By Haddon Libby
Religion. Napoleon Bonaparte once said it is, “…what keeps the poor from murdering the rich” while Helen Keller said, “It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving…the devil would die.”
There are approximately 4,200 religions worldwide. Each religion can be subdivided into one of three groupings: global, local or new. Within those subdivisions, religions are categorized as monotheistic, polytheistic or pantheistic.
Monotheism is the belief in one God. Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Mormon are some of the largest examples of this type of religion. Polytheism is the belief in many Gods. While ancient Roman and Greek societies were the most widely known examples of polytheism, it continues today in Hinduism, Shinto in Japan and neopagan religions like Wicca (a belief system based on witchcraft). Pantheism is the belief that God is present in everything. Taoism is the best example of this belief in modern culture although pantheistic beliefs are present to some degree in most religions.
The world currently serves as home to 7 billion people with 70% of all people following one of three religions: Christianity with 2.2 billion followers, Islam with 1.8 billion followers and Hinduism with 1 billion. It is estimated that nearly another billion people identify themselves as having no religious affiliation with that population of defined as agnostic or atheist. Agnostics believe that human reason is incapable of knowing or justifying whether God exists and if God exists, which religion is most accurate. Atheists do not believe that God exists.
Smaller traditional or tribal religions in China and Africa make up another 500 million people while Buddhism represents nearly 400 million people.
All of the other religions of the world represent less than 200 million people with the best known being Sikhism (23 million), Judaism (14 million), Mormonism (9 million), Bahá’í (7 million), Shinto (4 million), the ancient Iranian religion, Zoroastrianism (2.6 million), Neo-paganism (1 million), Unitary Universalism (800,000) and Rastafarianism (600,000).
The Church of Scientology with followers like Tom Cruise and John Travolta was created in 1950 by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard via his book, Dianetics. Scientology touts “millions of members” despite Census polls that suggest 50,000 followers. Followers of this religion believe that we are immortal alien spirits called thetans trapped in Earthly “meat bodies.”
One of the odder religions is The Church of Euthansia founded by Chris Korda. Their/her four core beliefs include suicide, abortion, sodomy and cannabalism of the dead. Their/her belief structure is that there are too many humans and as such we need to reduce our presence to become more in line with nature. Chris Korda, 52, a cross-gendered vegetarian, is the daughter of Simon & Schuster’s editor Michael Korda. To date, she has not followed at least three of her four core beliefs.
Making Scientology seem mainstream, Nuwaubianism was founded in 1993 by Dwight York. York is currently serving a prison sentence for child molestation and money laundering. Originated as a Black Muslim group, it evolved into a group that believes that we need to “bury our afterbirth” so that Satan does not make replicas of us. Nuwaubianists believe that aborted fetuses live in sewers and are gathering to take over the world while each of us have seven clones living amongst us here on Earth. Also, “the Illuminati” had Satan’s son born by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis on 6/6/66 at the Dakota House in New York City that was raised by former President Richard Nixon. Satan’s son now lives in Belgium where he is hooked up to a computer.
No matter your belief system, tolerance and coexistence is so important as all of the strife caused by conflicts in the Middle East prove to us every day.
In the end, “the truth”, whatever that is, will be known to all of us.
