Claim: Islam is a system of faith.

Religion is any cultural system of designated behaviors and practices , world views , texts , sanctified places , ethics , or organizations , that relate humanity to the supernatural or transcendental . Religions relate humanity to what anthropologist Clifford Geertz has referred to as a cosmic `` order of existence '' .   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 -LRB- of deities -RRB- , 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 have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life , the Universe and other things . 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 one of the five largest religions , namely Christianity , Islam , Hinduism , Buddhism or forms of folk religion .   With the onset of the modernisation of and the scientific revolution in the western world , some aspects of religion have cumulatively been criticized . The religiously unaffiliated demographic include 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 encompasses 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 .