Religion and Its Overwhelming Denominations

According to reference.com, there are an estimated 4,200 different religions in the world, and these can be categorized into several main religions, such as: Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism [although Roman Catholicism is often categorized under Christianity]. There are many smaller yet still prevalent religions, such as the Baha'i faith.

When including Roman Catholicism, Christianity is the world's largest religion. Christianity also includes Protestantism and its many denominations, such as Lutherans, United Methodists, Southern Baptists and the Assemblies of God. There are also nondenominational Christians.

While there are 11 basic religions that exist in the world today, there are thousands of branches that are offshoots of these main religions, such as Protestants and Evangelicals. These main religions consist of: Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Baha'i, Shintoism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, Jainism, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism. According to humanreligions.info, some of the following religions around the world are specified in the chart below.

Religion	Description	God(s)?	Heritage	Area of Origin	Founded	Founder	Afterlife?	Holy Texts?
Amish	Peaceful Christian fundamentalist group famous for its rejection of technology and strict adherence to OT and NT laws	Monotheist	Christianity	Switzerland	1693 CE	Jakob Ammann and his followers split from the Anabaptists	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Asatrú	A modern uptake of Nordic religion	Polytheist	Scandinavian folklore	Iceland	1972 CE		Other	None
Aum Shinrikyo	Dangerous and violent religious community responsible for the 1995 Sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway and other crimes. Eventually they apologized, stopped using the Bible, and formed the more prosaic group called Aleph	Theist	Christianity and Far Eastern religion	Japan	1984 CE	Shoko Asahara	Yes	The Bible and other
Bahá'í Faith	A world religion2,3. Belief that a series of prophets have come from God, and that Bahá'í is the latest religion founded by God. A liberal offshoot of Islam, but persecuted in Iran	Monotheist	Shi'a Islam	Iran	1863 CE	By Bahá'u'lláh	Yes	Writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdul Baha
Brahma Kumari	This group are preparing to rule the world after a coming apocalypse, and embrace many practices which are now called New Age	Monotheist	Hinduism	India	1930s CE	Lekhraj Kripalani (called Brahma Baba)		Writings of founder and leaders
Branch Davidians	Apocalyptic suicide cult famed for its dramatic armed fight against authorities in the town of Waco, USA, in 1993	Theist	Christianity	USA	1930 CE	Benjamin Roden	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Buddhism	A world religion2,3,5. The belief that meditation and good living can break the cycle of reincarnation and result in enlightenment	Atheist	Hinduism	India	1st millennium BCE	Traditions based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama	Reincarnation until escape	Multifaceted
Celtic Paganism	Modern reconstructions of Celtic paganism form part of the neo-pagan range of religions	Not known	Prehistoric	UK	prehistoric			None
Chen Tao	A series of civilisations on Earth have arisen but destroyed themselves in nuclear war. Each time, some faithful believers were rescued by flying saucers and put back on Earth	Theist	Christianity and Buddhism	Taiwan	1996 CE	By Hon Ming Chen	Yes
Chinese Religion	A varied cultural religion practiced traditionally on a town-by-town and region-by-region basis	Atheist	Prehistoric	China	prehistoric		Reincarnation until escape	None
Christadelphians	Bible-based Christianity	Monotheist	Christianity	USA	1840s CE	By Dr John Thomas	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Christian Apostolic Church In Zion	Fundamentalist Anti-science flat-earth Christian cult, who also predicted the End of the World would occur 4 different times	Theist	Christianity	USA	1895 CE	John Alexander Dowie	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Christianity	A world religion6,3. Belief that a single creator god had a son, Jesus Christ, born to a human mother, and that Jesus' crucifixion by the Romans brings salvation	Monotheist	Judaism and paganism	Roman Empire	1st-3rd centuryCE	Multiple Greek writers. St Paul	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Concerned Christians	Fundamentalist Christians active in USA, Israel and Greece who expected the end of the world in year 2000, starting with a nuclear attack on the USA, which they appeared to be trying to instigate themselves	Theist	Christianity	USA	1980s CE	Monte Kim Miller	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Confucianism	A world religion9,10. A collection of ethical and moral teachings	Atheist	Chinese religion	China	-551 to 479 BCE	By Confucius		None
