Questions that religions address

Religions are systems of belief which typically answer questions about the following concerns:

• the divine, the sacred and the supernatural,
• our purpose as beings, on earth, goals in this life and possible other states of being like heaven or nirvana,
• what happens to us when we die and how to prepare for that,
• the nature of Deity (or Deities) (cf God) and what She, He, They, It wants from us,
• our relationships with Deity(-ies), the sacred, ancestors, other people, and the world around us, that is, how to behave well in relationship.

Generally, the different religions and the non-religious all have different answers for the above concerns. Hence, scholars can classify a religion according to the characteristic answer the religion gives for the above concerns.

Comparison of sources of authority

In addition, scholars can classify a religion according to the nature of the authority to which the religion refers.

• Universal religions sometimes have no prophetic founder, although they may have had an early "champion" or crafter of that religious viewpoint. For example, Hinduism claims to be the science of the spirit. The various gods of Hinduism are the projections of One Reality that transcends subject/object split on the mind.

• Monotheistic religions are defined by the belief in one and only one Deity. They often involve doctrines and also often have a professional priesthood. Examples of monotheisms include: Judaism, Sikhism, Christianity, Islam and the Bahá'í Faith.

• Polytheistic religions involve many deities. Usually, each deity is considered a separate entity (as opposed, for instance, to Christianity which considers the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as one). Polytheistic religions often flourish in less centralized societies, where each individual can adapt a portion of the religion as their own. This kind of religions gives more freedom to the practitioners who often hold to little dogma. Examples of polytheisms include: the mythologies of ancient Greece and Egypt, and modern Pagan and Neopagan religions such as Wicca or Asatru.

• Shamanistic religions are a broad category of religions based around worship of ancestors or spirits rather than "Gods." Shamanistic religions typically are limited to small geographical areas and rarely achieve national or international organization.

• Pantheistic or natural religions see everything in nature an aspect of a spiritual plane. Such faiths include (to various degrees) Shintoism and several animistic traditions.

• Some faiths, perhaps better termed spiritual philosophies, involve extensive practical teachings for achieving human happiness or equanimity in the natural world with a lesser focus on the supernatural. Examples: Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, and Confucianism.

Generally while individual religions may differ in sources of authority, they share many common traits, such as ritual, concern with the afterlife, regulation of social behavior, and belief in the supernatural.

Dealing with alien religions

Adherents of particular religions deal with the (more or less) divergent doctrines and practices espoused by other religions in several ways. Examples of each exist within most major religious systems. People with exclusivist beliefs typically explain other religions as either in error, or as corruptions or counterfeits of the true faith. People with inclusivist beliefs recognize some truth in all faith systems, highlighting agreements and minimizing differences, but see their own faith as in some way ultimate. People with pluralist beliefs make no distinction between faith systems, viewing each one as valid within a particular culture. Pluralists and inclusivists may borrow from more than one faith system for their own religious practice. However, it should be noted that in many areas different faith systems are integrated into one; this does not fit the definition of pluralism. For example, in many tribal areas of Indonesia natives practice a mixture of Islam, tribal gods, and worship of Adam and Eve.