The Influence of World Religions

There are many religions in the world, but some are a lot more well-known than others. Christianity is arguably the biggest religion in the world, and then the other famous religions follow: Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam are a few of the prominent religions that usually come to mind, but world religions are a lot more diverse than people might realize. And although religions seem to have been around for ages, they do change over time. Some world religions have died out for the most partfew people still worship the gods of Greek mythology. Other religions are newly createdScientology is a fairly recently instituted system of belief. And some religions apparently endure, because its hard to think of a time when big religions like Christianity and Buddhism didnt exist unless it was way, way long ago.

World religions can be a pretty controversial topic that strikes a lot of nerves. When it comes to religion all of the controversy tends to focus on Judeo-Christian faiths. These religions are the ones that are viewed as opposing evolution, stem cell research, abortion, gay marriage and such. Atheism is the rejection of all religious belief, but in the media it tends to be pitted against Christianity almost exclusively. Islam is also sometimes a target because of the publics association of Islam with radical terrorists. Culture has often focused on Judeo-Christian faith in general, which could be a product of Eurocentrism. For example, in the classroom other world religions arent covered in depth and a working knowledge of Christian symbols and principles is a huge advantage in understanding popular literature because most of the books read in school tend to be Eurocentric as well. Why do other religions get much less exposure? One possibility is the fact that proselytizing and the rejection of other faiths are common in Judeo-Christian religions. In contrast, other religions dont seem to actively speak out against other faiths and some even accept them.

World religions might seem very different from each other, but they do have common ties. Belief as opposed to non-belief is already a big commonality, but there are some who would say that it runs deeper than that. For example, the famous story of the flood in Christianity is an element found in Greek mythology and even earlier than that in Sumerian religion. This is a concept that would bring world religions together and ironically tear people apart because the world allows for many different points of view and yet they cant logically all be true. This conundrum isnt going to be resolved anytime soon, but one thing is for certainthere are many religions in this world and some of them will always have more influence than others.