 Why do you think geographers are interested in studying religion?

 To understand the distribution of major religions.  Explain variations in diffusion of religions.  Discuss distinctive religious imprints on physical landscape/environment  Identify conflicts between followers of different religions.  Understand that religion lies at the heart of many global controversies  Religion is an important part of many people’s identity and connection to a certain place.

 Branch  A large and fundamental division within a religion  Denomination  A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations.  Sect  A relatively small group that has broken away from an established domination.

 Polytheism – belief in many gods  Hinduism, animist religions  Monotheism – belief in one god  Christianity  Islam  Judaism

 Universalizing religions – seek followers all over the world. They hope to appeal to all people.

 60% of the world’s population  Precise origins, tied to a specific founder  Christianity - Founder: Jesus  Islam - Prophet of Islam: Muhammad  Buddhism - Founder: Siddhartha Gautama  Holidays based on events in founder’s life.

 Christianity  The largest world religion (about 2 billion adherents) ▪Most widespread distribution ▪Many adherents in Europe, the Americas  Three major branches ▪Roman Catholicism (51 percent) ▪Protestant Christianity (24 percent) ▪Eastern Orthodox (11 percent) ▪Other, smaller branches of Christianity comprise 14 percent of all Christians

 Islam  The second-largest world religion (about 1.3 billion adherents) ▪Significant clusters in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia ▪Half of the world’s Muslims live in four countries outside of the Middle East.  Core of Islamic belief = the five pillars  Two significant branches ▪Sunnis (83 percent) ▪Shias or Shiites (16 percent)

 Buddhism ▪About 400 million adherents (difficult to quantify) ▪Significant clusters in China, Southeast Asia

 Ethnic religions – focus on one ethnic group and generally have not spread into other cultures. They do not seek to convert people to their beliefs.  Ethnic group – human populations that share a common culture or ancestry

 Adherents are born into the faith  25% of world’s population  Unclear or unknown origins, not tied to a specific founder  Tend to be spatially concentrated  Holidays based on local climate and agricultural calendar.

 Animist/tribal religions - People believe in the presence of the spirits and the forces of nature  Common in many traditional societies  likely were practiced long before more modern types of religions became common

BC – “before Christ” AD – Latin “anno domini”, “in the year of our Lord” BCE – before common era CE – common era

 2000 BC: Hinduism  1500 BC: Judaism  600 BC: Buddhism, Confucianism  0 AD: Christianity  600 AD: Islam

animated

Each of the three main universalizing religions diffused widely from its hearth.

Christianity diffused from Palestine through the Roman Empire and continued diffusing through Europe after the fall of Rome. It was later replaced by Islam in much of the Mideast and North Africa.

Islam diffused rapidly and widely from its area of origin in Arabia. It eventually stretched from southeast Asia to West Africa.

Buddhism diffused gradually from its origin in northeastern India to Sri Lanka, southeast Asia, and eventually China and Japan. Sri Lanka, southeast Asia, and eventually China and Japan.

 While religion remains important around the world, in some places it has declined.  A growing number of people in these places are secular, or non-religious.  Example: Europe

Distribution of Christians in the U.S. Shaded areas are counties with more than 50% of church membership concentrated in Roman Catholicism or one of the Protestant denominations.

 beat/wp/2013/12/12/religion-in-americas- states-and-counties-in-6-maps/ beat/wp/2013/12/12/religion-in-americas- states-and-counties-in-6-maps/

 Read through the information.  Create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting Hinduism and Buddhism.

 kx1_U kx1_U

 Yazidis – sacred spacehttp://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne ws/2014/09/ yazidis-iraq-kurdistan- lalish-sheikh-adi-islamic-state/?sf =1– ws/2014/09/ yazidis-iraq-kurdistan- lalish-sheikh-adi-islamic-state/?sf =1

 7t_aE 7t_aE  Do one religion at a time

 Can scroll on each state for statistics:  cs/pew-religion-08/flash.htm cs/pew-religion-08/flash.htm