1. Religion Overview

2. Religions Monotheistic – belief in one deity
Polytheistic – belief in many deities
Animistic – objects (trees, mountains, rivers) have spirits
Atheistic – belief that there is no deity
Cultural Religions – limited to the national culture of a single region – Shinto, Daoism, etc.
Abrahamic Faiths – faiths with a historical association with Abraham, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

3. Key Characteristics of Religion
Set of doctrines or beliefs relating to a god or gods
Structure or hierarchy of officials
Rituals for birth, death, reaching adulthood, marriage, prayer, routine services on a Fri, Sat, or Sun
Religions are often syncretic
Religions may also provide an explanation of the beginning of the world, or cosmogony

4. Impact of Religion
Can affect calendars, holidays, agriculture, toponyms, slogans on coins or flags, etc.
Potential positive impacts – education, medicine or health care, the arts, etc.
Potential negative impacts – blocked scientific study, oppression, supported imperialism, can keep women inferior

5. Where are Religions Distributed?

6. Classifying Religions
Geographers distinguished two types of Religions
Universalizing religions: attempt to be global by appealing to all people, not just those in a particular location
58% of the world’s population practices a universalizing religion
Christianity- 2.1 billion adherents
Islam- 1.5 billion adherents
Buddhism- 376 million adherents

7. Classifying Religions
Ethnic religions: appeal primarily to one group of people living in one place
26% of the worlds population practices a Ethnic religion
Hinduism-900 million adherents
(Chinese traditional )Confucianism/ Taoism-394 million
Asian Primal-Indigenous- 300 million
African Traditional- 100 million

8. Unaffiliated
16% of the Earth’s population is non religious, either rejecting religion or simply not taking part in it
Atheists: reject the existence of God altogether
Agnostics: believe that existence of God can’t be proven empirically

9. FIGURE 6-3 WORLD DISTRIBUTION OF RELIGIONS The pie charts show the share of major religions in each world region.

10. FIGURE 6-4 ADHERENTS OF WORLD RELIGIONS Nonreligious includes atheists and agnostics.

11. Universalizing religions tend to be internally divided into Branches, Denominations, and Sects

12. Branch: is a large and fundamental division within an religion
Examples include:
Christianity
Catholic/ Protestants/ Orthodox
Islam
Sunni v. Shiite

13. Denomination: is a division of a branch that unites a number of congregations in a single legal and administrative body
Protestant:
Baptist, Episcopal, Congregational, Lutheran, Methodist Pentecostal…
Baptist:
Southern Baptist, National Baptist Convention, National Missionary Baptist...

14. Sect: is a relatively small group that has broken away from an established denomination

15. Distribution of Christians
Branches: Roman Catholic (51 %), Protestant (24%), Orthodox (11%)
Europe
Southwest and east- Roman Catholicism
Northwest- Protestantism
East and southeast- Orthodox (Russia)
Western Hemisphere
Most people are Christian (nearly 90%)
Latin America- Roman Catholic
USA- Protestant
The Church of Latter-day Saints (Mormons): regard their church as a branch of Christianity separate from other branches (3%), large percentage clustered in Utah.

17. Distribution of Islam
Predominant of Middle East (from North African to Central Asia)- half the world’s Muslim live in four countries outside this area (Indonesia Pakistan, Bangladesh, India).
Branches of Islam
Sunni- 83% from Arabic “people following the example of Mohammed”
Shiite-16% from Arabic “sectarian”, clustered in Iran, Pakistan, Iraq.
In recent years Muslim population in Europe and North America has increased rapidly with migration from North Africa
Muslims account for 5 percent of European population, France= 4 million, Germany= 3 million, Southeast Europe = 4million
North America varies between 1- 5 million, 1/3 of Muslims can trace their ancestry to Pakistan and other South Asian countries.

