Common questions about Religion

Short answers, pulled from the story.

When was the word religion invented and what did it originally mean?

The modern concept of religion was invented in the 16th century to distinguish the domain of the church from the domain of civil authorities. Before the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, the Latin term religio referred to conscientiousness, moral obligation, or duty to anything, including family, neighbors, and rulers. The compartmentalized concept of religion where religious and worldly things were separated was not used before the 1500s.

Who defined religion as a cultural system and what are other scholarly definitions?

The anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined religion as a cultural system while the theologian Antoine Vergote took the term supernatural simply to mean whatever transcends the powers of nature or human agency. The sociologist Émile Durkheim defined religion as a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things which he meant to be things set apart and forbidden. The psychologist William James defined religion as the feelings, acts, and experiences of individual men in their solitude so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine.

Which four religions account for the majority of the world's population and when did they originate?

Four religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism, account for over 77% of the world's population. Christianity is the world's largest religion with about 2.3 billion followers as of 2015 based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth in the 1st century. Islam is the most widely practiced religion of Southeast Asia, North Africa, Western Asia, and Central Asia with about 1.8 billion followers and is a monotheistic religion based on the Quran and the teachings of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the 7th century CE. Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gautama in the 5th century BCE.

How does religion impact political systems and what is the relationship between wealth and religiosity?

Religion has had a significant impact on the political system in many countries with most Muslim-majority countries adopting various aspects of sharia which affects up to 23% of the global population. One study has found there is a negative correlation between self-defined religiosity and the wealth of nations meaning that the richer a nation is the less likely its inhabitants to call themselves religious. According to a study from 2015 Christians hold the largest amount of wealth at 55% of the total world wealth followed by Muslims at 5.8% and Hindus at 3.3%.

What are the origins of religious belief and how do scholars explain the development of religion?

The origin of religious belief is an open question with possible explanations including awareness of individual death, a sense of community, and dreams. Anthropologists John Monaghan and Peter Just state that one thing religion or belief helps us do is deal with problems of human life that are significant, persistent, and intolerable. The development of religion has taken different forms in different cultures with some religions placing an emphasis on belief while others emphasize practice and some religions focusing on the subjective experience of the religious individual.

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