The Most Influential Religions of the World
Religion has a strong influence in every country in which it is practiced. All around the globe, there are many religions that people have independently chosen to follow. Religion influences the way of life and has an invisible hand that dictates much control in the course of the history of the country and the development of its culture. While it is true in some countries religion is imposed on their citizens, in other cultures exists freedom to choose whichever religion their heart chooses to follow.
However, if we reviewed all these religions, this paper would not be able to provide adequate information to explain everything. That is why I would like to delimit this essay in just exploring the main religions, or rather, the most influential ones, that exists across the world.
Let us begin with Hinduism, which is a pluralistic religion in most of its existence. The term Hindu was originally sindhu¸ which was the Sanskrit word for river. Sindhu was mispronounced by the Persians as Hindu, the Muslims in A.D. 712 also used the term Hindu to distinguish the people who do not hold the same religion as theirs, and the Christians termed Hindu those whom they thought were native pagan people in that place. This delineation became the beginning of calling the land Hindustan, and likewise, the religion was called `Hinduism. Although we can see that the origin of the word Hindu was quite negative and given by foreign people, through the influence of Basham, Buitenen, and Doniger cultures, it has become one of the most influential religions especially in South East Asia.
There was no specific founder and place of origin and historians have not found any adequate explanations for its existence. This ...