Religions

Click on the following to see the webpage with information on differences in Bibles: http://bessel.org/bibles.htm

Much of the information in this chart comes from sources that I believe are reliable, such as encyclopedias, almanacs, books, and people who I believe to be reliable who have sent me emails. I have sometimes included information on this chart when I believe, but do not know know, if it is accurate. I am always willing to add any comments that are sent to me, since I am not an expert on this subject.

If anyone wants to send me email, especially if any of the information on this chart is not correct or if you know of additional information that should be included, please send me email by clicking on my name:
Paul M. Bessel

The following is taken from an email message that was sent to me: A major problem with a chart of this type is that it literally creates "walls" between certain religions. This is ok for Western religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, even Zoroastrianism) where the idea that one may only have one religion is prevalent, but it is totally artificial among the Eastern religions (Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shinto). Among these it is common for people to practice more than one religion, i.e., a person may subscribe to Taoist cosmology, Confucian ethics, and Buddhist meditation without seeing any contradiction. The exceptions to this kind of tolerant multi-faith existence in the East are the Pure Land and Nichiren sects of Buddhism, which are rather exclusive and (in the case of Nichiren) surprisingly Triumphalist. Otherwise, a laissai-faire attitude towards religion is the Eastern way of spirituality.

Religion	Name(s) of Deity Volume(s) of Sacred Law Other Information, Details, Links
Baha'i Faith	God The Book of Certitude The al-Kitab al-Aqdas of Bahaism http://www.bahai.org/ about 8 million worldwide, most in Asia and Africa, almost 1 million in North America
Buddhism Mahayana (largest group) Theravada (Hinayana) (2nd largest group) Tantrayana (Lamaism) (smallest group, by far)	Vairocana -or- Dainichi (Shingon) Amitabha or Amida (Pure Land) Dharmakaya (Hinayana) Kwannon (feminine, Japan only) Hinayana (Theraveda) = Tripitaka (also know as the Pali Canon) Mahayana = Sutras (Many Sutras; no sense listing) Vajrayana (Tantrayana) = Tantras http://www.buddhanet.net/ http://pears2.lib.ohio-state.edu/ http://www.tibet.com/ http://www.churchward.com/rel.html Mahayana Sects: Pure Land (Chinese Ching-t'u, Japanese Jodo-Shin) Dhyana (Chinese Ch'an, Japanese Zen) Madhayamika (Chinese T'ien T'ai, Japanese Tendai) Mystery (Chinese Chen Yen, Japanese Shingon) Nationalist (Japanese Nichiren, Soka Gakkai) over 350 million worldwide, most in Asia, more than 2 million in North America
Christianity (Christian) African Methodist Episcopal Amish Anabaptist Anglican Assemblies of God Baptist (Southern, National, National Missionary, Progressive National) Calvinist Catholic (Roman Catholic) Christian Science Church of Christ Church of God Congregationalist Disciples of Christ Episcopalian Friends (Quaker) Jehovah's Witnesses Latter Day Saints (Mormon) Lutheran Mennonite Methodist Moravian Mormon (Latter Day Saints) Nazarene Orthodox (Eastern, Greek, Russian, Coptic, Ethiopic, Romanian, other) Pentecostal Presbyterian Protestantism Quaker (Friends) Rastafarian Roman Catholicism Salvation Army Seventh Day Adventist Shaker Swedenborgian Unification Church Unitarian-Universalist Wesleyan	God Bible (Old Testament and New Testament - see below for more details about which books are included in the Christian Bible, for different Christian religions) (for LDS) also the Book of Mormon (for Catholics) The New American Bible http://www.internetdynamics.com/pub/vc/christianity.html http://www.vatican.va/ http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/rel/xprotest.htm http://pcusa.org/ http://www.sbcnet.org/resource.htm http://www.uua.org http://www.ucc.org/ http://www.umc.org/ http://www.oca.org/ almost 2 billion worldwide, most in Europe and Latin America, over 250 million in North America
Confucianism	Shang Ti, "Heavenly Ruler" Analects http://www.enteract.com/~geenius/kongfuzi/ over 6 million worldwide, almost all in Asia
Deism	Providence http://www.deism.com/
Ethical Culture	http://www.aeu.org/
Gnosticism	http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhsearch.html
