Religion in the city

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• Christian     79.5%

• Buddhist     0.3%

• Hindu      0.3%

• Jewish     0.6%

• Muslim     1.4%

• Sikh      0.1%

• Other      0.1%

• No religion     9.7%

• Not stated   8.1%

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy focusing on the teachings of the Buddha Śākyamuni (Siddhārtha Gautama), who probably lived in the 5th century BCE. Buddhism spread throughout the ancient Indian sub-continent in the five centuries following the Buddha's death, and propagated into Central, Southeast, and East Asia over the next two millennia. Today, Buddhism is divided primarily into three traditions: Theravāda (Sanskrit: Sthaviravāda), Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna. Buddhism continues to attract followers worldwide, and, with around 350 million followers, it is considered a major world religion.

A Buddha is considered to be a person who discovers the true nature of reality through years of study, investigation of the various religious practices of his time, and meditation. This transformational discovery is called bodhi or "enlightenment". Any person who has, without the instruction of others, become awakened to the principles of the Dharma, is called a Buddha. Śākyamuni is said to have been only the latest of many of these; there were other Buddhas before him and there will be others in the future. According to the Buddha, any person can follow his example and become enlightened through the study of his words and putting them into practice, by leading a virtuous, moral life, and purifying his mind. In general, the aim of Buddhist practice is to end all kinds of suffering in life. To achieve this state, adherents seek to purify and train the mind by following the Noble Eightfold Path, and eventually to gain true knowledge of reality and thus attain liberation: nirodha or nirvāna (Pāli nibbāna).

A Hindu, as per modern definition is an adherent of philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, the predominant religious, philosophical and cultural system of the Indian subcontinent and the island of Bali. Historically, Hindus can be referred to as the successors of Aryans and other peoples of India. Most of the Hindus today live in India. Another popular name for India is Hindustan, meaning the land of Hindus.

As of 2005, there were approximately 970 million Hindus. Of these, 900 million live in India, the birthplace of modern Hinduism. The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal is the world's only Hindu nation, with more than 80% of its population practicing Hinduism, which is closely intertwined with Budhism. Though the majority of the Indian population practices Hinduism, 82%, India is a secular republic. Large Hindu communities, mostly expatriates from India, live in South East Asia, North America, the West Indies, Western Europe, the Middle East, East Africa and South Africa. The Hindus of Bali, and in other parts of Indonesia are indigenous Indonesian Hindus.

According to Jewish thought, the God who created the world established a covenant with the Jewish people, and revealed his laws and commandments to them in the form of the Torah. The practice of Judaism is devoted to the study and observance of these laws and commandments, as written in the Torah.

Judaism does not fit easily into conventional Western categories, such as religion, ethnicity, or culture, in part because most of its 4,000-year history predates the rise of Western culture, or occurred outside of the West. During this time, Jews have experienced slavery, anarchic and theocratic self-government, conquest, occupation, and exile; they have been in contact with, and have been influenced by ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, and Hellenic cultures, as well as modern movements such as the Enlightenment and the rise of nationalism.

A Muslim (Arabic: مسلم, Turkish:Müslüman, Persian: مسلمان) is an adherent of Islam. Literally, the word means "one who submits [to God]". There are approximately 1.2-1.3 billion Muslims worldwide.

Most Muslims accept as a fellow Muslim anyone who has publicly pronounced the Shahada, which states, "there is no god but God (Allah), and Muhammad is the messenger of God."

Muslims believe that Islam existed long before Muhammad. Muslims describe many figures also found in the Bible, such as Adam, Moses (Musa) and Jesus (Isa) as Muslims because they are said to have submitted to God and preached his message as prophets.

Sikhism  is a monotheistic religion based on the teachings of ten Gurus who lived in northern India during the 16th and 17th centuries. It is one of the world's major organised religions with over 23 million followers.

The two core beliefs of Sikhism are:

• The belief in One God. The opening sentence of the Sikh scriptures is only two words long, and reflects the base belief of all who adhere to the teachings of the religion: Ek Onkar or "One Creator"
• The followers of Sikhism are ordained to follow the teachings of the Ten Sikh Gurus and other saints as scripted in their 1430 page holy scripture the Guru Granth Sahib.

The Guru Granth Sahib is a text written by the Gurus, and was decreed by the tenth Guru as the last and final Guru of the Khalsa Panth. Sikh philosophy is characterised by logic, comprehensiveness, and a "without frills" approach to both spiritual and material concerns. Its theology is marked by simplicity.

Sikhism shares some similarities in philosophy with that of Bhakti movement and Sufism. Some consider Sikhism to be a syncretic religion, although this is not a widespread belief held by Sikhs; the Sikh Gurus maintained that their message had been revealed directly by God.

Atheism, in its broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of gods. This definition includes both those who assert that there are no gods, and those who make no claim about whether gods exist or not. Narrower definitions, however, often only qualify those who assert there are no gods as atheists, labeling the others as agnostics or simply non-theists.

There is no single ideology that all atheists share, nor are there any institutionalized rituals or behaviors. There are certain individuals whose religious or spiritual beliefs some might describe as atheistic, though those holding such beliefs do not normally describe themselves as atheists.

Atheism includes, but is not equivalent to, the position of antitheism, the active opposition to theism.

Alternative religious are often gravely misunderstood by members of the religious mainstream. Labeled "cults" or "sects," groups and their members are often ridiculed or otherwise disregarded as weird and potentially dangerous by the populace at large. Despite their efforts at educating the general public, the various anti- and counter-cult activists have in fact promoted much more mis-understanding than accurate understanding of the religious lives of some of their fellow citizens. Consequently, they have helped to create a very hostile environment for anyone whose religious practices do not fit within a so-called "mainstream".

Determining what actually constitutes a new or alternative religion is a subject of constant debate. Questions arise as to a new faith's legitimacy, beliefs, methods of conversion, and other facets of a religious movement's viability and place in a given culture. How a religion gains recognition by the mainstream, which often labels such new movements as cults, is fraught with difficulty, tension, and fear. It can sometimes be difficult to delineate the boundaries and examine the various groups, beliefs, movements, and other issues related to new faiths and alternative beliefs. Some of the new and alternative religions are given below; but this list is far from eshaustive:

• Shamanism
• Wicca
• Black Israelites
• Santeria
• Scientology
• Elan Vital
• Hare Krishna
• Soka Gakkai
• and many more

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