PB January 2015 Final (Part 1).indd

A religion usually is defined as a collection of beliefs about God and his relation with the universe and individual persons. There are many religions in the world, but I will deal only with the major world religions, which include Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The beliefs of these religions are documented in certain books, which are considered to be sacred and used for guidance as to how a man is supposed to act in the world. Many religions also have a hierarchy of organisations and clergy, and they have considerable influence on their followers and dictate how the respective religions are practised. The religions of today are preceded by many different types of belief systems and there has been a gradual evolution of religious views. The origin of religions can be traced to animism, fetishism, and the worship of nature gods. These approaches now are considered to be crude, but they reveal Arun Chatterjee is Emeritus Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxvillle.