There is no doubt that religion means a lot for the history of the mankind. It has been guided people for thousands years. It would be fair to say that religion is a reflection of people’s beliefs, fears and views. However, experts usually define religion as a particular system of views which is stipulated by belief in supernatural powers and includes the abridgement of moral rules, which describes the proper behavior for religion followers, customs and acts of worship. Religion also unites people into some organizations such as church, religion community, sangha etc. Some people also believe that religion gives us an opportunity to reunite with the God. Religion is a special person’s attitude to himself/herself and to the world. The religious system of world concept is based on religious belief and related with personal attitude to the supernatural world. This essay on religion gives information about the concept of religion and faith. It offers you brief reports on the most popular religions of the world and provides you with information about their customs and beliefs. Also this essay tells about the connection between religion and science.

How the religious history has begun?

There are several points of view on the etymology of the word “religion”. For example, famous roman writer and speaker Cicero thought that this word descended from the Latin verb “relegere” (rethink, collect again, discuss again), which in figurative sense means “worship” or “appreciate something immensely”. Modern scholars express another opinion on the origin of this word. They claim that it descended from the Latin word “religare” (to connect, to attach). Therefore, some people think that religion is the union of a human and the God.

The religion was begot by human’s intellectual power. The first beliefs appeared when people were living in caves. This beliefs was created in order to explain some natural phenomena and processes. Firstly their views were pretty primitive and were based on such beliefs as totemism, fetishism, animism, shamanism, worship to the nature powers and to the ancestors. Unfortunately, we know little about the spiritual beliefs of ancient people. You should definitely mention in your essay about religion that contemporary experts tend to think that religion appeared when the first written records about people’s religious experience were made. By the way, there are two theories on the appearance of the religion in human’s life. The first is religious theory. It tells that the man was created by the God and before the Fall they were tightly connected. After the Fall their communication was disturbed, but the God continued to communicate with people via His Revelations. The second is evolutionary theory. The followers of this theory are convinced that religion appeared because man had reached a particular level of mental development, but still had not reach the necessary intellectual level to explain natural phenomena, which took place around him. The ancient human thought that every natural phenomenon, from drought to thunderstorm, were caused by some mysterious supernatural spirits. The opposition between religion and science is mainly based on these two theories. Edward Burnett Tylor was the first scholar to offer the idea of the successive complication of the religious views. He also was the first to put forward the idea that the first form of religion was animism. You may use some professional essay writing services to write an essay about these two theories.

It is generally known that all the world religions have had the same path of development. To prove this statement, you may list in your religion essay some common features, which cloud be found in almost every religion of the world. Among them are:

• Belief in supernatural powers;
• Belief in some sacred symbols;
• Special rituals, which is also called the active part of the religion;
• Possibility of salvation and some particular methods to deserve it;
• The collection of basic moral rules which create the fundament for establishing further sacred manuscripts;
• If there are some moral rules and principles, they can be violated, in that way some actions can be recognized sinful.

Let’s dive into plunge into the diversity of world religions

Speaking about world religions we usually mean Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. To receive this title, religion has to possess a great number of followers and must not be associated with some certain nation or state. The distribution of religion and its role in history is also taken into account. By the way, if you have to write an essay about some world religion, you are welcome to use our service.

Buddhism is another world religion, which has 0.5 billion followers (6.7% of the world population). It is a religious teaching about mental awakening which has appeared in India in the VI century BC. The word “Buddhism’ itself was introduced by Europeans in the XIX century. Different researchers define Buddhism as religion, philosophy, cultural tradition or ethic teaching.

Islam is a world religion, which is especially popular in Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, countries of the Middle-East and African countries. It has over 1.6 billion followers. It began in the VII century in Mecca. The founder of Islam is thought to be Muhammad. Muslims are divided into two denominations: Sunni and Shia. The sacred Muslim book is Quran. One of their acts of worship is jihad. Because of it there is a plenty of stereotypes around this religion.

Christianity is monotheistic Abrahamic religion, which is based on the life of Jesus Christ. According to the latest research there are 2.3 billion of Christians in the world, which is 33% of the overall world population. Christianity began in the middle of the 1st century. It is the largest world religion both in terms of followers’ amount and distribution – in every country of the world there is at least one Christian community. Mention in your essay on Christianity religion that this religion is divided into three main denominations: Catholicism, Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Bible is a sacred text for Christians. Christianity propagates love to every human being around you. If you are interested in the Christianity subject, it is a good ideas for you to read true love essay.

Scientific attitude to the religion subject

Nowadays science vs. religion essay becomes more and more popular. There is a big difference between religious and scientific attitude to the life and the world. Religion teach us to believe in God and rely on Him. All our troubles will be solved, if we only believe. On the other hand, science teaches us to deal with surrounding world, to explore it, to learn everything by experiment. Though both religion and science influence people’s mind. However, religion gives us moral principles and restrictions, which help us survive in the society. Besides, religion is the part of humanity development as well as personal development of each individual. Despite the huge controversy, even the most outstanding scientists of all times confessed to believe in God. Among them are Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday and Albert Einstein. That means that the proper scientific approach must not deny the God’s existence. The point is that these two approaches should go parallel. Neither scientists nor religious people should offence other people feelings or humiliate somebody else’s persuasions and beliefs. Science and Religion should co-exist in harmony.

It should be mentioned in your what is religion essay that each person has right to choose whether he/she wants to belong to some religion or not, whether he/she believes in God. Nevertheless, religion is a subject that worth being appreciated and studied.