Portal:Religion
The Religion Portal
Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, and spiritual elements; however, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.
Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from the divine, sacred things, faith, a supernatural being or supernatural beings or "some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life". Religious practices may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of deities and/or saints), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture. Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are sometimes said by followers to be true, that may also attempt to explain the origin of life, the universe, and other phenomena. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source of religious beliefs.
There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide. About 84% of the world's population is affiliated with Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, or some form of folk religion. The religiously unaffiliated demographic includes those who do not identify with any particular religion, atheists, and agnostics. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs.
The study of religion comprises a wide variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion and social scientific studies. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, including the ontological foundations of religious being and belief. (Full article...)
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Did you know (auto-generated)
Did you know (auto-generated)- ... that Rabbi Reuven Elbaz used to frequent pool halls and coffee shops around Jerusalem to talk with secular Jewish youth about religion?
- ... that sympathetic accounts of Norway's first Christian kings include descriptions of them committing gruesome torture against pagans, but non-sympathetic accounts do not?
- ... that Hewahewa, a high priest of the Hawaiian religion, supported the abolition of the kapu system and the introduction of Christianity?
- ... that in her 2021 book White Evangelical Racism, professor of religion Anthea Butler called American evangelicalism a pro-Trump, "nationalistic political movement"?
- ... that some stone circles such as Stonehenge were perhaps great graveyards of honoured spiritual leaders in prehistoric religion?
- ... that the Polish public-television film Invasion "depicted LGBT rights activists as a foreign-backed threat to Polish children, religion, values, and the very biological continuation of the nation"?
Featured pictures
Young monks in Cambodia at Buddhism in Cambodia, by JJ Harrison (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
B'nai B'rith membership certificate, by Louis Kurz (edited by Durova and Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Mandala, unknown author (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Omer calendar at Counting of the Omer, by Baruch Zvi Ring (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Cheyenne sun dance gathering, by Henry Chaufty (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Giant Skrymir and Thor at Útgarða-Loki, by Louis Huard (edited by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Meleager et Atalanta at Calydonian Boar, by Giulio Romano and François Louis Lonsing (edited by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Battle at Lanka, Ramayana, by Sahibdin (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Martyrdom of Joseph and Hiram Smith at Death of Joseph Smith, by G.W. Fasel and Charles G. Crehen (edited by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
A Word of Comfort caricature at Joseph Priestley, by Dent William (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Shroud of Turin, by Giuseppe Enrie (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Psalm 23, unknown author (edited by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Folio from a Quran, unknown author (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Giant Suttung and the Dwarfs at Suttungr, by Louis Huard (restored by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Devotees during Lathmar Holi, by Narender9 (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Revelation 22:17 at Book of Revelation, by Joseph Martin Kronheim (edited by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Nias megalith, by Ludwig Borutta (edited by Durova) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Joshua passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant, by Benjamin West (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
Achilles sacrificing to Zeus for Patroclus' safe return at Ambrosian Iliad, unknown author (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
A Virgin with a Unicorn, by Domenichino (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
The Punishment of Loki, by Louis Huard (edited by Adam Cuerden) (from Wikipedia:Featured pictures/Culture, entertainment, and lifestyle/Religion and mythology)
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Top 10 WikiProject Religion Popular articles of the month
The Bible (from Koine Greek τὰ βιβλία, tà biblía, 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other faiths. It appears in the form of an anthology, a compilation of texts of a variety of forms, originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Koine Greek. These texts include instructions, stories, poetry, and prophesies, among other genres. The collection of materials that are accepted as part of the Bible by a particular religious tradition or community is called a biblical canon. Believers generally consider the Bible to be a product of divine inspiration while understanding what that means in different ways. (Full article...)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/ˈɡɑːndi, ˈɡændi/; GAHN-dee; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and to later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "great-souled", "venerable"), first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa, is now used throughout the world. (Full article...)
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist who became the most visible spokesman and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. An African American church leader and the son of early civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Sr., King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi. His role in leading the cause of civil rights in the South differed in style from the previous accommodationist stances represented by Booker T. Washington and black-and-tan faction leader Perry Wilbon Howard II. (Full article...)
Cruise at the 2019 San Diego Comic-Con
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962) is an American actor and producer. One of the world's highest-paid actors, he has received various accolades throughout his career, including three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for a British Academy Film Award and three Academy Awards. His films have grossed over $4 billion in North America and over $10.1 billion worldwide, making him one of the highest-grossing box office stars of all time. (Full article...)
Einstein in 1921, by Ferdinand Schmutzer
Albert Einstein (/ˈaɪnstaɪn/ EYEN-styne; German: [ˈalbɛʁt ˈʔaɪnʃtaɪn] (
listen); 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist, widely acknowledged to be one of the greatest physicists of all time. Einstein is best known for developing the theory of relativity, but he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics. Relativity and quantum mechanics are together the two pillars of modern physics. His mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc2, which arises from relativity theory, has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation". His work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect", a pivotal step in the development of quantum theory. His intellectual achievements and originality resulted in "Einstein" becoming synonymous with "genius". (Full article...)
From the Auschwitz Album: Hungarian Jews arriving at Auschwitz II in German-occupied Poland, May 1944. Most were "selected" to go to the gas chambers. Camp prisoners are visible in their striped uniforms.
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out in pogroms and mass shootings; by a policy of extermination through labor in concentration camps; and in gas chambers and gas vans in German extermination camps, chiefly Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bełżec, Chełmno, Majdanek, Sobibór, and Treblinka in occupied Poland. (Full article...)- Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. Leading AI textbooks define the field as the study of "intelligent agents": any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals. (Full article...)
Malcolm X (Malik el-Shabazz, born Malcolm Little; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the black community. (Full article...)
Hanks at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival
Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks's films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America. (Full article...)
The Annunciation Cathedral in Kharkiv is one of the tallest Orthodox churches in the world. Its construction was completed in 1888.
Religion in Ukraine is diverse, with a majority of the population adhering to Christianity. A 2018 survey conducted by the Razumkov Centre found that 71.7% of the population declared themselves believers. About 67.3% of the population declared adherence to one or another strand of Orthodox Christianity (28.7% of the Kyiv Patriarchate, 23.4% state simply 'Orthodox' with no declaration as to which Patriarchate they belong to, 12.8% of the Moscow Patriarchate, 0.3% Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, and 1.9% other types of Orthodoxy), 7.7% Christian with no declared denominational affiliation, 9.4% Ukrainian Byzantine Rite Catholics, 2.2% Protestants and 0.8% Latin Rite Catholics, 2.5% Islam, Judaism was 0.4%; while a small percentage follow Hinduism, Buddhism and Paganism (Rodnovery). A further 11.0% declared themselves non-religious or unaffiliated. According to the surveys conducted by Razumkov in the 2000s and early 2010s, such proportions have remained relatively constant throughout the last decade, while the proportion of believers overall has decreased from 76% in 2014 to 70% in 2016 and 72% in 2018. (Full article...)
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| Conceptions of God |
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