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The World's Third Largest Religion!
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Lord
Ganesh; Popular God of Hinduism |
Hinduism has grown to become the world's third largest religion,
after Christianity and Islam. It claims about 837 million
followers - 13% of the world's population. It is the dominant
religion in India, Nepal, and among the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
According to the "Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches,"
there are about 1.1 million Hindus in the U.S. The "American
Religious Identification Survey" is believed to be more
accurate. They estimated smaller number: 766,000
Hindus in 2001. Still, this is a very significant increase from
227,000 in 1990. Statistics Canada estimates that there are
about 157,015 Hindus in Canada. |
Lord
Ganesh; Popular God of Hinduism |
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Lord
Vishnu; Popular God of Hinduism |
Hinduism is generally regarded as the world's oldest organized
religion. Most forms of
Hinduism are henotheistic religions. They recognize a
single deity, and view other Gods and Goddesses as manifestations or
aspects of that supreme God. Henotheistic and polytheistic
religions have traditionally been among the world's most religiously
tolerant faiths. However, until recently, a Hindu
nationalistic political party controlled the government of India.
The linkage of religion, the national government, and nationalism
led to a degeneration of the separation of church and state in
India. This, in turn, has decreased the level of religious
tolerance in that country. The escalation of anti-Christian
violence was one manifestation of this linkage.
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Adapted from
religioustolerance.org/hinduism.htm |
