The Religions Book

DIRECTORY 327

NAME FOUNDED FOUNDER GOD ADHERENTS

Church of
Scientology

Daoism

Falun Dafa

Hinduism

Islam

Jainism

Jehovah’s
Witnesses

Judaism

Rastafari
movement

Santeria

Shinto

Sikhism

Tenrikyo

Unification
Church

Wicca

Zoroastrianism

California,

1954

China, c.550 BCE

China, 1992

India,

prehistoric

Saudi Arabia,

7th century CE

India, c.550 BCE

US, 1872

Israel,

2000 BCE

Jamaica, 1930s

Cuba, early

19th century

Japan,

prehistoric

Punjab, India,

150 0 CE

Japan, 1838

South Korea,

1954

Britain, 1950s,

based on

ancient beliefs

Persia, 6th

century BCE

L. Ron Hubbard

Laozi

Li Hongzhi

Indigenous

Muhammad, the

final Prophet

Mahavira

Charles Taze

Russell

Abraham,

Moses

Haile Selassie I

None; a

syncretic faith

Indigenous

Guru Nanak

Nakayama Miki

Sun Myung

Moon

Gerald Gardner

Zoroaster

None

Dao pervades everything

Many gods and spiritual beings

Many deities, all manifestations

of one supreme reality

One God, Allah

No gods, but devotion to some

divine beings

One God

One God, YHWH

One, Jah, incarnate in Jesus

and Haile Selassie

More than 400 deities

Many gods and spirits,

known as kami

One God

God the parent

God, the heavenly parent of

all humanity

Usually two: the Triple Goddess

and the Horned God

One God (Ahura Mazda),

but dualism embraced

Not known

20 million

10 mil lion

900 million

1,500 million

4 million

7 million

15 mil lion

1 million

3–4 million

3–4 million

23 million

1 million

3 million

(official figure)

1–3 million

200,000