That Old-Time Religion Trivia Quiz

Much like Christianity, Hinduism (a term coined in the 18th century) is an umbrella term for a wide range of Indian religious and spiritual traditions that share a defining component - in this case, the concept of dharma (universal order). The word Hindu is derived from "Sindhu", the Sanskrit name of the Indus River that flows in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.

The earliest stage of what we now call Hinduism harks back to the civilization that developed in the Indus Valley during the Bronze Age. Between 1900 BC and 1400 BC, the historical Vedic religion (also known as Ancient or Vedic Hinduism) was introduced in the subcontinent by the Indo-Aryan migrations. Classical Hinduism emerged between 800 BC and 200 BC - the period in which two other major Indian religions, Buddhism and Jainism, developed. During the Gupta Empire, which ruled the Indian subcontinent from the mid-3rd century to the mid-6th century AD, Hinduism experienced its "Golden Age", with the development of the six branches of Hindu philosophy.

Present-day Hinduism is the world's third-largest religion, with about 1.2 billion followers. Practiced by about 80% of the population of India, it is also the primary religion of Nepal, Mauritius and the Indonesian island of Bali. Hindu communities are found worldwide.

The oldest of the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism - unlike Christianity and Islam - is an ethnic rather than a universal religion, strongly associated with a particular ethnic group and its culture, language and customs. Although Judaism is traditionally believed to have originated over 4,000 years ago, many modern scholars set the beginnings of the religion at a distinctly later date.

Named after the Kingdom of Judah ("Yehudah" in Hebrew), which flourished in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age, Judaism developed from Yahwism, the religion of Ancient Israel. Unlike the Canaanite religion from which it derived in the 12th-11th centuries BC, Yahwism focused on the worship of one god (Yahweh), though accepting the existence of other deities. However, over time Yahwism became strictly monotheistic. A turning point in the history of Judaism was the Babylonian captivity and exile (586-539 BC) of the Judeans, which led to the establishment of a religion that was strongly focused on law and scripture, as well as the preservation of the purity of the community. This stage in the development of the religion, which lasted from around 516 BC (the construction of the Second Temple) to 70 AD (the Roman conquest of Jerusalem), is known as Second Temple Judaism.

Judaism is followed by around 15 million people worldwide, though religious observance is highly variable. The largest communities are found in Israel and North America (mainly USA and Canada), while the number of Jews in Europe has dramatically shrunk after the tragic events of WWII.

Islam (Arabic for "surrender") originated in the Arabian Peninsula in the early 7th century AD. According to Islamic tradition, in 610 Muhammad - revered as the final prophet of God - received his first revelation of the Koran (which Muslims believe to be the true word of God) from the angel Gabriel. Until then, the dominant religion of the Arabian Peninsula had been a form of polytheism with elements of animism.

In the 22 years between the revelation and his death in 632, Muhammad preached and converted many people (in particular those belonging to marginalized groups) to the worship of the one God, and finally defeated the "idolaters of Mecca" in a series of battles. By the time of his death, all of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to the new faith. His successors were instrumental in the spread of Islam in Northern Africa, Western Asia, and parts of Southern Europe.

With close to 2 billion followers worldwide, Islam is the world's second-largest religion. It is practiced by the majority of the population of 49 countries in Asia and Africa, and large communities exist in most other parts of the world. The vast majority of Muslims follow the Sunni branch, while the Shi'a branch is followed in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Bahrain.

Sikhism originated in the late 15th century in the region of Punjab, in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent; its name comes from the Punjabi word "sikh", meaning disciple or student. Its founder, Guru Nanak, a spiritual teacher and mystic, was the first of the faith's ten gurus. The tenth of them, Guru Gobind Singh, who lived in the late 17th century, ended the line of human gurus by naming the holy scripture of Sikhism, the Guru Grant Sahib, as his successor.

In the 16th century, the new religion spread through Punjab: however, during that same century and later it became the object of persecution on the part of the Mughal emperors (who were Muslim). In 1801, the short-lived Sikh Empire was created by military leader Ranjit Singh, who choose Lahore (now in Pakistan) as his capital. During his reign, the religion's holiest "gurdwara" (place of worship), the Golden Temple of Amritsar, was rebuilt.

Though developed much later, Sikhism - a monotheistic religion - shares some concepts (such as reincarnation and karma) with the other major religions of the Indian subcontinent. Sikhism is believed to have 25-30 million followers worldwide - most of them based in India, but with a sizable presence in Canada, the US and the UK.

Candomblé belongs to a group of syncretic religions known as African diaspora religions, which developed in the Americas as a consequence of the Atlantic slave trade. These religions arose from the contact between the religious traditions of West and Central Africa (where the vast majority of African slaves came from) and Christianity, mainly Roman Catholicism. They were based on the veneration of ancestors and the worship of divine spirits known as "orishas", later identified with Christian saints. However, Afro-American religions also incorporate elements from other folk religions, as well as practices such as Shamanism and Spiritualism.

Though Afro-Brazilian religions (often referred to by the collective name of "macumba") already existed in some form since the 16th century, their emergence as organized religious practices dates from much later. Candomblé ("dance in honour of the gods") arose in the early 19th century in the northeastern state of Bahia, where many people of Yoruba ancestry resided. According to tradition, the first "terreiro" (house of worship) - known as the Casa Branca of Engenho Velho - was founded in Salvador (the capital of Bahia) in 1830. Though the spread of this new religion was hindered by authorities for much of the 19th century, Candomblé became increasingly popular, quickly gaining a following in other parts of the country - especially in larger cities such as Rio de Janeiro and Săo Paulo.

