Six largest religions

Adieu, the final farewell, an exploration of death!

Six largest religions: Forward to Christianity - Forward to Cemeteries – Back to Religions

Back to Adieu Index - Back to Bob Denton home page

–

Six largest religions are examined in detail, we are of course particularly keen to examine its attitude towars dying, death, commitment and beliefs about an after-life. This chart provides a useful overview or click on the heading to go to that religion:

Religion	Christianity	Islamism	Hinduism	Buddhism	Sikhism	Judaism
Central body	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Geographic Centre	Jerusalem, Rome	Mecca and Medina	Indus Valley	South India	Punjab	Jerusalem
Adherents (m)	2,400	1,900	1,200	500	26	15
World pop’n (%)	32	25	15	7	0.3	0.2
Existed (yrs)	2,000	1,392	4,324	2,507	524	3,424
Geographic Centre	Jerusalem, Rome	Mecca	Indus Valley	South India	Punjab	Jerusalem
Monotheism?	God	Allah	Param- atman	No god	Waheguru	Jahweh
Key figures	Jesus	Muhammad	None	Siddhartha Gautama	Guru Nanak	Abraham, Moses…
Scripture	Bible	Quran/Hadith	Vedas	Teaching/chants	Guru Granth Sahib	Tanakh or Torah
Origin	c30 CE	c632 CE	2,300 BCE	483 BCE	c1,500 CE	1,400 BCE
Creed	Yes – three	No	Puruṣārthas	Four Noble Truths	various	various
Survive death	Yes	Yes	Cycle	Saṃsāra cycle	Cycle	Yes
– reward	Heaven	Jannah	Svarga	Nirvana	None	Gan Eden
– failure	Hell	Jahannam	Naraka	Naraka	None	Gehinnom
Life after death	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Interred/Cremated	Both	Burial	Cremate	Cremate /Sky	Cremate	Burial
Wash body	Yes	Yes	ghee, honey, milk, yoghurt	Yes	Yes	Yes
Anoint body	Some	No	sandalwood/ turmeric	?	No	No
Embalm body	Some	No	No	No	No	No
Body dressed	best clothes	kafan	white sheet	simple clothes	clothes	shroud
Coffin	Yes	not always	Yes	open	Yes	closed
View body?	Usually closed coffin	Not usual	Yes	Yes 3/5/7 days	Yes	No
Flowers	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Candles	Yes	No	Lamp	Yes	?	Yes
Funeral procession	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes?	Yes
Women attend	Yes	Prefer Not	No, traditionally	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cortege (after)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes?
Wake	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No
Mourning period	7 days	3 days to 4 months	10-30 days	7, 49 and 100 days	None	7 and 30 days
Grave	East-West	facing Mecca	ashes spread	ashes spread	ashes spread	East-West
Headstone	Yes	Simple	No	No	No	Yes

–

Six largest religions: Forward to Christianity - Forward to Cemeteries – Back to Religions

Back to Adieu Index - Back to Bob Denton home page