World religion: the concept and history of the emergence

In the philosophical sense, religion is a specific form of awareness of a person around the world and being, the main feature of which is faith. The existence of faith determines the formation and implementation of special value systems, norms of thinking and patterns of behavior, which, in turn, contribute to the unification of people in religious organizations. In this sense, religion manifests itself as a form of social consciousness. World religion is a religion that has become widespread in a certain territory or among a certain social community, in different countries of the world and on different continents.

In the modern world, three world religions stand out: Buddhism, Christianity and Islam. The main criterion by which the world religion can be distinguished from national or regional is that there is no direct relationship between ethnic and political cultures and stereotypes of thinking and behavior. World religion, to all other things, has exerted and has a very great influence on the course of the historical development of entire nations and peoples, other large social groups and communities.

The oldest world religion is Buddhism, the origin of which dates back to the middle of the first millennium BC. E. During its existence, this religion has absorbed many of the most diverse local beliefs and teachings. The status of world religion belongs to Buddhism for the reason that it is not only the earliest world religion, but primarily because it, like others, has spread throughout the world, overcoming the original political, ethnic and cultural boundaries that separated one people from another . Today, the territorial framework of Buddhism stretches from Ceylon to Japan, and the process of formation of local Buddhist enclaves around the world is constantly evolving. The geographical center of Buddhism is considered Tibet, where this religion brought high, at that time, Indian culture, writing and the foundations of civilization.

Another world religion - Christianity, which today is the world's largest mass religion, its adherents number more than 2.5 billion people. Christianity arose around the 1st century in the Middle East - in Palestine and by now has spread throughout the world. At the moment, in any country in the world there are Christian communities, and in some countries Christianity has the status of state religion.

The origins of Christianity lie in the tenets of the Judaic Old Testament, and this is the reason for what was originally distributed among the Jews of Palestine. Then, according to the Bible, thanks to the missionary role of the first apostles, Christianity extends to the territories of the Roman Empire, Gaul and among the Slavic peoples.

Modern Christianity is represented by the following areas: Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Old Catholicism. Differences between them are rooted in various interpretations and interpretations of dogma and ritual rules.

Another world religion, which is the youngest in time, is Islam. "Islam" means submission, obedience. In its complete form, the dogmatism of Islam was formed by the 7th century, and was reflected in the main holy book of Islam - the Koran.

To date, Islam is the most dynamically spreading religion among all world religions. The total number of adherents of Islam is about 1.7 billion people. The number of Muslims in European countries and North America is growing especially fast. This is facilitated by the liberal migration laws of these regions and the traditionally high birth rate in Muslim families.

Modern coexistence of world religions is characterized by a complex system of contradictory relations, which largely determine political and social relations.