1. Do Now
Get out your notebooks
Turn to a new page

2. Religions

3. What benefits do people get from religion?
Answers to hard questions
Direction
Community
Comfort

4. General Religious Categories
Polytheism: belief in multiple gods
Monotheism: Belief in one god
Pantheism: belief that all things are an aspect of god
Agnosticism: uncertainty or indifference to the nature of god
Atheism: belief that there is no god or higher power

5. The earliest religions
Dates are controversial
Probably between 300,000 and 40,000BC
Most were either or both:
Animal Worship
Ancestor Worship
These were probably polytheistic.

6. Modern Religions
Over 90% of people belong to one of 4 primary schools of religious thought.
Abrahamic
Irreligious
Vedic
Sramanic

7. How many people follow each?
Abrahamic: about 55% of the world’s population
Irreligious: about 16% of the world’s population
Vedic: about 15% of the world’s population
Sramanic: about 5% of the world’s population

8. Abrahamic Faiths
More people follow an Abrahamic faith than all other faiths combined.
Which faiths are Abrahamic?
Judaism
Bahai’i
Christianity
Rastafari
Islam
Druze
Mormonism

9. Vedic Faiths
Vedic faiths originate from India and have spread only very slowly.
Most who follow a Vedic Faith still live in India.
Hinduism.
Almost all Vedic traditions have been adopted into Hinduism.

10. Sramanic Faiths Sramanic faiths also originated from India.
Developed from Vedic thought.
Distinct enough from Vedic thought to be considered their own school.
Which faiths are Sramanic?
Buddhism
Jainism

11. Irreligious Faiths Irreligious faiths are ones which:
Do not believe in gods
Are not certain if there are gods
Do not care if there are gods
They have no single origin.
Atheists
Agnostics