Ethnic religion

An ethnic religion is generally defined by the ethnicity of its adherents, and conversion essentially equates to cultural assimilation into that ethnoreligious group. Ethnic religions are distinguished from religions that actively seek converts worldwide, regardless of ethnic affiliation. In contrast, ethnic religions have (diasporas excluded) limited geographic scope, and membership is (by definition) determined by ethnic affiliation.

Religion was a defining part of a nation's culture, along with language and customs. With the rise of the aggressively proselytizing religions that actively sought to cross ethnic boundaries, in particular Christianity and Islam, many of the established ethnic religions began to be polemically belittled as "pagan" (rustic), "heathen" (uncivilized) or shirk (idolatrous, polytheistic), kafirun (unbelieving). In the last 2,000 years, most ethnic religions have been supplanted or marginalized by either one of these two proselytizing religions: In Europe, for example, the indigenous Slavic, Germanic, Celtic, Norse, Greek and Roman ethnic religions were supplanted by Christianity. Accompanying colonial expansion, the same occurred later for the indigenous ethnic religions in the Americas and in Central and Southern Africa. Similarly, Islam replaced not only the traditional religions of the Arabs and the Zoroastrianism of the Iranians. Less stridently, Buddhism, another (historically) proselytizing religion, contributed a moral and ethical framework to various ethnic belief systems in eastern Asia, and these are now considered variants of Buddhism. Some ethnic religions however remain numerically strong, for instance Hinduism of the Indians, Judaism of the Judeans/Jews, Shenism of the Han Chinese, and Shinto of the Japanese.

Religion

Religion is a cultural system of behaviors and practices, world views, ethics, and social organisation that relate humanity to an order of existence. About 84% of the world's population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion.

With the onset of the modernisation of and the scientific revolution in the western world, some aspects of religion have cumulatively been criticized. Though the religiously unaffliated, including atheism and agnosticism, have grown globally, many of the unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs. About 16% of the world's population is religiously unaffiliated.

The study of religion encompasses a wide variety of academic disciplines, including comparative religion and social scientific studies. Theories of religion offer explanations for the origins and workings of religion.

Etymology

Religion

Religion (from O.Fr. religion "religious community", from L. religionem (nom. religio) "respect for what is sacred, reverence for the gods", "obligation, the bond between man and the gods") is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possibility is an interpretation traced to Cicero, connecting lego "read", i.e. re (again) + lego in the sense of "choose", "go over again" or "consider carefully". Modern scholars such as Tom Harpur and Joseph Campbell favor the derivation from ligare "bind, connect", probably from a prefixed re-ligare, i.e. re (again) + ligare or "to reconnect", which was made prominent by St. Augustine, following the interpretation of Lactantius. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders: "we hear of the 'religion' of the Golden Fleece, of a knight 'of the religion of Avys'".

List of Dune religions

The Religions of Dune are a key aspect of the fictional setting of the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert. Many of the names of religions mentioned in the novels indicate they are blends of current belief systems, some syncretic.

According to Appendix II: The Religion of Dune in the 1965 novel Dune, after the Butlerian Jihad, the Bene Gesserit composed the Azhar Book, a "bibliographic marvel that preserves the great secrets of the most ancient faiths". Soon after, a group made up of the leaders of many religions (calling itself the Commission of Ecumenical Translators) created the Orange Catholic Bible, the key religious text of the Dune universe, which "contains elements of most ancient religions".

Buddislam

The term for those religions derived from a syncretic fusion of denominations of Buddhism and Islam. The connection of the Zensunni with Buddislam suggests the latter arose during the Third Islamic Movement associated with the Maometh Saari (see below under Third Islam).