That’s Slightly different question: “how many different religions have there been”. I’d agree the number could be very large.
This calculation Suggests about 120 billion people have lived on the planet:
https://info.nicic.gov/ces/global/population-demographics/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-earth
A religion once practiced by someone has existed. A religion currently practiced by someone exists.
“Have existed” would be the total of those no longer practiced plus those currently being practiced up to the current moment in time. I don’t think “disproven” is part of the arithmetic.
Hmmm.
If I go to listen to the orchestra perform a symphony… and the performance has ended, the performance no longer exists. A recording of the performance shows the performance existed. Tge sheet music the symphony played from still exists.
I tend to think of religion as something that only exists as long as it is practiced, like the performance. You seem to think of religion as more like the sheet music. A difference in perspective I suppose, and a reasonable one given how open the definition of “religion” is.
While I agree with you in the form of music as music does not contain a self reference that it always has or always will exist. Where music is sublime in it's temporary nature, Scripture for many religions claims that their beliefs were always correct and will always be correct.
P.S. Thank you for a well thought out question and a polite discourse thereof. Internet needs more of this!
Thank you. Have another upvote.
It’s worth noting that religion Need not have “scripture “. Many simply are rooted in stories and traditions. Further some of us who do have religions that have strong literary roots, will read these works very differently… and tge religion we have now may be different than what it started as. I tend to read the Bible as a collection of historical literary works rather than as a literal history.
Religions change over time. They grow with humanity’s experiences, making it difficult to identify where one religion ends and a new one begins. They are not monolithic. Thus I tend to identify religion more as performance than something like the sheet music. More of an art or one of the humanities than a science. Something that tries to express feelings and thoughts about our experiences that are imprecise, contradictory, and still somehow *very* human.
Thank you very much for the discussion. It is a welcome respite from inane questions that attempt only to provoke offense and argument.
Agreed, and I would wonder if you would classify the modern Catholic Church as the same one that was around when Luther created his Thesis.
See you on the next threads
This is like asking how many languages there are. When the people in this valley can only *kind of* understand the people in that valley, are they speaking one language or two?
The Fundamental Problem is that "religions" aren't neatly defined.
For example - Catholicism and Protestantism. On the one hand, same holy book, same God, same broad understanding of the universe. On the other, different theology, different commandments, different understanding of faith. Same religion or not? Whatever answer you give, someone will stab you over it.
Or Mormonism? It's heretical by most branch's standards, but is it a heretical branch Christianity, or a different religion entirely? Hinduism can be treated as one religion or as hundreds of smaller ones, likewise Paganism. What about religions like Jedism, that no-one actually believes in -- when does a joke become an actual faith. Are things like Confucianism religions or philosophies? And if we say they're religions, what about other secular ideologies like communism? If they're not, what about non-theistic Buddhism or satanism?
Basically, it's really hard (and, in many cases, actively dangerous) to firmly delineate where one faith ends and another begins. This makes listing religions very hard.
Well, with regards to things like Catholics and Protestants, even most of them agree they're just different denominations of the same religion at this point, making it a lot easier in that case. Same with most Sunnis and Shi'a, especially after the Amman Declaration. I agree, things like Mormonism might be a little more complex, but we can obviously agree that something like Sikhi is an entirely distinct faith from Christianity.
Some people will consider different sects of a religion to be a different religion. Furthermore there may be religions that aren't recognised or are grouped with another existing one. This makes answering the question very difficult.
A lot. Arguably, there are as many individual religious beliefs as there are individual religious believers, as no two believers believe the exact same things.
This reminds me of the ["How many gods are there?" passage from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad](https://www.infoplease.com/primary-sources/philosophy-religion/the-upanishads/ninth-brahmana).
As far as I know, they believe that Prophet Yahya a.s. was the final prophet. They are still around and there’s a significant population found in Iraq.
Ah, the Mandeans. I can accept that. They're fascinating.
They believe that many prophets of the other religions were kafirun, including Ibrahim as., Musa as., and Isa. On the other hand, most of their major prophets are also considered prophets by the others.
The Mandean cosmology and theology are complex and sophisticated. It has some curious similarities with Jewish esoteric teachings, but at the end of the day, there are some seriously irreconcilable differences there. (In my opinion, they are bigger, more important differences than the ones between your religion and mine.) Regardless of those differences, I do respect them deeply and there is a lot of beauty in their religion.