Hinduism Main Hindu Sects ("The Six Darshana"): Nyaya Vaisheshika Sankhya Yoga Vedanta Purva-Mimansa Other Hindu Sects: Shaktism Brahmo Samaj Arya Samaj Ramakrishna Vaishnavites (largest group) Shaivites (minority group)	Brahman, Vishnu, Shiva, sometimes Krishna; many others Vedas; Gitas http://home-2.worldonline.nl/~waterput/ http://www.hindunet.org/home.shtml http://www.vedavid.org about 750 million worldwide, almost all in Asia, more than 1 million in North America
Islam (Moslem) Sunni (largest group, by far) Shia (Shi' ite) Sufi	Allah Koran; Qur'an; Quran; (other books?) Hadith 3 different English translations of the Koran (Yusuf Ali, Pickthal and Shakir) http://www.hti.umich.edu/relig/koran/ http://etext.virginia.edu/koran.html http://www.islamic-foundation.org/ http://www.al-islam.org/ http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/ http://www.salaam.co.uk/ more than 1 billion worldwide, great majority in Asia, over 4 million in North America
Jainism Shvetambara ("Earth-clad") "Digambara" ("Sky-Clad")	Deity: None; Gods are held to exist but are remote finite beings http://metalab.unc.edu/jainism/ http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/mahavira.html http://www.yja.org/ 4 million worldwide, almost all in Asia, 5 thousand in North America
Judaism (Jewish, Hebrew) Orthodox Conservative Reform Reconstructionist Humanist Hasidic Karaite Ashkenazi Sephardi	God (Substitute) Jewish Names of God: Adonai; Adonay; Eloheinu; Elohim; Ha-Shem; El (pronounced "Ale"); Yahweh, YHVH; YHVH Tzva'ot; El Shaddai; G-d Bible (other names for the Bible or parts of it, or other books): Tanach, Tanakh, Torah, Pentateuch, Talmud, Midrash http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/go.asp?MFAH00lf0 http://www.chabad.org/ http://www.uni-duisburg.de/FB1/JStudien/judaica.htm http://www.jcn18.com/scripts/jcn18/paper/Article.asp?ArticleID=1637 http://www.jewishnet.net/ http://www.jewfaq.org/ about 15 million worldwide, most in North America and Asia, about 6 million in North America
Mandeism	one God, called "Hayyi" which in Aramaic means "the Living" or life itself http://home.sol.no/~noetic/mandse.htm
Paganism	there are said to be Nordic groups, Greek groups, Celtic groups, etc. http://realmoflore.silvermoonrising.com/paganqus.htm http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/paganism.txt
Scientology	http://www.scientology.org/scnhome.html
Shinto	All Japanese Deities are called "Kami" Another name for Shinto: "Kami-no-Michi," Way of the Gods" Izanagi, sky-father creator deity Izanami, earth-mother creator deity Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun (VERY important) Hachiman, God of War Koji-ki http://www.shinto.org/ http://www.silcom.com/~origin/sbcr/sbcr131 almost 3 million worldwide, almost all in Asia, 54 thousand in North America
Sikhism	"True Name" Hari (default, seldom uttered) Maya (feminine, "illusion" implied Granth; Adi Granth http://www.rpi.edu/~anandh/NISHKAM/sikhism.html http://www.sikhs.org/topics.htm http://photon.bu.edu/~rajwi/sikhism/mansukh1.html over 22 million worldwide, almost all in Asia, almost 500 thousand in North America
Taoism	Shang Ti, "Heavenly Ruler" I-Ching and Tao-Te-Ching http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/gthursby/taoism/ From an email message: Frankly I think at least "Tao Te Ching" (Theoretically written by Lao Tsu -- spelling optional at Lao Tze, etc.) is better than "I Ching" which essentially is a book of divination albeit with "Taoist" world view... with I recall off the top of my head annotations allegedly penned by Confucius (Gung-Fu-Tze and another bunch of optional transliterated spellings.) Email message: I'm certainly no authority on this, but you may (if you are already sure about this, forgive me) want to consider changing "I Ching" to "Tao Te Ching". The Tao Te Ching is set of 81 chapters written by Lao Tzu, and I believe that it would be more clearly the Taoist VSL then the "I Ching". I think that "I Ching" is more commonly associated with a technique of divination. (I believe) almost 400 million worldwide, almost all in Asia, about 750 thousand in North America
Wicca	http://www.blast.net/norm3vog/faq.html
Zoroastrianism Parsee	Good: Ahura-Mazda, Ormazd Evil: Ahriman Good Spirit: Spenta Mainyu Evil Spirit: Angra Mainyu Zend-Avesta; Gathas http://www.avesta.org/avesta.html http://www.fezana.org/ http://www.stanford.edu/group/zoroastrians/ http://www.zarathushtra.com/ 272 thousand worldwide, almost all in Asia

The following are said to be various names used by different religions for Deity, according to an email message that was sent to me by a Mason, Rod Larson:

