Religion

Religion are a mortal's relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, absolute, spiritual, divine, or worthy of especial reverence.

## Overview

It is commonly regarded as consisting of the way people deal with ultimate concerns about their lives and their fate after death. Different religions may or may not contain various elements, ranging from the divine, sacred, 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.

In many traditions, this relation and these concerns are expressed in terms of one’s relationship with or attitude toward gods or spirits; in more humanistic or naturalistic forms of religion, they are expressed in terms of one’s relationship with or attitudes toward the broader human community or the natural world.

Religious practices may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of the divine or other such beings), sacrifices of living beings including humans, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dances, public service, and many other activities centered around religious beliefs or aspects of human culture. In many religions, texts are deemed to have scriptural status, and people are esteemed to be invested with spiritual or moral authority.

## Description

In many religions, texts are deemed to have scriptural status, and people are esteemed to be invested with spiritual or moral authority. Believers and worshipers participate in and are often enjoined to perform devotional or contemplative practices such as prayer, meditation, or particular rituals. Worship, moral conduct, right belief, and participation in religious institutions are among the constituent elements of the religious life.

Ancient polytheistic religions, such as those of Greece, Rome, and Scandinavia, are usually categorized under the heading of mythology. Religions of pre-industrial peoples, or cultures in development, are similarly called "myths" in the anthropology of religion. The term "myth" can be used pejoratively by both religious and non-religious people. By defining another person's religious stories and beliefs as mythology, one implies that they are less real or true than one's own religious stories and beliefs.

### Timeline of Religions

* Neanderthal Bear Worship - Unknown - ± 200000 BC
* Löwenmensch religion - Monotheist? - ± 38000 BC
* Venus religion - Monotheist? - ± 35000 BC
* Zuism - Polytheist - ± 4000 BC
* Bantu religion - Animist - ± 3000 BC
* Kemetism - Polytheist - ± 3000 BC
* Canaanite religion - Polytheist - ± 3000 BC
* Hinduism - Various - ± 2300
* Sarkicism - Monotheist - ± 1800 BC
* Atenism - Monotheist - ± 1348 BC
* Zoroastrianism - Polytheist - ± 1100 BC
* Hellenism - Polytheist - ± 900 BC
* Judaism - Monotheist - ± 900 BC
* Buddhism - Various - ± 520 BC
* Jainism - Transtheist - ± 500 BC
* Christianity - Monotheist - 30-33 AD
* Catholicism - Monotheist - 440 AD
* Shintoism - Polytheist - ± 600 AD
* Islam - Monotheist - 620 AD
* Catharism - Monotheist - 1143 AD
* Kabbalah - Monotheist - 1270 AD
* Protestantism - Monotheist - 1517 AD
* Children of the Scarlet King - Monotheist - 1787 AD
* Mormonism - Henotheist - 1820 AD
* Esoteric Order of Dagon - Polytheist - ± 1840 AD
* Baháʼí Faith - Monotheist - 1844 AD
* Church of the Broken God - Monotheist - ± 1920 AD
* Rastafarianism - Monotheist - 1930 AD
* Scientology - Atheist - 1952 AD
* Wicca - Polytheist - 1954 AD
* Satanism - Various - 1966 AD
* Pastafarianism - Monotheist - 2005 AD
* Ayinnism - Polytheist - 20XX AD

## Quotes

* *"No one really sure why humans have religion, they just do. Ever since they first came out of their caverns, they had already worshipped tons of things. Fire, earth, animals, the sun and moon, stars, a mother's womb... For as long as human had been in this world, they have been believing in something greater than their imagination, in gods and divinities above, regardless whether they existed or not. Through their belief in the divine, they shaped themselves and their societies, less so on how these gods truly felt but based on how these humans believed these gods would feel. Countless miseries, countless blessings. All of them are contributed to religion."* - Matt Wright.

* *"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction,* and *to keep himself unspotted from the world."* - James 1:27.

## Image Sources

* (Religion.jpg) Religion (1896) by Charles Sprague Pearce
* (World Religions.jpg) Religions from History of Religion