What does it mean to believe in a Religion?

What does it mean to believe in a Religion?

First, it means that you believe something different than some  or  all people on the planet Earth.

Second, it means that if you are a Christian then there are about 2.1 Billion people who believe somewhat like you do. If you are a Muslim there are also about 1.5  Billion people who believe somewhat like you do. And if you are a Hindu there are about 900 million people who believe somewhat like you. And everything else is a minority on a worldwide basis. But, minorities worldwide might be majorities in an area or country depending upon where you live on earth.

If, for example, you live in the United States where Christianity is the majority religion in North, Central and South America, then you see that most of the culture is based long term, (200 to 400 years or more) on Some form of Christianity and before that it was based upon animism which is what indigenous peoples of the world who have lived tribally for thousands of years tend to believe in. Whereas people who have lived in large cities for a really long time tend to believe in Chritianity, Islam (Muslim), Hinduism, Brahmanism, Buddhism, Jainism, and any other major variation I have neglected to mention.

But, I was thinking today that even the Democratic and Republican parties could be considered Christian factions or sects under the above set of rules of:

If you believe in a religion it means you believe in something different than some or all people on earth.

So, under this definition of religion I would say that the Democratic Party tends to be the Christian Liberal Party and the Republican Party tends to be the Christian Conservative party. And even though both the parties have wandered all over the place over the last couple hundred years that is what they both sort of are now.

So, the Democratic party doesn't like abortions but realizes that they are necessary in some circumstances.

And generally, the Republican party (as it says in the Republican Platform this year) that Abortion should be illegal even in cases of rape or incest.

So, there you have the Christian Liberal and Christian Conservative Parties. The liberal party is more inclusive and the Conservative party tends to be more exclusive and even though it is not their intention to be exclusionary their policies tend to exclude racial minorities, religious minorities, Gays and Lesbians.

Whereas the Christian Liberal (Democratic Party) tries to include all minorities. And even though it is not 100% successful in this it does quite well at this in some ways.

So, the whole point of having two parties like this is to not throw the baby out with the bathwater. Because the liberals are very experimental and the conservatives tend to not want to change anything from the way it was for the last 200 years. So, both parties are necessary to move forward and to progress without throwing away useful things as a nation. So, great philosophical debates take place every 4 years to see where we are and where we might go as a nation. And we all want to see what kind of religion we all want to be living the next 4 years or so. And that is where we are right now.

By the way I found this graph which does a good job of representing the major religions here on Earth: Begin quote:

   

Major Religions of the World
Ranked by Number of Adherents

(Sizes shown are approximate estimates, and are here mainly for the purpose of ordering the groups, not providing a definitive number. This list is sociological/statistical in perspective.)

1. Christianity: 2.1 billion
   
2. Islam: 1.5 billion
   
3. Secular/Nonreligious/Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
   
4. Hinduism: 900 million
   
5. Chinese traditional religion: 394 million
   
6. Buddhism: 376 million
   
7. primal-indigenous: 300 million
   
8. African Traditional & Diasporic: 100 million
   
9. Sikhism: 23 million

 end quote from:
http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html