Religious Traditions In Canada

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Religion

Religion (from the Latin, religio, "respect for what is sacred") may be defined as the relationship between human beings and their transcendent source of value. In practice it may involve various forms of communication with a higher power, such as prayers, rituals at critical stages in life, meditation or "possession" by spiritual agencies. Religions, though differing greatly, usually share most of the following characteristics: a sense of the holy or the sacred (often manifested in the form of gods, or a personal god); a system of beliefs; a community of believers or participants; ritual (which may include standard forms of invocation, sacraments or rites of initiation); and a moral code.
Religious Traditions
In Canada the principal religion is Christianity; as recently as the 1971 census, almost 90 per cent of the population claimed adherence. …show more content…

By the 1980s Judaism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Islam, Chinese religions and the Baha'i faith were well represented. As of 2011, 8.8 per cent of Canadians adhered to religious faiths other than Christianity. The missionary legacy has included the translation of the Bible into many languages and dialects, including several Aboriginal languages. Missionary efforts also reflected colonial and paternalistic European policies in which many Aboriginal religious rites, such as dances and the potlatch and which undermined self-respect and self-sufficiency among Indigenous communities.
Today, pluralism of religious belief is common in Canada. The various traditions can be contrasted according to their sense of the sacred based on historic events (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism and the Baha'i faith) or on the natural cycle and rhythms of life (Hinduism, Taoism ,to some extent, Buddhism and Aboriginal religious beliefs), but such contrasts can overlook the similarities across these

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