1. Religion Quiz
True or False: Roman Catholics believe in reincarnation (your soul is reborn when you die).
True or False: Jews cannot eat pork and must keep strict dietary laws.
True or False: Hindus are polytheistic, meaning they worship multiple gods.
True or False: Indonesia, a country outside of the Middle East, has the largest population of Muslims.
True or False: Only humans can be considered saints in Christianity.

2. Religion Quiz
True or False: Roman Catholics believe in reincarnation (your soul is reborn when you die).
Depends on who you ask. The Roman Catholic Church does not teach this, but 25% of American Catholics believe in some form of reincarnation.

3. Religion Quiz
True or False: Jews cannot eat pork and must keep strict dietary laws.
Depends on your denomination. Judaism initially taught that one had to keep kosher, but in the 19th century, Jews began to believe they could eat pork AND be good Jews.

4. Religion Quiz
True or False: Hindus are polytheistic, meaning they worship multiple gods.
Depends on who you ask. Brahma is the creator god, and there are 330 million ‘gods’ in Hinduism, but some Hindus believe all life, even those deities, are just a piece of the one God.

5. Religion Quiz
True or False: Indonesia, a country outside of the Middle East, has the largest population of Muslims.
Indonesia has 209,120,000 Muslims. The next closest is Pakistan with 176,190,000 Muslims. Indonesia has never had a serious issue with terrorism.

6. Religion Quiz
True or False: Only humans can be considered saints in Christianity.
Depends on who you ask. In a 13th-century French village, the locals venerated a folk saint named Saint Guinefort, who was a dog.

7. Structure of Religions Note: These may not agree
Hierarchy: Those high-ranking officials who determine what religious members should believe.
Scripture: The “handbook” of religious texts for that religion and its adherents.
Laymen: The everyday person who has no official religious training.

8. Basic Religion Terminology
Theology: The study of the nature of God and religious belief.
Denomination: A separate branch within the larger religious group (e.g., Baptist is a denomination within Christianity, a religion).
Blasphemy: Indignity or slander towards God.
Theism: The belief in a higher power; the opposite of which is atheism, meaning no belief in a higher power.
Monotheism: The belief in one supreme deity.
Polytheism: The belief in many deities.
Orthodoxy: Correct belief; in agreement with official religious doctrine.

9. Characteristics of Culture
Culture is Learned
Culture is Shared
Culture is Based on Symbols
Culture Gives Meaning to Reality
What is this symbol?
What does it represent?
How do you know?

10. What religions do each of these symbols represent?

11. The Barrel Model of Culture
What is Culture?
Superstructure: A culture’s worldview, including morals and values.
Social structure: The rule-governed relationships—with all their rights and obligations—that hold members of a society together (households, families, etc.).
Infrastructure: The economic foundation of a society.
The Barrel Model of Culture

12. What is Culture? Iceberg example…
The beliefs and behaviors of a society
Culture consists of abstract ideas, values, and perceptions of the world that inform and are reflected in people’s behavior
Culture is the lens through which we view our world, it “invents” our reality
Iceberg example…

13. Culture is like an Iceberg…

14. Which quote about religion do you most agree with and why?
“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Religion is the opiate [drug to keep people numb] of the masses” – Karl Marx
“The purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticize others” – Dalai Lama
“There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it” – George Bernard Shaw
“Religion is never the problem; it’s the people who use it to gain power” – Julian Casablancas

15. Anthropology and Religion
Not concerned with which religion is “right” or “wrong,” but how those beliefs influence that society, and are influenced by them.
Ex. How do different styles of Christianity influence gender roles in Kenya, Ireland, and the United States?

16. Philosophy of Religion
Schools of thought on the nature of God:
God exists as all things in the cosmos, and is within all things (Pantheism)
God exists to create the world, but does not interfere with it (Deism)
Our understanding of God is limited by our experiences with the world.
God is merely our cultural projections of what we consider the best qualities in something (Ludwig von Feuerbach).

17. World Religions We’ll Be Discussing…
Hinduism: Earliest organized religion in the world. Begins in India around 1,500 BCE. Fourth largest religious group in the world (1 billion practitioners).
Buddhism: Breaks away from Hinduism by the practices of a prince, Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha (“Enlightened One”) around 500 BCE. Millions of followers globally.
Judaism: One of the first monotheistic faiths in the world, emphasizing one deity but changing the nature of relationship of humans to that God over thousands of years.
Christianity: Breaks away from Judaism with the practices of Jesus of Nazareth in the first century CE. Focuses on the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of its teacher.
Islam: Officially begins in 7th century CE with the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Second largest world religion.