How many religions are there?

[Grey Seal]

I know there are an insane amount of religions...does anyone know how many? I figure if they can ballpark the number of species of insects they shouldn't have a problem ballparking this.

If someone does know how many religions there, how many are actually unique? By that I mean how many are original? By original I don't mean religions splintering off like the many Christian religions and Catholocism from Judaism. I mean things that are original and came about on their own; like the aboriginal religion...forgot the name of it at the moment, but it was started by them, as an isolated people. The root of christianity/judaism would be another, things like that...sorry if this is confusing.

 

[notme2000]

I'd say there is as many religions as there are theists, as they all seem to twist them to fit their own needs.

 

[Firefly]

Counting Jediism?

 

[spuriousmonkey]

i didn'tt find the answer to the question, but here is a link to how many followers each religion has

http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html

and they also have a name index

http://www.adherents.com/index.html#GroupNameIndex

and if I am not mistaken they list at least 4200 religions.