religies

Religions are organized systems of beliefs, practices, and worldviews concerning questions about existence, meaning, and the nature of the sacred or divine. They typically involve communities of adherents, sacred texts or traditions, rituals, ethical codes, and places of worship or contemplation. Religions provide explanations for origins and purpose and offer guidance for personal conduct and social life.

Most major traditions fall into several families. Monotheistic faiths such as Christianity, Islam, and Judaism center on worship of a single supreme deity. Dharmic traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism, address the cycle of life and moral action through diverse teachings. Other belief systems are non-theistic or animist, and many indigenous religions preserve local cosmologies.

Religions have developed within and across civilizations, often shaping law, art, education, and politics. They have spread through migration, trade, conquest, and reform movements, producing denominations, sects, and syncretic practices. Throughout history, religious ideas have sometimes inspired peaceful reform and charitable work, and at other times conflict or persecution.

Common religious practices include rituals, prayer, meditation, sacraments or rites of passage, ethical guidelines, pilgrimages, and festivals. Communities may be led by clergy, monks, imams, rabbis, or lay leaders, and their texts range from scripture to oral tradition. Sacred spaces such as churches, mosques, temples, and shrines serve as focal points for worship and education.

Today, religions interact in diverse ways with secularism, modernization, and globalization. Issues of religious freedom, pluralism, and interfaith dialogue shape contemporary debates about rights, social cohesion, and identity.