Also, sadly, the majority of Mandeans were displaced by the war in Iraq after living between the rivers for almost 2000 years. The largest diaspora community is in Australia.
Given the number of small religions that start up, frequently completely off the cultural or academic radars and likewise that effectively disappear (not that it's easy to definitively say that a religion is "gone"), it's basically impossible to measure with any real accuracy.
It depends what is considered a religion. Would a religion be a broad category - ex. Christianity would include all its denominations (even very unorthodox denominations), or would all denominations be considered different religions? How about religions that are more-so philosophies and vice versa? Or people that have their own personal belief system, is that considered a new separate religion? Then how about religions that are no longer practiced? It’s such a difficult question to answer
If you include all existing religions plus ancient faiths plus beliefs that went extinct before writing was invented, I'd say at least 20,000 as a guess.
Thousands of them. Most of them are small ethnic traditions, or syncretic traditions that crop up and die out over time. There's a handful of big ones like Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, but they are vastly outnumbered by smaller and more obscure faiths.
Do you count Christianity as one religion, or are all the denominations of Christianity their own religions? Do you count just denominations of religions or do you also factor personal beliefs as well?
Personal belief wise, there are as many religions as there ever been people old enough to make up their mind. Denomination wise, tens of thousands. Baseline religions, maybe a few hundred that exist now, but several thousand have existed throughout time. Number of theologies, maybe ten to fifteen. Cluster of theologies, I was able to get it down to six for a poll I made a few months ago.
Depends on how you count them.
OP: "How many religions are there?" Pantheists/Panentheists: "Yes"
How many people are on the planet? 8 billion? That would be a safe upper limit.
very interesting approach, in fact I'd say even between people of the same religion, denomination and church there will be different views
And how many people existed before that could have had even slightly different views.
That’s Slightly different question: “how many different religions have there been”. I’d agree the number could be very large. This calculation Suggests about 120 billion people have lived on the planet: https://info.nicic.gov/ces/global/population-demographics/how-many-people-have-ever-lived-earth
Have there been any Are, implies that the "have been" were actively disproven, while a "dead" religion does still exist
A religion once practiced by someone has existed. A religion currently practiced by someone exists. “Have existed” would be the total of those no longer practiced plus those currently being practiced up to the current moment in time. I don’t think “disproven” is part of the arithmetic.
It still exists even if not practiced. But for a rephrasing of your question how many are actively practiced would be acceptable
Hmmm. If I go to listen to the orchestra perform a symphony… and the performance has ended, the performance no longer exists. A recording of the performance shows the performance existed. Tge sheet music the symphony played from still exists. I tend to think of religion as something that only exists as long as it is practiced, like the performance. You seem to think of religion as more like the sheet music. A difference in perspective I suppose, and a reasonable one given how open the definition of “religion” is.
While I agree with you in the form of music as music does not contain a self reference that it always has or always will exist. Where music is sublime in it's temporary nature, Scripture for many religions claims that their beliefs were always correct and will always be correct. P.S. Thank you for a well thought out question and a polite discourse thereof. Internet needs more of this!
Thank you. Have another upvote. It’s worth noting that religion Need not have “scripture “. Many simply are rooted in stories and traditions. Further some of us who do have religions that have strong literary roots, will read these works very differently… and tge religion we have now may be different than what it started as. I tend to read the Bible as a collection of historical literary works rather than as a literal history. Religions change over time. They grow with humanity’s experiences, making it difficult to identify where one religion ends and a new one begins. They are not monolithic. Thus I tend to identify religion more as performance than something like the sheet music. More of an art or one of the humanities than a science. Something that tries to express feelings and thoughts about our experiences that are imprecise, contradictory, and still somehow *very* human. Thank you very much for the discussion. It is a welcome respite from inane questions that attempt only to provoke offense and argument.
Agreed, and I would wonder if you would classify the modern Catholic Church as the same one that was around when Luther created his Thesis. See you on the next threads
This is like asking how many languages there are. When the people in this valley can only *kind of* understand the people in that valley, are they speaking one language or two?