Dami Xuanjiao	A millenarian cult based on the belief that Jesus would return to judge survivors in 1999. Suspected of being on the verge of mass suicide after predictions of the end of the world failed in year 2000	Theist	Christianity	South Korea	1980s CE		Yes
Divine Lightmission	A self-help religious group involving meditation, with few fixed beliefs	Hard to tell	Hinduism	India	1960 CE	Indian guru Shri Hans Ju Maharaj		None
Druidism	Celtic religion in prehistoric England. Modern reconstructed Druidism is part of the neo-pagan range of religions	Not known/polytheist	Prehistoric	UK	prehistoric		Reincarnation	None
Druze	A semi-secretive esoteric religion with features of a Mystery Religion	Monotheist	Islam	Egypt	11th century			Qur'an, Rasa'il al-hikma (Epistles of Wisdom)
Ebionites	1st century Jewish Christians, possibly the earliest form of Christianity to exist	Monotheist	Judaism	Judea (now Israel)	1st century			Early version of the Gospel of Matthew
Eckankar	New Age religion, a mix of Sant Mat, Theosophy and Scientology	Monotheist	New Age	USA	1965 CE	By Paul Twitchell	Reincarnation until escape	Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad11
Gnosticism	The belief that we must escape from this world, which was created and is ruled by an inferior and unworthy god, and reunite with the true god	Polytheist	Prehistoric	Greece	prehistoric (1st century?)			Multifaceted
Hare Krishna	The embracing of Krishna through correct living, honesty, spiritual life and austerity	Polytheist	Hinduism	USA	1966 CE	By A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada	Reincarnation until escape	Various Indian scriptures
Heathenism	Modern uptake of Nordic religion. Part of the neo-pagan range of religions	Polytheist	Asatru	Scandinavia				None
Heaven's Gate	Apocalyptic suicide cult who combined Biblical eschatology with New Age and ideas about UFOs. All 39 members committed suicide in San Diego, USA in 1997	Theist	Christianity and New Age	USA	1970s CE	Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles	Yes
Hinduism	A world religion2,10. Cultural religion of India which was historically decentralized and disparate and not a single belief system. Western influence made it into a single religion, an identity which Hindus now accept	Polytheist	Prehistoric	India	prehistoric		Reincarnation until escape	Multifaceted
Hookers For Jesus / The Family Of God	Sexually promiscuous group who fell foul of police suspicion. As is often the case, increasing pressure from outside resulted in the group retreating even further into insanity, and they became The Family, predicting the end of the world	Theist	Christianity	USA	1968 CE	David Berg	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Humanism	An organized form of atheism where moral and ethical goodness is emphasized	Atheist	The enlightenment	Europe	The Enlightenment	Enlightenment thinkers	None	None
Islam	A world religion2,3. Strict monotheism taught by Muhammad, the world's 2nd largest religion	Monotheist	Judaism	Saudi Arabia	0610 CE	By Muhammad	Heaven or hell	Qur'an and Hadiths
Jainism	A world religion2,10. Beliefs include non-violence and equality of all living things	Atheist	Prehistoric	India	6th century BCE	Lord Vardhamana Mahavira	Reincarnation until escape	Jain Agamas
Jedi Knights	A campaign saw many put this down as their religion on the UK census in 2001. Midichlorians exist in all living beings, which create a 'living force' that can be interacted with	Animist	Science fiction	UK	2001 CE	Campaign for UK Census	Select few	None
Jehovah's Witnesses	A 140-year-old Christian fundamentalist/literalist organisation famous for preaching that the world is about to end (nowadays - because of the existence of the United Nations)	Monotheist	Christianity	USA	1870s CE	By Charles Taze Russell	Other	The Bible
Judaism	A world religion2,3. Organized Judaism emerged from Babylonian writings. Belief that God has a special contract with a Hebrew tribe, involving many specific rules of behaviour	Monotheist	Prehistoric	Babylon (mostly-now Iraq) and Israel	1st millennium BCE	Combination of prehistoric practices which became organized in Babylon	Yes	Tanakh and Talmud
Mennonite	A Protestant Christian denomination	Monotheist	Christianity	Central Europe			Heaven or hell	The Bible
Mithraism	Roman mystery religion that believed that the Son of the Sun was a saviour who was sacrificed for the good of all	Monotheist	Roman mystery religions	Greece	50 BCE to 50 CE		Yes	Not known
Mysticism	The belief that God is unknowable but accessible, and that doctrinal religion hampers spiritual growth	Not defined	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal	prehistoric		Not defined	Multifaceted
Native American Church	Beliefs vary from tribe to tribe and are sometimes noticeably Christian	Monotheist	The Peyote religion	Mexico	1880s CE	By Quanah Parker		None
