A set of beliefs, shared by a group of people, that gives meaning to life and death is called a religion. Some religions are monotheistic - their followers believe that there is only one god example Sikhism or Judaism. Polytheistic religions have many gods example Hinduism.
Followers: 360 million followers.
Place of origin: India
2500 years ago
Inspired by teachings of Buddha
Sacred book: Dharma
Followers: 2000 million followers.
Place of origin: Palestine
2000 years ago
Christians believe Jesus Christ to be the son of god.
Sacred book: Bible
Followers: 830 million followers
Place of origin: India
More than 3000 years ago
Embrace many gods and beliefs.
Sacred book: Vedas
Followers: 1250 million followers.
Place of origin: Arabia
1400 years ago
Followers are called Muslims, obey the teachings of one god. Allah, as revealed to Prophet Muhammad.
Sacred book: Qur'an and Hadith
Followers: 14.5 million followers.
Place of origin: Israel
3000 years ago
Believes in one god, who appeared to Abraham and Moses and set out his laws.
Sacred book: Torah and Talmud
Followers: 24.3 million followers.
Place of origin: India
500 years
Sikhs believe in one god, satguru (true teacher) and teaching of 10 gurus.
Sacred book: Adi Granth
And around 12% of the people are a non-religious meaning atheist.
Relics ( remains)of the Buddha such as his robes are often found in Buddhist temple.
Dai Buddhist temple in Jinghong, China.
Christians meet together to worship in churches. Such churches have domes others are topped with tall spires.
Sacred Heart church, Hungary.
Hindus worship statues and images of their gods both in temples and their homes.
Khajuraho temple.
The Jewish place of worship is called a synagogue. It is a place of prayer and study.
Synagogue in dohàng street Budapest, Hungary.
Muslims pray in mosques facing towards Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad, in Saudi Arabia.
A Sikh temple is called a gurudwara, which means gate to the guru ( a guru is a religious guide)
Golden temple in India.
It is the holy city of three major religions :
1. Christians: for them, it is the city where Jesus, the son of God died and came back to life.
2. Jews: they pray at the western wall also called the wailing wall which is all that remains of the Jewish people's ancient second temple in Jerusalem.
3. Muslims: they believe that the mosque of the dome of the rock makes the place where their Prophet Muhammad was taken up into heaven.
One of the latest growing religion is Baha'i founded in Iran in the 19th century. It seeks to unite all the religions and has 7.5 million followers worldwide.
And there is also Temple of All Religions in Kazan, Russia. It started in 1992 and is still under construction and when complete it will have 16 religions of the world even the ones which are no longer practiced. It is built Ilder Khanov According to him it is a Temple of culture and truth.