The Major Religions (cont.)

Judaism 

• practice religion in synagogue
• in synagogue there us a "bimah" which is where they read the Torah
• this is an Abraham religion
• over 5 million Jews in the US
• 13 million Jews in the world (most in US and Israel)
• 81% live in the US and Israel 
• the leaders of Judaism include the patriarchs (Abraham and Moses) 
• Moses and Isaac were the main teachers of Judaism 
• Abraham is the father of Judaism 
• 14,500,00 people that follow Judaism 

Christianity

• 2.2 billion (largest in the world)
• call them: Christians  
• Europe, America is where they are found
• founder is Jesus (Abrahamic in origin)
• holy book is the Bible
• beliefs- Jesus is both human and divine/ son of God 
• clergy: the Pope is head of the church 
• priests are local authorities 

Islam 

• called Muslims 
• location: Middle East, North Africa
• denominations: Sunnis (75-90%) Shiites (10-20%)
• Muhammad (570-632) their founder
• beliefs: monotheistic, Abrahamic 
• Qur'an is their holy book
• they have five pillars (testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, pilgrimage)
• Purpose: serving and submitting to Allah (God) and observing Islamic law 

Hinduism 

• 1.1 billion (third largest)
• we call them Hindus 
• India, Nepal - locations 
• holy book- Vedas- eternal truths revealed to ancient sages; written  in verse form 
• don't have distinct founder 
• thought to be a way of life not necessarily a religion

Buddhism

• just because your Buddhist doesn't mean you can't practice another religion
• locations- Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan
• founder- Siddhartha Gautama 
• denominations- Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, Amidist 
• four noble truths (there is suffering, attachment to desire, there is a cessation of suffering, the eightfold path)

The Major Religions

Islam: 

• Islam is a monotheistic belief in a god or gods
• it is an Abrahamic religion 
• the book of worship is Qur'an 
• the book is supposed to be the exact words of God
• the Arabic world is mostly Islam
• the people in this religion don't eat pork 
• most Islams live in:
• Indonesia 
• Iran
• Turkey 
• Bangladesh 
• Pakistan 
• India  
• followers are called Muslims 
• it is a belief that God is one 
• its purpose is to love and serve him
• it is the universal version of faith 
• revealed through Abraham  
• they think Muhammad is the savior 
• we think Jesus is the son of God or Messiah 
• Allah is the one and only god who should be worshiped/obeyed 
• they think Allah is perfect 
• no one shares divinity with Allah even the angles 
• Allah never sleeps, gets tired, or dies 
• Allah means God 
• humans in the Islam religion humans are not created in his image 
• humans can ask Allah for anything they want 
• five pillars
• the pilgrimage allows Muslims form all around the world to be able to worship God 
• in 1999 about two million Muslims went to Mecca 
• very ritualized
• they throw seven pebbles at a pillar- symbolizes Abraham 
• they symbolize the completion by cutting off their hair

Christianity:

• there are many different types of Christianity 
• 50.1% catholic 
• 36.7% protestant 
• 1.3% other christian 
• 11.9% orthodox 
• roughly 2.8 billion Christians in the world 
• about 1/3 of the worlds population 
• believe Jesus is son of God and savior of all humanity 
• emerged in the mid 1st century 
• became common to Europe in the middle ages 

Buddhism:

• is a religion indigenous to the Indian subcontinent 
• they have a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices 
• worship Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) "the awakened one" "the enlightened one"
• 6% of the worlds population is Buddhism  
• top five countries that practice Buddhism are China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar (mostly Asia) 
• more of a practice instead of a religion 
• Its a religion based on practices and beliefs 
• second oldest religion 
• more than a million Buddhist in the US

Hinduism Project

We got our test back that we took last week. I definitely think that I could have done a lot better. We went over our tests and Mr. Schick told us that we should keep our tests and to be sure to study the answers we got wrong because we will see them again on the exam. After we checked our quizzes we got into our groups and worked on a powerpoint we had to make. My group was Drew, Payton and I. All of the groups were assigned a religion that we had to research. My group's religion was Hinduism! I already knew some stuff about the religion from the test we just took. We had to find out where they worship, what their gods are called, how many people belong to our religion and a couple of other questions. The first class we started working on this unfortunately most of the groups internet on their computer weren't working so we couldn't do any research. We got to finish up our powerpoints today and are presenting them tomorrow. I think that my groups powerpoint is pretty good and we have all the information that we need to tell the class about our religion.

One Lap Down Three To Go

One lap down three to go! On Friday we finished our test and the end of the first quarter! This year is going by so quickly! I have already made so many new friends and I'm having a great freshman year so far! I checked my grade on my test and I did not do as great as I thought I could do. I think I need to keep the studying up but study a little more now. It's crazy to think that the first quarter is over! I've ended the quarter with good grades and I's hoping to end the second quarter with even better grades! I need to keep up the good work and keep working hard in order to get the good grades I want. The next three quarters will go by pretty quickly like the first one so I don't have time to put anything off. I can get the grades that I want, I just need to work hard to get them.

Time To Study

We finished our notes in class yesterday and today Jasmine got to teach the class. She got all of us talking and discussing our notes and Mr. Schick thought this was the best class so far! We went over the most important things and Jasmine asked us questions about our notes that we had to answer. We have a quiz tomorrow on the notes we took earlier this week. After Jasmine asked a few questions and we covered all the notes we took we watched a scene from a movie. The movie didn't really have to do with what we were learning but one part in the scene did! It had to do with Nationalism and how a man did not think America was the best nation in the world. His reasoning for this was because there are so many more nations that do a lot more things than us and make more things than us. I do agree in what they were saying in the movie because it is very true. After we watched the movie scene we talked a little about how we think that it is true that American isn't necessarily the best nation because most of us Americans just rely on others to do work for us unlike other places, for example China, all of the people from there work very hard to learn a great education and to earn the money they deserve while working.

More Notes

Just like yesterday we took more notes. We talked about spacial divisions and how they are how we divide livable space found on the earth by establishing social,economic and political control. Some examples of spacial divisions are countries, economic alliances, European Union, Organization of petroleum exporting countries, NAFTA, association of Southeast Asian nations, Political alliances, NATO, common wealth of nations, league of Arab states, and African Union. We also talked about conflicts with spacial divisions. Some differences are in culture, language, or religion, keeping of historical boundaries, economic similarities and differences, imperial conquest and control, cultural differences, nationalism, and economic differences.

Cultural Geography

In class today we had to copy notes from a power point Mr. Schick showed us. The power point was about cultural geography. We learned about the cultural characteristics of cultural geography. The characteristics are the parts of groups of everyday life, the ideas and themes which the group will teach to all members, and these same characteristics can also link or divide a region. Some examples of cultural geography are language, religion and ethnic heritage. The language Arabic unites the Arab world and  Spanish unites the Hispanic world. Brazil is the only south american nation which does not speak Spanish, it speaks Portuguese. Canada is a bilingual nation. In Yugoslavia, many ethnic groups were made into one country. When strong leadership died out, the different groups fought a very bloody civil war and now they all have separate countries. The U.S. and Switzerland have merged ethnic groups in their countries. Religion can be unifying and dis unifying forces. There are 5 different major religions. They are Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Jews are known as the descendants of Abraham.