Sikhism is a very interesting religion. It began in sixteenth century in Northern India. The Muslims started to forcibly convert Hindus to Islam. The Hindus wanted to stop that, so they decided to pick out the most aggressive Hindus and turn them into protectors. That is how the first Singhs were created. To distinguish them they would wear turbans, orange robes, a sword and they would have long beards. It is the only religion ever created specifically against Islam.
Hinduism is the oldest major organized religion in this world. It is mainly practiced in India. They believe is reincarnation of the soul. Most Hindus consider cows and snakes sacred. They worship the nature and try to be at peace with it. Most Hindus also believe in Karma. Karma is a system where beneficial events are derived from past beneficial actions and harmful events from past harmful actions. A large partition of Hinduism does Yoga. Islam and Hinduism are mortal enemies. That is the reason Sikhism was created.
Judaism is the first of the three most powerful religions the world has ever seen, the other two being Christianity and Islam. It is arguably the first truly monotheistic religion, and its followers believe that the universe was created by and is still controlled by a single omnipresent and omnipotent entity, who is also said to be totally benevolent. The religion was founded over the course of thousands of years, during which time the Jews were separated into tribes and led a nomadic existence in the deserts of the Middle East. The Jews claim that they are God’s chosen people, or “children”, and believe that Abraham (the leader of the main tribe of Israel) formed a pact, or covenant, with God. These beliefs, along with many rules and regulations formed through hard experience in the desert, were incorporated into the Jews’ religion, and recorded in books like the Torah, which encompasses the body of the Jews’ religious beliefs, and the Talmud, which records into many massive volumes the majority of the Jewish laws, which were entirely oral before it was written.
Islam is the third of the three “main” monotheistic religions that the world has seen. It is an evolution of Judaism and Christianity, and true Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet rather than the son of God (or God himself). They think Mohammad was more important than Jesus because he was the “last” of the prophets. Islam has been labeled as evil since the beginning of the Holy Crusades till this day. Christianity tried to eliminate them in the crusades. The Knights Templar failed at that task. The Hindus actually created a wholly new branch of religion to fight off the Muslims. Nowadays the Taliban terrorists use it to back their actions up. They say that they were predicted in the book of Qur’an. Some people believe that the Islam Churches actually sponsor the Al Qaeda terrorist group. I think it’s wrong to label Islam like that, but there are too many fanatics in that religion who cause that to happen. I, myself know a lot of Muslims and they are not bad people. But groups like Al Qaeda are the ones that give that religion a bad name.
Buddhism translates to the teachings of the awakened one. ( It’s referring to Buddha) It is a very peaceful religion. You have to purify your mind by meditating, and living a virtuous and moral lifestyle. In Buddhism, the goal is to reach a certain state of mind called Nirvana. (Nirodha) The religion follows the Four Noble Truths. They basically state that everything is suffering and you must rid yourself of humanly possessions and worldly attachments in order to reach Nirvana. The religion is currently practiced around India and Tibet. This is one of the most peaceful religions in the world. No wars have been started that involved this religion.
It’s finally the time to explain one of the most practiced and influential religions of all time. Yes you’ve guessed it right—it’s Christianity! Christianity was made from Judaism. Its history is covered with wars, greed and suffering. It has also been the bringer of good morals and unity. Christianity became a religion in 27 C.E. It was started by the disciples of Christ. The holy book of the faith is the Bible. It is made from the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is basically the Torah. Christianity branched out into many different faiths because some people would disagree on what the Bible meant time from time. This faith gave life to the first Holy Wars or Holy Crusades, whatever you want to call them. The whole point of them was to reclaim the Holy Land. (Jerusalem) Those attacks were lead by the Knights of Templar, who were the most dedicated Christian warriors ever known to man. But they were accused of heresy and tortured into signing a confession proving their heresy. Heresy was a large thing back in those times. During the medieval times Christianity has killed a lot of people by accusing them of being a witch or a warlock. The Christians were defeated by the Muslims soon after the death of Knights Templar and have never regained the Holy Land.
Hundreds of years later the town of Constantinople was attacked by Russians. At that point of time it was the stronghold of Christian Faith. For over a hundred years Russians would attack the city and break through its defenses. But one day the ruler of Russia at that time decided to stop all of the bloodshed and converted the entire country to Christianity. But Christianity’s leaders could not control Russia as they had planned.
Christianity’s concept of hell differed from place to place in the beginning. In cold regions hell was a cold icy desert. In the desert where Christianity first started hell was perceived as a fiery inferno, where your soul would burn and be tortured by the devil. Then those theories were combined and they became what are now known as the Nine Rings of Hell.
The Americas became colonized faster because there were more religion “splits”. Missionaries started to quickly spread the religion to the natives. Strife quickly erupted between the missionaries and certain native tribes who perceived that the missionary’s were trespassing on their ancient land.
Today’s Christianity is split into many, many branches. The main branches of modern Christianity are Protestantism and Catholicism. Christianity’s beliefs did not change much over the time period since it was created. Christianity’s Ten Commandments are probably the best rules set by a religion. |