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Taoism is not like many of the major world religions. Sure, there are some aspects of Taoism that are like a few other religions, but for the most part there isn’t another religion too much like it. They believe in no god, and there isn’t one certain book which they read from like with Christianity there is the bible. Also, since they don’t believe in a god, they also do not pray like many other religions. They instead, try to solve their problems through inner meditation and outer observation. Each follower’s goal is to harmonize with the Tao. Taoists also believe that the five main organs of they body correspond to the 5 parts of the sky: water, fire, wood, metal and earth. There are about a total of 20 million followers of Taoism, and a good majority of them reside in Eastern Asia, mostly Tawian. Here in the U.S.A., you’re less likely to find a Taoist, there are only about 30,000 in North America. In fact, most people would probably have no clue of what your talking about if you brought up the subject of Taoism. Because the only religions people truly know are Christianity, Judaism, Mormonism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. All the other religions that aren’t those get forgotten, never talked about, ignored. So in this paper, I will obviously be discussing Taoism, the history and beliefs that pertain to it. Along with, if there are any, rituals and also current practices.
So first, I’ll talk about the history. The religion of Taoism started in China, by Lao-Tse (spelt numerous different ways). He believed that the way to happiness was to “go with the flow”. Instead of trying to get things done that hard way, people should take the time to figure out the easy way to do things, or the natural way. It’s called “wu-wei”, meaning “doing by not doing”. He also believed that everything alive in the universe shared in a universal life-force. That’s where the idea of the yin and the yang came up, to show how there were two sides to the life-force. Taoism started...