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Top 10 Modern Day Religions
Here are the top 10 Modern Day Religions. The listing are based on a survey of 1,000 people in Canada and the United States. Each survey participant was asked to rate how much they knew about each religion and whether they were new/old. The list is based on how many people knew they weren’t older than 500 years.
10. Candomblé
Candomblé is a religion based on African beliefs which is particularly popular in Brazil. It is also practised in other countries, and has as many as two million followers. It is a mixture of traditional Yoruba, Fon and Bantu beliefs which originated from different regions in Africa. It has also incorporated some aspects of the Catholic faith over time. Enslaved Africans brought their beliefs with them when they were shipped to Brazil during the slave trade.
9. Jehovah’s Witnesses
The modern day Jehovah’s Witnesses (you may recall some of them going door to door trying to proselytize people with their magazine) have been around since the late 1800s. It was around this time that a Bible study group based in Pennsylvania began analyzing, comparing, and dissecting Biblical scripture only to arrive at conclusions not taught by the mainstream Christianity groups. This group used zealous proselytizing to spread their scriptural discoveries. They also used their hope for the future that they gathered from the Bible to spread across North America.
8. Antoinism
Antoinism is a Christian-oriented new religious movement discovered in 1910 by the Walloon Louis-Joseph Antoine in Jemeppe-sur-Meuse,Seraing. With a total of 64 temples, over forty reading rooms across the world and thousands of members, it remains the only religion established in Belgium whose notoriety and success left outside of the country. Mainly active in France, the religious movement is characterized by a decentralized structure, simple rites, discretion and tolerance towards other faiths. Antoinist beliefs combine some elements of Catholicism, reincarnation, and healing.
7. Scientology
Scientology is a religion that was created by American science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard in 1952 as an outgrowth of his earlier self-help system called Dianetics. Since the early days, Scientology has been among the most controversial religious movements. Their church is often seen as a business, a criminal enterprise as well as a cult. In 1978, top-ranking members were convicted of espionage after infiltrating, wiretapping, and stealing documents from the offices of Federal attorneys and the Internal Revenue Service. If people convert to Scientology, the church promises its adherents “total freedom”.
6. Satanism
Satanism is a religion that worships Satan, the ruler of “Hell”. Worshippers of Satan are categorized as spiritualists for whom Satan is an actual deity and atheists for whom Satan is a figure symbolizing crisis of faith, individualism and free will. Certain sects that practice under satanism are know for some of the most horrific activities to date. The ‘Beasts of Satan’, for example, committed murders in Italy between 1998-2004. The ‘Order of Nine Angels’, another one, asserted human sacrifice in the 1960s. The religion began in 1966 with the founding of the Church of Satan.
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