Still mainly centred around Salvador, Candomblé is estimated as being followed by about 1.3% of the Brazilian population, and is regarded as a major component of Brazilian culture. Smaller communities of Candomblé practitioners are also found in other parts of South America and beyond.

The Bahá'i Faith is a monotheistic religion with an universalist outlook, based on the three principles of the unity of God, unity of religion, and unity of humanity. Its name comes from the Arabic "bahá", meaning "splendour", which in this case refers to the glory of God. The religion's founder, Mírzá Ḥusayn-ʻAlí Núrí, born in Tehran (Iran) in 1817, took the title of Baháʼu'lláh when he claimed to be the prophet of the Báb, an Iranian religious leader regarded as the predecessor of the Bahá'i Faith.

Both Bábism and the Bahá'i Faith were the object of violent persecution in Iran. In 1863, 11 years after the Báb's execution on grounds of heresy, Baháʼu'lláh announced his claim to a divine revelation. He spent the rest of his life as a prisoner of the Ottoman Empire, and died in 1892 in Acre (now in Israel), leaving his son, Abdu'l-Bahá, as his successor. Baháʼu'lláh's tomb in Haifa, located near the house where he died, is the Bahá'i Faith's most sacred shrine.

The Bahá'i Faith counts about 8 million followers with worldwide distribution; it is one of the world's fastest-growing religions. The first Bahá'i House of Worship built in India, the Lotus Temple in New Delhi (1986), is famous for its striking shape, and attracts millions of visitors every year.

Jehovah's Witnesses are a Christian denomination that branched out from the Bible Student movement, a Millennialist Restorationist movement founded in the early 1870s by Charles Taze Russell in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A group headed by Joseph Franklin Rutherford, who was in control of the Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society (also founded by Russell), eventually broke away from the main movement after Russell's death in 1916. Rutherford made a number of doctrinal and organizational changes, which resulted in the adoption of the name Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931.

Though rooted in Christian doctrine, Jehovah's Witnesses do not believe in the Trinity or the inherent immortality of the soul. They also hold other beliefs that have made the denomination highly controversial - chief of all, their rejection of blood transfusions and vaccinations. They have also come into conflict with national governments because of their uncompromising refusal of military service. Most people, however, are familiar with their active evangelism - which include door-to-door preaching and distributing literature.

Jehovah's Witnesses are active in most of the world's countries, with a membership of nearly 9 million. In some countries, however, their activity is restricted, when not outright banned.

Also known as "The Craft", Wicca is a modern form of earth-centred paganism that developed in England in the first half of the 20th century, evolving from the Western esoteric tradition. The name Wicca comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for "sorcerer", the ancestor of the English word "witch". Part of the larger pagan movement - which includes ethnic-based religions such as Heathenry (Germanic neopaganism) and Druidry (Celtic neopaganism) - Wicca has no central authority and emphasizes rituals and direct spiritual experience.

Though its earliest beginnings date from the 1920s, Wicca was brought to public attention in 1954 by a book written by amateur anthropologist and archaeologist Gerald Gardner, titled "Witchcraft Today". Gardner based his religion on the now-discredited witch-cult theory, which posited that the witch hunts in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe were attempts to suppress a pagan religion that had survived Christianization. The new religion continued to grow in popularity in the 1960s, in spite of negative portrayals by the media. By that time, the more generic name of "Witchcraft" had been abandoned in favour of Wicca.

As is the case with most religions, different variations of Wicca have evolved over the years. The numbers of practitioners of the religion, however, is unknown: some sources mention a median estimate of 800,000 members, mainly found in Europe, North America, Australasia and South Africa.

Labeled as a new religious movement or a new ethnic (Afro-American) religion, Rastafari is rooted in the Abrahamic tradition and based on an interpretation of the Bible. The religion is named after Haile Selassie I, the last Emperor of Ethiopia (1892-1975), born Tafari Makonnen and later granted the title of Ras ("prince"). Haile Selassie is accorded divine or semi-divine status in the religion, which developed in the ghettos of Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, in the early 1930s - around the time of Selassie's coronation as Emperor of Ethiopia, when he was declared the "Black Messiah" by Jamaican preacher Leonard Howell.

Like other Afro-American religions, Rastafari developed out of the legacy of the Atlantic slave trade. However, Rastafari was strongly influenced by Protestant movements such as Christian Revivalism, as well as late 19th-century religious and political movements such as Ethiopianism and the Black nationalism promoted by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey - who supported the return to Africa of the African diaspora in the Americas. In fact, Leonard Howell (known as the First Rasta) preached the superiority of black Africans over white Europeans, though this supremacist stance considerably softened in later decades.

Rastafari became popular in the 1970s, following the international success of reggae artists such as Bob Marley. After Marley's death in 1981, the religion's popularity waned: now Rastafari counts around 1 million followers worldwide.

While many would disagree with calling Scientology a religion, and would probably refer to it by using less than complimentary terms, the set of beliefs and practices created by American pulp fiction author L. Ron Hubbard has been officially recognized as a religion by a number of countries - including Australia, the US, Portugal and Spain. In other countries it has obtained the status of registered charity, while in others it has no official status at all, and is sometimes viewed in a rather harsh light.

Hubbard (who died in 1989) founded the Church of Scientology ("science of knowledge") in the 1950s as a follow-up to Dianetics, a set of ideas and practices originally conceived as a form of psychotherapy (though rejected by the scientific community) - very likely in order to obtain tax advantages. Often described as a "UFO religion" because of its emphasis on science fiction themes, Scientology has also been linked with the Western esoteric tradition and other syncretic belief systems.

Headquartered in Riverside County, California, the Church of Scientology has an estimated 700 centres in about 65 countries. It counts about 40,000 followers - some of them well-known Hollywood celebrities.