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Adieu, the final farewell, an exploration of death!

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Quick Links:

• Next-tier of five religions
• Another four religions

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Following exploration of the six largest religions we will now examine the next-tier of nine biggest religions.

The next-tier of five:

Religion	Mormonism	Jehovah’s Witnesses	Confucianism	Baha’i	Jainism
Central body	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
People (m)	16.8	8.5	6.5	5	4
World population (%)	0.2	0.1	0.09	0.07	0.05
Operational (yrs)	203	152	2,503	180	2,492
Focus	Global	Global	China	Iran	India
Monotheism?	God	God	Moral code	All-Glorious or Bahá	Transtheistic
Key figures	Joseph Smith, Brigham Young	Jesus	Confucius	Baháʼu’lláh	Mahavira
Scripture	Bible, Book of Mormon	Bible	4 books + 5 classics	Kitáb-i-Aqdas	Agams
Scripture origin	1820 CE	1872 CE	479 BCE	1844 CE	468 BCE
Creed	some differences with Christianity	Yes – 3	No	humanity is a  single race	5 mahavratas
Afterlife	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	reborn
– reward	Spirit paradise	Kindom of God	Tiān	yes, not defined	yes?
– punishment	spirit prison (temp)	No	No	yes, not defined	yes?
Reincarnation	Some do	Yes	No	No	Yes
Burial/Cremation	Both, but prefer burial	Both	Cremation	Burial	Cremation
Wash body	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Anoint body	Yes	No	No	Scented attar/rose	Camphor, ghee, sandalwood
Embalmed	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Dressed	Based on status	Best clothes	Best clothes	Shroud/ring	Shroud
Coffin	Open	Yes	Yes	Durable coffin	Open
Viewing body	Yes	Usually closed	Yes	No	Yes
Flowers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Candles	Yes	Yes	Incense	?	No?
Procession (during)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes?	Yes
Women attend funeral	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes?
Cortege (after)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No?	?
Wake	Yes	Yes	Yes	No?	No
Grave	?	E-W	Geomancy	Feet to Qihlih	ashes buried
Gravestone	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Mourning period	None	No rule	49 days	?	None
Organ transplants	Free decision	Yes, but complicated	No	Yes	Yes

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Now the next four:

Religion	Shinto	Taoism	Zoroastrians	Rastafari
Central body	No	No	No	No
People (m)	4	3	2.6	0.6
World population (%)	0.05	0.04	0.03	0.01
Operational (yrs)	2,204	2,628	2,612	89
Focus	Japan	China	Iran	Jamaica
Monotheism?	Kami spirits	None	Ahura Mazda	Jah
Key figures	Sun Goddess Amaterasu	Lao Tzu	Zoraoster	Haile Selassie
Scripture	Shinten	Tao Te Ching	Avesta/Oral	Bible
Scripture origin	200 BCE	604 BCE	588 BCE	1935 CE
Creed	No	The way of the universe	Yes	No
Afterlife	Yes	Yes	Yes	Unclear
– reward	Ame	Tiān	Asman	Zion/Africa
– punishment	Yomi	Diyu	House of Lies	?
Reincarnation	No	Yes	No	No
Burial/Cremation	Cremation	Cremation	Exposure	Both
Wash body	Yes	Yes	No	No rule
Anoint body	No	Talcum	No	No rule
Embalmed	No	No	No	No rule
Dressed	?	Best clothes	?	No rule
Coffin	Yes	Yes	No	No rule
Viewing body	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Flowers	Yes	Yes	No	No rule
Candles	Yes	Incense	No	No rule
Procession (during)	Yes	?	No	No rule
Women at funeral	Yes	Yes	?	No rule
Cortege (after)	Yes	?	No	No rule
Wake	No	Yes	No	No rule
Grave	For the bones	?	No	No rule
Gravestone	Yes	Yes	No	No rule
Mourning period	No	49 days	No	No rule
Organ transplants	No	Yes	No	No rule

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