The Worlds Religions Following is a partial listing of the various belief systems for you to consider and investigate if desired. Remember, an open and inquiring mind is a powerful tool to have with you on your journey. You won’t make the correct decisions all of the time and when a change is needed, make that change after a full study is completed. None of what you experience and learn will be wasted. Only when you select an organization to belong to and then blindly follow it without question are you wasting your time and stifling your evolution and perhaps even placing yourself in danger. This is also essential advice when considering a spiritual or religious organization, a career path or a political affiliation. Your most valid spiritual outcomes will be based not only by what you are experiencing now but also by what you have absorbed from previous incarnations. The following description of religious or spiritual organizations or tenets is not a complete listing nor should they be considered absolutely accurate in their descriptions. The information describing each of them was gathered from various writings as diverse as the dictionary or discovered on the world-wide-web from Wikipedia and other sources. The information offered herein should be used as a starting point for the reader to select a religious entity that they might be interested in finding out more about. We here at The Emerald Crystal are not theologians or scholars or experts in the vast study of religions. If your desire is to acquire accuracy and a superior degree in this vast field of religiosity, you must go elsewhere. There are many religions or other forms of spiritual beliefs that are not listed herein. If you wish to submit such an entry, please submit your request to us on our Contact Forms and include background information so we can follow though on an insertion. We cannot guarantee inclusion. Agnostic An Agnostic believes that nothing can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in a God. Agnosticism is the view that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficient rational grounds to justify either the belief that God exists or the belief that God does not exist." The English biologist Thomas Henry Huxley coined the word agnostic in 1869, and said "It simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe." Earlier thinkers, however, had written works that promoted agnostic points of view, such as Sanjaya Belatthaputta, a 5th-century BCE Indian philosopher who expressed agnosticism about any afterlife; and Protagoras, a 5th-century BCE Greek philosopher who expressed agnosticism about the existence of "the gods”. Wikipedia Aladura Aladura a religious denomination of Christianity. Founded in 1918 in West Nigeria by 5 people, now has nearly 3 million members worldwide. Aladura is a classification of churches that abide by a Christian religious denomination or trend inspired by activities of progressive church elements, J.B Sadare, D.O. Odubanjo, I.O Sanya and others in 1918. The denomination has over 3 million adherents worldwide. The term "Aladura" means "praying people" in Yoruba. Aladura churches emphasize the power of prayer. They believe in faith healing and various elements associated with Pentecostalism. Most of the founders were associated with Anglicanism, joined by some Methodists. The churches reject the power of traditional African religion as malign. They sometimes burn cult images as "idols" and oppose both polygamy and witchcraft. Unlike Kimbanguism, the churches tend to avoid politics and focus instead on the "holiness movement”. The Aladura movement started at Ijebu-Ode, Nigeria in 1918. This movement later metamorphosed to Living Faith Church Worldwide (whose headquarters is the Faith Tabernacle) and to the Christ Apostolic Church. Today, many churches in Western Nigeria can be correctly called "Aladura".Wikipedia Amish Amish are a group of people that follow a more traditional approach to Christianity. Their reluctance for modern technology, horse buggies, and wood craftsmanship has garnered them the most fame. The Amish are a group of traditionalist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German Anabaptist origins. They are closely related to, but a distinct branch off from, Mennonite churches. The Amish are known for simple living, plain dress, Christian pacifism, and are slower to adopt many conveniences of modern technology, with a view to not interrupting family time, nor replacing face-to-face conversations whenever possible. The history of the Amish church began with a schism in Switzerland within a group of Swiss and Alsatian Mennonite Anabaptists in 1693 led by Jakob Ammann. Those who followed Ammann became known as Amish. In the second half of the 19th century, the Amish divided into Old Order Amish and Amish Mennonites. The latter do not eschew motor cars, whereas the Old Order Amish retained much of their traditional culture. When people refer to the Amish today, they normally refer to the Old Order Amish. Wikipedia Animism Animism is the belief that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls. Animistic beliefs form the basis of many cults. Animism is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things— animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, human handiwork, and perhaps even words—as animated and alive. Animism is used in the anthropology of religion as a term for the belief system of many indigenous peoples, especially in contrast to the relatively more recent development of organised religions. Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, animism is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so widely held and inherent to most indigenous peoples that they often do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism"; the term is an anthropological construct.Wikipedia Asatru Asatru, the modern attempt to revive the old Norse faith, was founded by the Icelandic farmer Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson (1924–1993). Beinteinsson was a sheep farmer and a priest in the religion, who published a book of rímur (Icelandic rhymed epic poetry) in 1945. In 1972 he petitioned the Icelandic government to recognize the Íslenska Ásatrúarfélagið ("Icelandic fellowship of Æsir faith") as a religious body. It did so in 1973, and Denmark and Norway have since followed. According to one Asatru website, similar communities were formed in the USA and UK at the same time as those in Iceland, each unaware of the existence of the others. This is a sign that "Odin, the wanderer, is once again seeking worshippers." (Irminsul Ættir) Today, there are small groups of Asatru adherents throughout Scandinavia and North America. According to the World Christian Encyclopedia, in the 1990s the approximately 300 Icelandic adherents hoped to dechristianize Iceland by the year 2000, the 1000th anniversary of the island's christianization. http://www.religionfacts.com Atheism Atheism is, in the broadest sense, an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities. Atheism is contrasted with theism, which, in its most general form, is the belief that at least one deity exists. The etymological root for the word atheism originated before the 5th century BCE from the ancient Greek ἄθεος, meaning "without god". In antiquity, it had multiple uses as a pejorative term applied to those thought to reject the gods worshiped by the larger society, those who were forsaken by the gods, or those who had no commitment to belief in the gods. The term denoted a social category created by orthodox religionists into which those who did not share their religious beliefs were placed. The actual term atheism emerged first in the 16th century. Wikipedia Bábism Bábism is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion which professes that there is one incorporeal, unknown, and incomprehensible God who manifests his will in an unending series of theophanies, called Manifestations of God. It has no more than a few thousand adherents according to current estimates, most of whom are concentrated in Iran. It was founded by ʻAli Muhammad Shirazi who first assumed the title of Báb from which the religion gets its name, out of the belief that he was the gate to the Twelfth Imam. However throughout his ministry his titles and claims underwent much evolution as the Báb progressively outlined his teachings. Founded in 1844, Bábism flourished in Persia until 1852, then lingered on in exile in the Ottoman Empire, especially Cyprus, as well as underground. An anomaly amongst Islamic messianic movements, the Bábí movement signaled a break with Shia Islam, beginning a new religious system with its own unique laws, teachings, and practices. Wikipedia Bahai Bahāʼi) is a religion بهائی :The Baháʼí Faith (/bəˈhɑːiː, bəˈhaɪ/; Persian teaching the essential worth of all religions, and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in 1863, it initially grew in Persia and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception. It is estimated to have between 5 and 8 million adherents, known as Baháʼís, spread throughout most of the world's countries and territories. The religion has three central figures: the Báb (1819–1850), considered a herald who taught that God would soon send a prophet in the same way of Jesus or Muhammad, and was executed by Iranian authorities in 1850; Baháʼu'lláh (1817–1892), who claimed to be that prophet in 1863 and faced exile and imprisonment for most of his life; and his son, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá (1844–1921), who was released from confinement in 1908 and made teaching trips to Europe and America.