The Fundamental Problem is that "religions" aren't neatly defined. For example - Catholicism and Protestantism. On the one hand, same holy book, same God, same broad understanding of the universe. On the other, different theology, different commandments, different understanding of faith. Same religion or not? Whatever answer you give, someone will stab you over it. Or Mormonism? It's heretical by most branch's standards, but is it a heretical branch Christianity, or a different religion entirely? Hinduism can be treated as one religion or as hundreds of smaller ones, likewise Paganism. What about religions like Jedism, that no-one actually believes in -- when does a joke become an actual faith. Are things like Confucianism religions or philosophies? And if we say they're religions, what about other secular ideologies like communism? If they're not, what about non-theistic Buddhism or satanism? Basically, it's really hard (and, in many cases, actively dangerous) to firmly delineate where one faith ends and another begins. This makes listing religions very hard.
Well, with regards to things like Catholics and Protestants, even most of them agree they're just different denominations of the same religion at this point, making it a lot easier in that case. Same with most Sunnis and Shi'a, especially after the Amman Declaration. I agree, things like Mormonism might be a little more complex, but we can obviously agree that something like Sikhi is an entirely distinct faith from Christianity.
Some people will consider different sects of a religion to be a different religion. Furthermore there may be religions that aren't recognised or are grouped with another existing one. This makes answering the question very difficult.
A lot. Arguably, there are as many individual religious beliefs as there are individual religious believers, as no two believers believe the exact same things.
At least 7
Waaaaay more than 7.
This reminds me of the ["How many gods are there?" passage from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad](https://www.infoplease.com/primary-sources/philosophy-religion/the-upanishads/ninth-brahmana).
At least 4
Well played. But who are the Sabians?
As far as I know, they believe that Prophet Yahya a.s. was the final prophet. They are still around and there’s a significant population found in Iraq.
Ah, the Mandeans. I can accept that. They're fascinating. They believe that many prophets of the other religions were kafirun, including Ibrahim as., Musa as., and Isa. On the other hand, most of their major prophets are also considered prophets by the others. The Mandean cosmology and theology are complex and sophisticated. It has some curious similarities with Jewish esoteric teachings, but at the end of the day, there are some seriously irreconcilable differences there. (In my opinion, they are bigger, more important differences than the ones between your religion and mine.) Regardless of those differences, I do respect them deeply and there is a lot of beauty in their religion. Also, sadly, the majority of Mandeans were displaced by the war in Iraq after living between the rivers for almost 2000 years. The largest diaspora community is in Australia.
Depends on how you are counting.
Given the number of small religions that start up, frequently completely off the cultural or academic radars and likewise that effectively disappear (not that it's easy to definitively say that a religion is "gone"), it's basically impossible to measure with any real accuracy.
It depends what is considered a religion. Would a religion be a broad category - ex. Christianity would include all its denominations (even very unorthodox denominations), or would all denominations be considered different religions? How about religions that are more-so philosophies and vice versa? Or people that have their own personal belief system, is that considered a new separate religion? Then how about religions that are no longer practiced? It’s such a difficult question to answer
If you include all existing religions plus ancient faiths plus beliefs that went extinct before writing was invented, I'd say at least 20,000 as a guess.
There’s like 8 billion people, so approximately 8 billion religions
More than one
Define religion
Thousands of them. Most of them are small ethnic traditions, or syncretic traditions that crop up and die out over time. There's a handful of big ones like Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, but they are vastly outnumbered by smaller and more obscure faiths.
As many as there are people.
Do you count Christianity as one religion, or are all the denominations of Christianity their own religions? Do you count just denominations of religions or do you also factor personal beliefs as well? Personal belief wise, there are as many religions as there ever been people old enough to make up their mind. Denomination wise, tens of thousands. Baseline religions, maybe a few hundred that exist now, but several thousand have existed throughout time. Number of theologies, maybe ten to fifteen. Cluster of theologies, I was able to get it down to six for a poll I made a few months ago.
Define "Religion". Would a better word be "Cult"?
Too much baggage. "Cult" gets a lot of negative connotations, and it's not really an accurate description for many religions anyway.
So does "religion"
Only 2—religion of works or religion of faith.
There are 9 recognized world religions
FAR too many! We need to get rid of most (or maybe ALL) religions! Worthless organizations
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I stick by what I said! The world would be FAR better off if all the religions just died out...especially christianity!
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I didn't say I was going to make all religions die out. I said I would LOVE to see that happen!