Aba, Abba (father in Hebrew) Abai Abba (see Aba, and also New Testament, God, Mark xiv. 36.) Abai Adon (Hebrew - Lord) Adonai, Adonay (Hebrew - my Lord - emphatic form of Adon which means lord or master. Used as a proper name that refers to God only) Agaayun Agni Ahura Mazda (Zoroastrian) Akua Ala (Earth and fertility goddess of the Ibo people of Nigeria. Also, goddess of the underworld. Daughter of the great god Chuku) Allah (Islam - God) Amaterasu (Japanese - Sun goddess and principle deity) Amma (Latin, or Creator god of the Dogon people of Mali) Amut Arnam Asdulaz Asdulza Asila	Banara Bao Bari Bathala Bhagawan (India - literally means God) Bog (Polish - God) Boh Bozymy Brahma (Hindu - 1st member of the Trinity. Creator of the universe)	Cernunos Chaacs (Mayan - rain god) Chiuta Christ Chukwu (African - translation of God)	Deews Deo (Latin) Deus (Latin, or Portuguese - God) Dev, Deva (Sanskrit, Hindu) Devel Dieu (French) Dio Dios (Spanish - God) Dioz Dok Droue Dumnezeu	Efozu El (pronounced "ale," Hebrew) El Shaddai (Hebrew) Eloha (Hebrew) Elohai (Hebrew) Elohaynu (Hebrew) Elohim (Hebrew)
F'sahg Foy	G-d Gad Gaddel Gado Gaia, Gaea (Greek - term relating to God of absolute unity with the Earth) Ganga Gatt Gedepo God Godd (Middle English) The Goddess (Wicca) Godh (Icelandic) Godimli Gosped Gospod (Russian) Got (Middle High German) Gud (Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian - God) Gupti Guth (Gothic)	Hananim HaShem ("the name," in Hebrew) Hera (Greek - Mother/God of the universe) Hyel	Ibmel Igziabiheif Imana (Creator god of the Rwandans) Indra (Sanskrit, Hindu - Warrior; most important god of Rig-Veda) Ishtar, Ishwar (Babylonian, Persian) Isor Isten	Jahweh Jee Jehovah (Lord God. Translation of Yahweh) Jesus Jincouac Jove (Latin) Jumala (Finland - God) Juno Jupiter
Kalou Kami (Japanese - Innumerable deities which may be interpreted as gods) Khong Khuda Kot Krishna (Sanskrit, Hindu) Kunzi Kwoth (Sudan - Supreme being worshipped by Nuer, Nilotic people of Sudan) Kyala (Creator god of the Nyakyasa of south-west Tanzania)	Leza (Chief god of the Zimbabwean Bantu tribes) Lord Lubah	Maadaru Manitou (American Indian - Native Alaskan - Eskimo. A fearsom epagan winter-Earth spirit, sometimes interpreted as evil, capable of manifesting itself powerfully) Mawu (Sky god of the Ewe people of Togo) Maxam Mulungu (East-African-Shambaa in modern Northeast Tanzania - translation of "God" - Creator god of Yao of Malawi) Muneto	Naibata The Name (Jewish) Nan Nawen Ngai (Vietnamese - God) Ngewo (Creator god of the Mende of Sierra Leone) Nialic Nkulu Kumba Nom (Latin) Norin Nun Nyambe (God of the Koko of Nigeria) Nyasaye (God of the Maragoli people of Kenya) Nzua Nzzapa	Oco Odin (Norse, Danish) Oghene Olorun (Supreme god of the Yoruba people. Considered too remote for worship. Son of Olokun) Oqmasi Ormazd, Ormuzd (Zoroastrian, Ancient Persian - Supreme god; originally Ahura Mazda) Othin (Teutonic) Owo Owuso
Pai Paz Perendia (Albanian - God) Prajow	Ra (Egyptian) Rabi Ramwa Rongo Rua Ruata Rum	Shango (Trinidad - Cult of African origin worshipping spirits of the dead. Thunder-god of the Yoruba of West Aftica) Shangti Shashe Shen Shido Shiva, Siva (Sanskrit - Hindu - 3rd member of the Trinity. Destruction and Reproduction) Sibu Sikwembu Siyeh Soko	Tanara Tane Tataa Tengri (Mongolian for "Father Sky" and represents a pre-Buddhist, shamanistic name for God - unofficial Deity of the Mongol Empire and much of China during the Mongol occupation, and the name continues in use today among shamans in middle Asia) Tentei Tetragammaton (not a name for Deity, but a way of referring to the letters that make up the name of Deity in Hebrew) Tev Theos (Greek - Literally meaning God) Thixo Torym Tsuku Tswashe Tumpa	Ualare Unguluve
Vishnu (Sanskrit - Hindu - with Brahma & Siva forms a trinity - 2nd member of the Trinity. The Preserver)	Wain Waqa Were Wod (Middle German) Wodin, Wodan, Woden, Votan, Wotan (Teutonic)	Xwede	Yah (Hebrew - short for of Yahweh - Meaning God) Yahweh (Hebrew - God - Translation of the unspoken, unnamed God of the Children of Israel. Often written as the tetragrammaton) YHWH Yala Yamba YHVH YHVH Tzva'ot Ywa	Zambe Zeus (Greek) Zikhle Zin (a Songhay water spirit)

The Holy Bible of Christianity
The al-Kitab al-Aqdas of Bahaism
The Tripitaka of Buddhism
The Analects of Confucianism
The Vedas of Hinduism
The Koran of Islam
The Tanach of Judaism
The Koji-ki of Shintoism
The Adi Granth of Sikhism
The Tao-te Ching of Taoism
The Zend Avesta of Zoroastrianism
The Liber Al vel Legis of the Gnostic Catholic Church