What is RELIGION?

"Religion is any specific system of belief about deity, often involving rituals, a code of ethics,
and a philosophy of life."


How Americans View Themselves

 

There are many, long established, major world religions,
each with over three million followers.
We have shown the five largest North American religions in bold:

• Baha'i Faith
• Buddhism
• Christianity; 
  Christian groups, denominations and families
   
• Confucianism
   
• Hinduism
   
• Islam
• Jainism
• Judaism
• Shinto
• Sikhism
• Taoism
• Vodun (Voodoo)

₁ Neopagan Religious Faiths

Neopagan faiths are modern-day reconstructions of ancient Pagan religions from various countries and eras.
They experience a high but diminishing level of discrimination and persecution in North America. They were once rarely practiced in public for reasons of safety. This is rapidly changing for the better.

• Asatru (Norse Paganism) *
• Druidism
• Goddess Worship
• Wicca
• Witchcraft

Notes:

•  Many followers of Asatru regard themselves as "Heathens" rather than "Neopagans." 
• Many followers of these religions refer to themselves as "Pagans." We use the term "Neopagan"
  because it is less ambiguous. "Pagan" has a variety of unrelated meanings.

Other organized Religions

These are smaller religions, with a well defined belief in deity, humanity and the rest of the universe.
Of the many hundreds of faith groups in the world, we have chosen these because of their historical significance,
or because of the massive amount of misinformation that has been spread about them in North America:

• Caodaism
• Damanhur Community
• Druze
• Eckankar
• Elian Gonzalez religious movement
• Gnosticism
• Gypsies
• Hare Krishna - ISKCON
• Ifa, the religion of the Yoruba people of West Africa
• Lukumi
• Macumba
• Mowahhidoon
• Native American Spirituality
• Rom, Roma, Romani, Rroma, (a.k.a. Gypsies)
• Santeria
  • Elian Gonzalez religious movement
• Satanism; The Church of Satan
• Scientology
• Unitarian-Universalism
• The Creativity Movement (formerly called World Church of the Creator)
• The Yazidi branch of Yazdânism
• Zoroastrianism

Related sections and essays in this web site:

• Ethical groups, philosophies, spiritual paths, etc. Atheism to Vampirism
• Comparison of beliefs among different religious groups
• General information about religion
• A glossary of religious terms
• A list of books on religion and spirituality
• Selecting holy texts from the world's religions for public meditation rooms, personal library, etc..

More Religion in Media Online: Belief.net