18. At least 80 percent of the population adheres to Islam in Southwest Asia & North Africa and selected countries in Southeast Asia
FIGURE 6-8 DISTRIBUTION OF MUSLIMS At least 80 percent of the population adheres to Islam in Southwest Asia & North Africa and selected countries in Southeast Asia.

20. Distribution of Buddhists
Clustered primarily in East Asia and South Asia
Branches
Mahayana- 56% primarily in China, Japan and Korea
Theravada – 38% especially in Cambodia, Laos Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand
Vajrayana- 6% primarily in Tibet and Mongolia
Difficult to count adherents because few people participate in Buddhist institutions
Functions performed primarily by a few monks
Followers can be both Buddhist and in other Eastern religions- differs from Christianity and Islam that state can only follow one religion.

21. At least 40 percent of the population adheres to Buddhism in East Asia and Southeast Asia.
At least 40 percent of the population adheres to Sikhism in northwestern India.
FIGURE 6-9 DISTRIBUTION OF BUDDHISTS AND SIKHS At least 40 percent of the population adheres to Buddhism in East Asia and Southeast Asia. At least 40 percent of the population adheres to Sikhism in northwestern India.

23. Other universalizing Religions
Sikhism- mostly clustered in Punjab region of India
Founder: Guru Nanak from Pakistan ( )
5th Guru Arjan edited the Holy Granth or Enlightenment (1604)
10th Guru Gobind Singh ( ) introduced baptism and turbans
Baha’i-dispersed in many countries primarily Africa and Asia
Grew out of the Babi faith founded in Iran (1844) with goal to overcome disunity of religions and establish a universal faith though abolition of racial, class and religion prejudices

24. Distribution of Ethnic Religions
Tend to remain within the culture where they originated with clustered distribution
Hinduism- 90% clustered in India
Allegiance to a particular god
Vaishnavism largest group worship Vishnu incarnated as Krishna as loving god
Sivaism second largest group dedicated to Siva a protective and destructive god
Chinese Traditional
Confucianism- follow Confucius ( BC) who emphasized ethical principles and orderly conduct
Taoism- organized by Lao-Zi ( BC) who emphasized the mystical and magical aspects of life

25. FIGURE 6-10 DISTRIBUTION OF HINDUS All but 10 percent of the world’s Hindus live in India.

26. Distributions of Ethnic Religions
Primal Indigenous: Southeast Asia or South Pacific Islands
God dwells in all things
Shamanism-invisible forces or spirits affect the lives of the living
Paganism- ancient Greek or Roman practices with multiple gods in human form
Juche: North Korean religion organized Kim Il-sung ( ) where people are self reliant.
African Traditional: supreme god with hierarchy of divinities
Animism-inanimate objects have spirits and life
Spiritism: mostly in Brazil, belief that the human spirit continues to exist after death and can communicate with the living through medium or psychic

27. FIGURE 6-12 DISTRIBUTION OF AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGIONS The percentage of animists in sub-Saharan Africa has declined from more than 70 percent in 1900 to around 12 percent in As recently as 1980, some 200 million Africans—half the population of the region at the time—were classified as animists. Followers of traditional African religions now constitute a clear majority of the population only in Botswana. The rapid decline in animists in Africa has been caused by increases in the numbers of Christians and Muslims.
The percentage of animists in sub-Saharan Africa has declined from more than 70 percent in 1900 to around 12 percent in As recently as 1980, some 200 million Africans—half the population of the region at the time—were classified as animists. Followers of traditional African religions now constitute a clear majority of the population only in Botswana. The rapid decline in animists in Africa has been caused by increases in the numbers of Christians and Muslims.

28. Ethnic Religions Judaism: 2/5 in the United States and 2/5 in Israel
First religion to adopt monotheism
Christianity and Islam find their roots in Judaism
4,000 years ago Abraham the father of Judaism migrated from Iraq to Israel along the fertile crescent
2,000 years after Abraham- Jesus is born
500 years after Jesus- Muhammad is born
Both trace ancestry to Abraham