Which religions were the most widely believed throughout history?
>>1181440
Christianity and Islam.
What sort of question is that
>>1181457
Maybe he's asking about before those, so big dead religions
>>1181467
Define dead and we can give you an answer.
>>1181470
barely any followers, at least in comparison to the vast amount of followers it might have had previously
>>1181457
I'm talking about the whole history.
We know approximately how many believers religions currently have, but there are about 70 billion humans that lived.
I couldn't find a source that answers my question so i came here.
>>1181482
Zoroastrianism comes to mind immediately.
Most other faiths that can fit that description are probably some hindu sects that were once much more prolific in certain parts of India.
>>1181484
Most of those 70 billion probably followed local pagan religions with few exceptions so there aren't really many big "religions" you can point to other than maybe traditional Egyptian/Norse/Greek or like someone already said Zoroastrianism. There were some schools of philosophy like epicureanism or stoicism that certain greeks can have been said to follow religiously.
>>1181522
yeah i guess it depends on the interpretation of religion, and what seperates one from another.
For example there are 4 different popular islamic cults, we take them as one and say there are 2 billion muslims. Same goes for christianity too.
But is there no research on this that gives at least an approximation for those religions you said?
The question we must ask ourselves is the following, dear friends:
"Are we talking "most widely believed" in numbers of humans or surface area?"
Until we define this all of our interactions will be merely pointless and ultimately futile
>>1181596
dang it. you got me.
i actually gave a hint here >>1181484
>>1181574
i am not exactly familiar with ancestor worship, but isnt that more like a religious practice rather than a religion itself?
Hinduism, how this even a question.
IF, we indeed are talking of number of humans
THEN, we must look at the most populous regions
This is the only logical conclusion one can reach
>>1181440
Deism and polytheism, probably.
>>1181612
Ancester worship is taking WE WUZ to religious levels. You're right in assuming it isn't exactly a "divine religion" per say, but it shares many characteristics with the traditional form of spiritual religion in the way it is practiced and how it interacts with the culture at large.
Traditional Chinese culture is a perfect example of ancestor worship.
>>1181574
Not really, ancester worship is usually just a phase in most places and you need a certain level of cultural and technological development to practice it.
Sure it can be said that many people idolized their ancestors and venerated them but it usually devolved into volcano god worship in a short amount of time simply due to lack of historical records or dramatization.
>>1181713
Top of my head, only Romans and the Chinese were autistic levels in Ancestor Worship.
The rest thought they were just in the afterlife chilling with Gods. Romans and Chinese thought THEIR ANCESTORS became Gods over their personal fortunes.
Hinduism, of course
>>1181742
Ever heard of Japan?
Fertility deities were highly popular according to archeologists
>>1181752
Shintoism? Basically animism. Japs revered their ancestors, but did not worship them.
Save their empra of course, because he's descended from the divine lineage.
>>1181440
Definitely Christianity and Islam. Ancient religions were less widespread and the overall population density was much lower. Still, Zoroastrianism is a barely surviving, formerly major religion.
>>1181742
>Implying that is unreasonable
