Many Religions​—Their Influence Today

FROM the meditation of a Zen Buddhist in Japan to the self-inflicted torture of a Hindu holy man in India, from the chant of an Islamic muezzin in the Middle East to the ecstatic utterances of a Pentecostalist in Central America, from the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, to the mass wedding in Seoul, Korea, the diversity of religious beliefs and practices throughout the world is truly astounding. No matter who you are or where you live, in one way or another your life is touched by religion.

Just how many religions are there? There seem to be as many answers to this question as there are researchers and statisticians who have tackled the problem. Counting all the denominations, groups, subgroups and cults, the total number must be in the tens of thousands.

Do you live in a land of Christendom? It has been stated that there are 10,000 denominations and sects. However, the recently published World Christian Encyclopedia claims that there are 2,050 denominations of Christian churches in the United States alone, and worldwide that number runs up to 20,000. Claiming a total membership of nearly one and a half billion, or about a third of the world’s population, it is the largest religious body in the world.

Perhaps you live in a country where Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism predominates. With their many groups and divisions, they also claim members in the hundreds of millions. Then there are the Shintoists, the Sikhs, the Jains, the Zoroastrians, the Taoists, the Confucians and the Baha’is, to name but a few of the better-known religions. In fact, according to the above-mentioned publication, all but about 20 percent of the people of the world claim to belong to one religion or another. (See the accompanying diagram.)

Dwindling or Flourishing?

But perhaps you feel that in our modern 20th-century society religion is no longer an important factor in people’s lives. In certain parts of the world this may appear to be the case. People seem ever so busy pursuing a materialistic way of life. They show little or no interest in religious matters. Perhaps you know of people like that. And you may also have seen large, centuries-old, historic churches being closed or converted to theaters, dance halls, markets or other commercial uses. It appears as if religion is on its way out.

On the other hand, you may live where there is much talk of a religious revival. For example, a report from Nairobi, Kenya, dealing with the expansion of the churches in Africa, says: “There is no doubt that Christianity is extraordinarily successful here. Every year, 6 million new believers join the 180 million Christians who now make up about 40 percent of the continent’s population. Christians, outpacing their Moslem rivals, are making so many converts and raising so many children that Africa could contain the world’s biggest body of church members within 20 years.”

Even in communist lands like Russia and China, reports show that after decades of official atheism, religion still has a strong hold on the people. “It is estimated that up to 77 million Soviet citizens, out of a population of 267 million, consider themselves believers​—mostly in the Russian Orthodox, Moslem, Roman Catholic, Baptist, Jewish and Lutheran faiths,” says U.S.News & World Report.

In China, besides the official count of some four million people who pack out the few churches that have been reopened since the late 1970’s, “there are between 25 and 50 million believers in house churches,” according to the China Church Research Center in Hong Kong. And a report from Peking appearing in New Zealand’s The Auckland Star says: “The official Chinese press describes the countryside of 800 million peasants as a macabre, medieval world where 30 years of communism have had virtually no impact on abiding folk religion.”

Clearly, then, even in the last quarter of the 20th century, there are still many religions around the world and they continue to exert a profound influence on the lives of millions of people. Inevitably, the questions come to mind: Why are there so many religions? Throughout the world, what kind of fruitage have they produced? And, most importantly, how is all of this affecting each of us?

[Diagram/​Map on page 4]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Religions of the World

(Figures in Millions)

Christian (1,433)

Buddhist (274)

Confucian and Taoist (198)

Othersa (252)

Nonreligious (911)

Hindu (583)

Muslim (723)

[Footnotes]