

· Baha’is’ - The Kitab-i-Aqbas

· Buddhism’s - Dhammapada

· Confucius’ - Analects

· Hindu’s - The Bhagavad Gita

· Islam’s - Qur’an

· Jainist’s - Agamas

· Shinto’s - Kojiki

· Sikh’s - Guru Granth Sahib

· Taoist’s - Tao-te-ching

· Zoroastrianism’s - Avesta

Is Christianity unique? Is it the only ‘right’ religion? Consider these famous sayings by followers of Christianity:

This is the unique element in the gospel, which tells us that what we could never do, God has done. We cannot climb up to heaven to discover God, but God has come down to earth, in the person of his Son, to reveal himself to us in the only way we could really understand: in terms of a human life. J. N. D. Anderson

The distinction between Christianity and all other systems of religion consists largely in this, that in these others, men are found seeking after God, while Christianity is God seeking after men. Thomas Arnold, Literature and Dogma

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are very wise and beautiful; but I never read in either of them: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give thee rest.” Augustine of Hippo

There are many religions in the world, but only one Christianity, for only Christianity has a God who gave himself for mankind. World religions attempt to reach up to God; Christianity is God reaching down to man. Billy Graham

Do we have a right to defy the whole world, to boast that only our cause is right? We must conclude: I know that my cause is right, though the whole world may say otherwise. Do not think: I shall stay with the majority, for the fact that the greater part of mankind is in darkness is nothing new.

Martin Luther

Only the Judeo-Christian tradition contains worship of an infinite personal being. Francis Schaeffer

The Christian religion is distinctive in that it claims that God can be known as a personal God only in his self-revelation in the Scriptures. Francis Schaeffer

Christianity is a religion of salvation, and there is nothing in the non-Christian religions to compare with this message of a God who loved, and came after, and died for, a world of lost sinners. John Stott

Our claim to uniqueness is not of a system or church but Jesus Christ alone. The uniqueness of Jesus Christ and his finality, that we alone defend. John Stott

Every religion except one puts upon you doing something in order to recommend yourself to God. It is only the religion of Christ which was not sold out to us on certain conditions to be fulfilled by ourselves. Augustus Toplady

Islam vs. Christianity

At present, numerically, the largest world religion is Christianity (assuming that Protestants and non-Protestants are included under the broad heading of “Christian”). It is also generally agreed that the second largest world religion is Islam. Islam is growing at a significantly faster rate each year than Christianity. Indeed, it is the fastest growing major religion in the world today. From a population base of 200 million in 1900, Islam grew more than fivefold during the twentieth century.

The change in Muslim/Roman Catholic demographics over the past thirty years is striking. In 1970 there were 554 million Muslims in the world, and 666 million Roman Catholics. But it has been estimated that if the present rates of growth of Islam and Christianity remain constant, by about 2015 Islam will have replaced Christianity as the world’s largest religion.

The following is a listing of the largest (top 20) countries (via population) and their predominant religion:

1 China Taoist

2 India Hindu (also has 200 million Muslims)

3 United States Christianity (mostly Protestant)

4 Indonesia Muslim

5 Brazil Christianity (mostly Roman Catholic)

6 Russia Christianity (Russian Orthodox)

7 Pakistan Islam

8 Bangladesh Islam

9 Japan Shinto and Buddhism

10 Nigeria Islam

11 Mexico Christianity (Roman Catholic)

12 Germany Christianity (Protestant)

13 Philippines Christianity (Roman Catholic)

14 Vietnam Buddhist

15 Egypt Islam

16 Turkey Islam

17 Iran Islam

18 Ethiopia Islam

19 Thailand Buddhism

20 United Kingdom Christianity (Protestant)

Christians usually emphasize the numerical strength of Christianity, for while there were under 660 million Christians in the world in 1900, there were 2 billion in the year 2000. But these figures are less impressive when looked at in the light of the increase in world population and the advances made by many other world religions. For example, in 1900, 34.5% of the world’s population were Christians, but in 2002 that number had decreased to only 33.1%.

(the above sections were excerpted from ‘Encyclopedia of World Religions, Cults and the Occult’)

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