Religion

Religion involves any belief system that includes rituals, a code of ethics to live by, and a philosophy of life to follow. The belief system quite commonly involves the nature and cause of the universe, and how it was brought to be by the respective gods or goddesses affiliated with the religion involved.http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion

As of the year 2000 there were a total of nineteen religions that were deemed "major world religions." These nineteen accounted for the majority, if not the totality, of the world's population, within a given margin of error.http://www.religioustolerance.org/worldrel.htm

Religion has been responsible for casualties and times of prosperity. The Crusades were a prime example of this, as for nearly 200 years, from 1095 to 1291, in an effort for the Christians to regain control of the Holy Land. Christians battled Muslims, pagans, Mongols and others in their efforts.

The Crusades were notable for reopening trade between east and west, allowing the movement of scientific discoveries and goods between Europe and Asia. It also led to the beginning of a long tradition of violence towards Jews in Europe, that would continue into the 20th century.http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stmhttp://crusades.org/

There are at least fifteen religions in the world today that claim to have at least three million followers of their lifestyle, belief system and thought process.http://www.religioustolerance.org/var_rel.htm

Of these, Christianity continues to be the most common religion in the world, attracting over 2 billion followers worldwide, or nearly one third of the world's population.

The second most common religion currently is that of Islam, which has been growing at a rate faster than the growth of the world's population, thereby gaining proverbial market share. Islam followers make up nearly 1.5 billion people now, as they continue to close the gap on Christians.

The group that lumps together the combination of secular people, along with those with no religious aspirations or connections, atheists and agnostics, would make up the third most populous group, totaling 1.1 billion people. This group is not one to be easily swayed to join a particular religion, choosing to follow their own beliefs.http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

Hinduism, with almost 900 million followers, is fourth in the world when it comes to popularity measured by number of people involved. They are followed by what is deemed Chinese traditional religion, which is a combination of Confucianism, Taoism and Chinese Buddhism, along with traditional, non-scriptural local traditions and beliefs.http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html#Chinese

Buddhism, tribal religionists from Africa, African traditional and Diasporic such as the forms like Santeria and voodoo, Sikhism and Juche round out the top ten religions of the world. Juche is the only recognized religion in North Korea to the point where all other religions are excluded. The word juche means self-reliance in the Korean language.http://www.adherents.com/largecom/Juche.html

Judaism was twelfth, with Baha'i, Shintoism, and the ever present Scientology further down the list.http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html#Chinesehttp://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html