New Age	A disparate and diverse collection of popular beliefs and practices	Not defined	Counterculture	The West	1850s CE	Popular beliefs from the 1850s, attaining identification in the 1960s	Other	None
Order Of The Solar Temple	Apocalyptic suicide cult, with mass suicides in Switzerland, France and Quebec, in preparation for Jesus' second coming	Theist	Christianity and New Age	France	1984 CE	Joseph Di Mambro & Luc Jouret	Yes	The Bible and other
Paganism	Part of the neo-pagan range of religions	Polytheist	Counterculture	The West	19th century	Romantic revival of interest in Celtic, Greek and pre-Christian spiritualities	Yes	None
Pastafarianism	A parody religion based on worship of the Flying Spaghetti Monster	Monotheist	Parody	USA	2005 CE	By Bobby Henderson	Heaven or hell	Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster
People's Temple	Apocalyptic suicide cult that imploded, resulting in the deaths of over 600 adults and 276 children	Theist	Christianity	USA	1960s CE	Rev. James (Jim) Warren Jones	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Raja Yoga	An astika school of Hindu philosophy based around mastering and quieting the mind, involving meditation	Polytheist	Hinduism	India				The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Rastafarian	God (called Jah) fathered a black Jesus; marijuana use in rituals	Monotheist	Christianity	Jamaica	1930s CE			The Bible (generally)
Ravidassia	Souls are part of the divine and proper living allows us to realize God	Monotheist	Hinduism and Sikhism	India	14th century	By the guru Ravidass		Amritbani Guru Ravidass Ji
Salvation Army	Christian organisation of evangelists organised along military lines, famous for charity work	Monotheist	Christianity (Methodist)	UK	1865 CE	By Methodist minister William Booth	Heaven or hell	The Bible
Santería	A combination of West African, Caribbean beliefs with some elements of Roman Catholicism	Monotheist	Christianity and West African spirituality	Cuba				None
Satanism	An atheist religion that uses dark and evil symbology for self-development and anti-religious purposes - Satan itself is not a real being, just a symbol	Atheist	Atheism	USA	1966 CE	By Anton Lavey	None	Writings of founder and leaders
Scientology	Derived from the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, a series of practices called Dianetics is used to clear minds of alien influences and attain a state of mental perfection	Atheist	Science fiction	USA	1952 CE	By L. Ron Hubbard	Reincarnation	Writings of founder and leaders
Shamanism	Belief that Shamans need to keep good relations with tribal ancestor spirits for the good fortune of the whole tribe	Not defined	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal	prehistoric		Yes	None
Shinto	A world religion2,10. Official collection of practices in Japan, more cultural than religious	Atheist	Japanese culture	Japan	3rd century BCE	Gradually formed		Various
Sikhism	A world religion2,10. Prayer, meditation and self control to become a soldier of God	Monotheist	Hinduism	India	15th century	By Guru Nanak	Reincarnation until escape	Sri Guru Granth Sahib and others
Spiritualism	The belief that the souls of the dead communicate with the living, mostly through Mediums, but, suffered serious credibility problems with the original founders admitted to fraudulently inventing the 'rappings' that formed the communications	Not defined	Christianity and New Age	USA	1848 CE	By fraudsters Kate and Margaret Fox	Yes	None
Taoism	A world religion2,3. A relaxed and peaceful religion based on following and accepting the flow of life	Atheist	Chinese philosophy	China	3rd century BCE	Based on teachings attributed to Lao Tzu	None	Tao Te Ching
Thelema	A magical system of discerning True Will with inspiration from a host of Egyptian gods	Polytheist	Occultism	UK	1904 CE	By Aleister Crowley		Book of the Law
Theosophy	Mired in fraud arrests and exposés, the Spiritualism scene had soured, so Madame Blavatsky reinvented her routine as a new religion, using an Indian theme		Spiritualism and Westernized Indian spirituality	USA	1875 CE	By Madame Blavatsky	Yes
Traditional African Church	A range of Churches ranging from mostly Christian, to those mostly encapsulating native African spirituality	Monotheist	Christianity and African culture	Africa				The Bible
Unification Church	Sun Myung Moon embodied the Second Coming of Christ, and his commercialist church runs a media empire	Monotheist	Christianity	South Korea	1954 CE	By Sun Myung Moon	Heaven or hell	The Bible and The Exposition of the Divine Principle
Unitarian-universalism	A liberal and diverse pluralist religion accepting of believers without needing them to leave their current religions	Not defined	Christianity	USA	19th century		Heaven	Multifaceted
Unitarianism	A liberal and non-Trinitarian Christian church	Monotheist	Christianity	Poland, Lithuania, Hungary	16th century		Heaven	The Bible
