Despite frequent prognostications regarding the ‎'‎death of God‎'‎ and the triumph of secular materialism‎,‎ religion remains a central component in the lives of most people around the world‎.‎ There are currently thought to be 2 billion Christians‎,‎ 1.2 billion Muslims‎,‎ 800 million Hindus‎,‎ along with some 700 million followers of other religions‎.‎ 50 Religious Ideas You Really Need to Know offers a clear path through the conceptual and denominational thickets of global religion‎.‎ Award‎-winning religious affairs correspondent Peter Stanford begins with an examination of sacred texts‎,‎ the divine principle and good and evil‎,‎ before moving on to a discussion of the different traditions within Christianity‎,‎ Islam‎,‎ Judaism and the myriad customs of the East‎.‎ Contents‎:‎ The Divine Principle‎,‎ Baptists‎,‎ Buddha‎'‎s teachings‎,‎ Sacred Texts‎,‎ Presbyterians‎,‎ Dhama‎,‎ Good and Evil‎,‎ Sects and cults‎,‎ Forms of Buddhism‎,‎ Life and Death‎,‎ Rapture‎,‎ Confucianism‎,‎ Golden Rule‎,‎ God & Torah‎,‎ Taoism‎,‎ Rites and Rituals‎,‎ Anti‎-Semitism‎,‎ Shintoism‎,‎ Life of Christ‎,‎ Kabbalah‎,‎ Missionary impulse‎,‎ God and Mammon‎,‎ Being Jewish‎,‎ Just War‎,‎ Reformation‎,‎ Mohammed‎,‎ Church and State‎,‎ Papacy‎,‎ Pillars of Islam‎,‎ Spirituality‎,‎ Guilt and Misogyny‎,‎ Shari‎'‎ah law‎,‎ Fundamentalism‎,‎ Holy Spirit‎,‎ Sunni & Shia‎,‎ Darwinist challenge‎,‎ Saints and sinners‎,‎ Sufism‎,‎ People and Creation‎,‎ Orthodoxy‎,‎ Islamism‎,‎ The poor‎,‎ Lutheranism‎,‎ Hindu trinity‎,‎ Sea of faith‎,‎ Anglicanism‎,‎ Sansara‎,‎ Methodism‎,‎ Sikhs & Jains‎.‎