Religion

 is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence  many religions have narratives, symbols and sacred histories that are intended to explain the meaning of life and/or to explain the origin of life or the Universe  according to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world  a global 2012 poll (=průzkum) reports that 59% of the world's population is religious, and 41% is not religious, including 13% who are atheists

Ancient religions  most of them are polytheistic religions- worship of or belief in multiple deities (=božstvo) usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses  this can be divided into Classical Ancient: Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Celtic religions  and Late Ancient: Germanic, Slavic, Finnish religions

Greece  many of the ancient Greek people recognized the major (Olympian) gods and goddesses:  Zeus- father of gods, god of the sky, weather, storms  Poseidon- god of the sea  Hades- god of the underworld and dead  Ares- god of the war  Aphrodite- goddes of love  Athena- goddes of inteligence  Greek people believed in afterlife in the underworld  Greek mythology consists of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and the origins

Rome  Main gods:  Jupiter- father of gods  Juno- mother of gods  Neptune- god of the sea  Mars- god of the war  Minerva- goddes of inteligence  Venus- goddes of love, beauty  they have same „function“ as Greek gods, but different names

Egypt  39 known gods and goddes  Anubis (dead)  Hathor (love)  Horus (sky)  Isis (magic)  Osiris (underworld)  Ra (Sun)  Seth (evil)  most of them are half man and half animal, because Egyptians worshiped animals

North European religions  Celtic paganism- composed from Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Breton mythology  Gaelic druids  Germanic paganism  Scandinavian paganism  Odin- god of war  Thor- god of thunder  Slavic paganism  Practised by the Slavs before Christianisation  Morana (harvest, death), Perun (thunder)

Religions nowadays  Monotheistic religion is a belief in the existence of one God  Christianity, Islam, Judaism, the Mormon Community of Christ, Rastafari, Zoroastrianism, etc.  Polytheistic religion is a belief in multiple gods  Hinduism, Chinese traditional religion, Shinto  Nontheistic religion (irreligion)- the absence or rejection of theism or any belief in a personal god  Buddhism, atheism

Monotheistic religions  Abrahamic religions- faiths of Middle Eastern origin, emphasizing and tracing their origins to Abraham  Judaism - by Torah (part of Hebrew Bible) it was founded when Abraham started his journey from Mesopotamia (and ended in Canaan, now it‘s Israel)  Jews believe that Messiah will come one day  the world Jewish population is about 14 milion people  holy city is Jerusalem  important persons are Jacob, Moses, king David and Solomon

Monotheistic religions  Christianity  began as a „Jewish sect“ in 1st century AD  is the world's largest religion with nearly 2.4 billion adherents known as Christians  most Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, fully divine and fully human and the saviour of humanity whose coming was prophesied in the Old Testament  Christians refer to Jesus as Christ or the Messiah  Christianity was divided into tree primary divisions- Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism  head of Catholic church is Pope Francis  holy cities are Rome, Jerusalem

Monotheistic religions  Islam  was founded in 7th century AD by prophet Muhammad  has about 1.6 billion followers  Muslims are of two denominations (=vyznání): Sunni (75–90%) or Shia (10–20%)  the difference between Sunni and Shia is in interpretation of Quran  holy cities are Mekka, Medina and Jerusalem

Polytheistic religions  Hinduism  is the dominant religion of the Indian subcontinent  it includes Shaivism and Vaishnavism among numerous other traditions and a wide spectrum of laws and prescriptions of daily morality based on karma, dharma and societal norms  is called the „oldest religion“ in the world  has about 1 billion followers

Nontheistic religions  Buddhism  connects a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices largely based on teachings attributed to Buddha  Atheism  is the rejection of belief in the existence of deities  Atheists believe there is no deities

Religion in the Czech republic  Czech republic has one of the least religious populations in the world  According to the 2011 census (=sčítání): 34% of the population stated they had no religion 10.3% was Roman Catholic 0.8% was Protestant 9% followed other forms of religions 45% of the population did not answer the question about religion  In the Czech republic there are only 2 millions believers! It is primary caused by communism ocupation in the last century

Religion in Great Britain  most popular religion is Anglicanism, Church of England, form of Protestantism

Religion in the United States of America  there are almost 80% of people Christians

Dangerous religions, cults  Scientology (brainwashing, frauds= podvody)  The Unification Church (known as Moonies, group weddings)  The Ku Klux Klan (racists- against jews, black people, gays…)

Dangerous religions, cults  International Society for Krishna Consciousness (based on Hinduism)  Satanism- Satan is for them a liberating figure, they are against Christianity, burn churches, etc.  Jehovah's Witnesses  Radical Islam- ISIS= Islamic state of Iraq and Syria  