Unitas Fratrum	A Protestant Christian denomination	Monotheist	Christianity (Protestant)	Bohemia (now Czech Republic)	1457 CE		Heaven or hell	The Bible
Voodoo	A traditional religion from Haiti with an ethical focus on combating greed and promoting honour	Deist	African traditional theology	Africa	prehistoric			None
Wicca	Neo-pagan organisation based around reconstructed elements of folklore	Dualist	Counterculture	UK	1954 CE	By Gerald Gardner	Not defined	None
Witchcraft	A description of various cultural practices, which are often part of a parent belief system	Not defined	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal			Not defined	Multifaceted
Yezidism	An ancient religion. Malek Taus looks after the world with 6 other angels. Heavily persecuted by Muslims and accused of Devil Worship	Monotheist	Zoroastrianism and ancient Mesopotamian culture	Assyria (now Iraq)	12th century	By Abi ibn Musafir	Reincarnation	Yezidi Book of Revelation & Black Book
Zhu Shen Jiao	As this group got more and more excited about establishing a Kingdom of God, in the approach to year 2000, its leaders were arrested amid fears that it would turn into a suicide cult	Theist	The Shouters	China	1993 CE		Yes
Zoroastrianism	A world religion10. An ancient dualistic religion from Iran with one good god (Ahura Mazda) and one evil one (Ahriman)	Dualist	Prehistoric	Persia (now Iran)	Before 5th century BCE	By Zoroaster		Avesta
agnosticism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Belief that (1) God, if it exists, is by nature unknowable and will always be unknowable, or, (2) that the individual being asked cannot conclude if god exists or not for lack of evidence one way or the other	Atheist/monotheist	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal			Not defined	None
ancestor worship	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Belief that good relations need to be kept with tribal ancestor spirits. Often a form of Shamanism	Not defined	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal	prehistoric		Yes	None
animism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. The belief that all objects contain spirits. More a traditional form of belief than a "religion" in the Western sense	Not defined	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal	prehistoric		Not defined	None
atheism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Either (1) the active and extrinsic disbelief that God exists, or (2) an intrinsic lack of belief due to lack of knowledge about god(s) in local culture	Atheist	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal	prehistoric		Not defined	None
deism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Belief in a single creator god who is not "personal" and does not have human emotions, and which many believers say does not interact with the world	Monotheist	theism	Prehistoric/universal	prehistoric		Not defined	None
dualism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Belief that either (1) There is a good and evil god of equal, or almost-equal power, or (2) there are two gods, such as a male and female one	Dualist	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal			Not defined	Multifaceted
monotheism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Belief in a single creator god	Theist	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal			Not defined	Multifaceted
no religion	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. The rise secularisation has seen public and private religion decline throughout the developed world	Not defined	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal			Not defined	None
occultism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Normally existing within other belief systems, occult systems concentrate on esoteric meanings in texts, often with magical undertones	Not defined	Counterculture	Prehistoric/universal			Not defined	Multifaceted
pantheism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. God is everywhere, and everything, but is not transcendent and may have no distinct consciousness	Monotheist	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal	prehistoric			None
polytheism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Belief in multiple gods, often in some form of hierarchy	Theist	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal			Not defined	Multifaceted
sun worship	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. The basis of much symbology used in many subsequent religions	Not defined	Prehistoric	Universal	prehistoric		Not defined	None
theism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. The belief in god(s)		Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal	prehistoric			Multifaceted
universalism	A form of belief, rather than a specific system. Belief that all people go to heaven	Theist	Natural thought	Prehistoric/universal