Religion has been part of human evolution, artefacts and paintings on cave walls indicate that the belief in divinities and those things that transcend human comprehension have been with us for a long time.

​

The Greeks looked into the heavens and placed their gods in the sky as constellations. The Egyptians created decorative structures to represent their deities.

The question that some ask is why? Perhaps we need merely to observe our world, our star the Sun and our orbiting satellite the Moon. The seasons and nature. These were some of the factors that helped create all belief systems over the history of humankind.

​

Today in the early part of the twenty-first century there is still a variety of expressions of belief. However, there are six that account for the majority of adherents to a religious system of belief.

​

In order of size, the six major world religions are Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Judaism.

​

One might think that these are all separate and have no commonality with each other. Such an assumption is in fact incorrect similarities are quite apparent if one simply looks beneath the surface.

​

Let us take the three ‘Semitic’ belief systems, although different and very distinct, they have the same origin and belief in one unified deity. Whether it is Yahweh, God or Allah they come from the Hebrew tradition.

​

Other common features are their written text, the Koran being slightly different but having similar characters most notably Abraham.

​

The emphasis on charity, pilgrimage and prayer are all prevalent in what is expected of believers.

​

If we move to the Eastern religions, we have a similar development. Hinduism, perhaps the oldest of all current belief systems, is some six thousand years old. Out of this belief came various other variations, Buddhism being perhaps the most well-known.

​

These religions have been falsely given a polytheistic identity, that is to say, they have many deities and not just one. Nevertheless, what is not understood by many is that the gods are merely aspects of one singular deity. In the Semitic system often, the divine being is said to be all-loving or just in his actions.

Sikhism the more recent belief is somewhat of a hybrid, its founder had parents one being Hindu and the other a Muslim. So, there is a curious assimilation of both Middle Eastern and far Eastern traditions.

​

I hope that I have shown that there are similarities between all the current major world religions. However, there is one similarity that I have forgotten and one of significance.

All six religions have seen separations, schisms, and divisions. I have already mentioned Hinduism and we must not forget Christianity, but the others have never avoided the problem of differing views and disagreements.

As Religion comes from humankind it will always have a difference of options this comes from being human.