9/20/2023 0 Comments Freedome from religion![]() ![]() For the next two millennia, Jews scattered in a worldwide diaspora, often experiencing persecution by governments and populations adhering to other faiths. Jews initially formed a state with Jerusalem as the capital, which remained at the center of their religious and political life until AD 70, when the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple in the wake of a rebellion. Judaism, the world's oldest monotheistic faith, originated between 3,400 and 4,000 years ago. Each faith experienced major schisms that resulted in bloody internecine wars, while Christian and Muslim states and empires engaged each other in centuries of intermittent combat in Europe, the Mediterranean, and elsewhere. The Baghdad (Abbasid) caliphate was later assumed by the Ottoman Empire, which served as the organizational foundation for adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam throughout the Middle East and North Africa. In the case of Islam, it spread by war and the creation of caliphates in Damascus and Bagdad in the 7 th and 8 th centuries AD. In the case of Christianity, its adoption by Emperor Constantine in the early 4 th century AD expanded the faith throughout the Roman Empire. Both are monotheistic and each expanded significantly through conquest or adoption as an official state religion. They have an estimated 1 billion, 500 million, and 400 million followers, respectively.Ĭhristianity, with an estimated 2.2 billion adherents, and Islam, with 1.6 billion followers, are the world’s two largest religions. Today, Hinduism, Chinese traditional religion, and Buddhism constitute the world's third, fourth, and fifth largest faiths. Although religion was suppressed at the outset of Communist rule in China in 1949, most people today maintain some elements of these former state-supported religions or practice Christianity, which was introduced by Western missionaries in the 18 th century. Chinese emperors oversaw a complex of religions and practices (Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and traditional beliefs), but all were fused to justify imperial rule. Buddhism, founded in northern India in the sixth century BC, was similarly adopted as an official religion by various expansionist monarchies in the region. Hinduism, a polytheistic religion that emerged in India in the second millennium BC, was an integral belief system for dynasties and kingdoms throughout South and Southeast Asia. The major religions that are practiced today have been central elements of different empires and autocratic systems. Even democratic Athens could not tolerate dissent from its official polytheistic beliefs, sentencing the philosopher Socrates to death on charges of corrupting young with teachings about “other gods.” In each empire, religious devotion was a key component in establishing loyalty to the ruler. The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, and Romans, among others, invoked their various polytheistic gods to support wars and expansion. Until recently, the state and religion were closely intertwined, with religion used not only as a basis for internal governance but also as justification for expansion abroad. History A Brief Survey of Major Religions ![]()
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