Religion 101An introduction to the five major world religions

Buddhism Christianity Hinduism Islam Judaism

What are followers of the religion called?

What is the main holy book of the religion?

Who is the main prophet or figure of the religion?

Who is the religion’s God or gods?

When was the religion founded?

How many followers of the religion are there?

What are different sects of the religion? (Different variations of beliefs within the same basic religion)

Places of influence.

How are people saved?

Buddhism

Buddhism is the name given to the religion of people who follow the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha.) Buddhism would actually be better referred to as a belief system or a system of philosophy, rather than a religion, since it does not believe in any God or gods. Buddhism began around 500 B.C. with Gautama’s teachings. Gautama was a prince who decided to leave his kingdom in order to search for truth. On his search for truth, at one point Gautama sat down beneath a fig tree, and promised that he would not get up until he achieved enlightenment. After several days, Gautama claimed to have freed his mind and began to travel as a monk, calling himself “the Buddha.” The followers that he attracted became known as Buddhists.

Buddhists believe that they are redeemed and humanity is saved by accepting the 4 noble truths about pain, and then following the Eightfold Path in order to become a better person and solving the problem of pain

in one’s life. Once a person has truly become enlightened, they are said to have achieved nirvana which is a state of peace within one’s soul. There are about 350 million followers of Buddhism worldwide, although most of them are in modern-day China. Buddhists do not have a sacred text in the same way that other religions do, since they don’t believe in a God, they also do not believe that there is an inspired text about how Buddhists

should relate to their God. However, there are several texts and writings of authors, including the Buddha that are important to Buddhists, including the Tripitaka.

Christianity is currently the largest world religion. Christianity is a religious off-shoot of the Jewish religion that occurred around 33 A.D. Followers of Christianity, called Christians, believe that in 0 A.D., Jesus Christ, the son of

Buddhism

Buddhists typically seek to find higher enlightenment by accepting and overcoming the 4 noble truths about where pain and unhappiness come from. The way these truths are overcome are by following the 8 fold path. These virtues are:

1. Right view2. Right Intention3. Right speech4. Right action5. Right livelihood6. Right effort7. Right mindfulness8. Right Concentration

Christianity

Enlightenment is the primary goal of Buddhists. Enlightenment is achieved through meditation (deep concentration and thinking)

The tree that Buddha presumably received his enlightenment about the 4 noble truths and Eightfold path.

Jesus Christ is the primary figure of the Christian religion. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

God, came to the earth to redeem humanity. Jesus was a Jewish man, and tried to reach the Jewish people with his message, but they rejected him. The only difference between a Jew and a Christian is what they believe about Jesus Christ. Since Jews don’t believe that Jesus was the son of God, they are still waiting for God’s promised savior.

Christians believe in the Jewish God, called Jehovah, Yahweh, and several other names in the Bible. Christians believe that the primary source of truth about how to live life is found in the Bible (Old and New Testaments.) The Old Testament is basically the same as the Jewish beliefs, but the New Testament is all about Jesus Christ, and the change that he made to how people relate to God. Christians believe that Jesus was executed by the Romans in 33 A.D. and that he had to die as a sacrifice to pay for the sins of humanity.

From the time after Christ until around 1000 A.D. there was only one church. At that point, the church divided into the Roman Catholic Church, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. There was very little significant about the differences of their beliefs, but they both disagreed on who the true leader of the church was supposed to be. The next big split in the church occurred during the Renaissance, when Martin Luther and others began to question the authority of the Roman Catholic Church. This split, known as the Protestant Reformation, split the church again into different Protestant groups (Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc.) and the Roman Catholic Church.

For most of Western Civilization’s history, Christianity has been the dominant religion. Europe, and many of the regions of the world colonized by Europeans (Australia, North and South America) are also strongly influenced by Christian belief. There are around 2 billion followers of Christianity in the world.

Islam is the second largest, and fasted-growing religion in the world. Islam is a religious belief system that originated in the Middle East and has taken the original Jewish and Christian traditions, and modified them, based on the teachings of the prophet, Muhammad. In 622 A.D., Muhammad

Islam

As the Roman empire began to collapse around 300 AD, the spread of the Christian religion rapidly spread throughout the region. Christianity became the foundation of Western Civilization (European culture.)

One of the most holy sites in Islam. Millions of people come to this mosque every year to pray. These pilgrimages are one of the 5 pillars of Islam.

claims that he received revelation from their God, Allah, and wrote the Quran, which is the primary holy book of the Muslims.

Muhammad began to teach people that he had received special instructions from Allah about how people were to be saved. Muslims believe that in order to be saved, you need to be in a state of submission to Allah. As a matter of fact, the word Islam is literally translated “submission.” The way that people submit to Allah is by following the 5 pillars of Islam: faith, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and alms.

Muslims believe that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet (faith.) They believe that Muslims should pray to Allah 5 times a day, and they should participate in regular fasts during holy days and months (like Ramadan.) Muslims believe that people should make a special trip to Mecca (seen above) once in their lifetime, and finally that they should give money (alms) to the poor and the religious leaders. Islam is most influential in the Middle East, northern Africa, and Indonesia.

The religion of Islam split into two groups shortly after the death of Muhammad, based on two of his main followers both fighting for control of the religious group. These two groups, called Shi’ites and Sunnis, fight for control of many of the countries in which Islam is the main religion. There are about 1.6 billion Muslims currently throughout the world. While most followers of Islam are peaceful, there are several groups of highly dangerous and violent believers, normally referred to as “radical” or “fundamentalist” Islamists. These terrorist organizations include Al-queda, Hezbollah, and Hamas among others. Radical Islamist groups believe that Allah has ordered them to convert every person to Islam, and if they will not convert, they need to be killed, also known as jidad—“holy war.”

Hinduism is one of the oldest formal religions of the world. Hindus are polytheistic, meaning that they believe in many gods. In fact, there are thousands of Hindu gods that are all worshipped by Hindus. There is not a central prophet or leader in the Hindu religion. While the religion formally started around 1500 B.C., there are elements of the Hindu faith that are much older.

Hinduism

Map showing the influence of Islam throughout the world. Green is countries controlled by Sunni Muslims, while red is Shi’ite control. Blue indicates an equal number of Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims.

While Hindus believe in many gods, they actually believe that everything, including the world, people, and everything in the universe is all a part of one single existence. In other words, God is all, and is in all. Hindus believe in reincarnation, which is basically the belief that everyone’s soul is in a constant state of being re-born over and over again. Hindus believe that every person’s soul is born and reborn until they achieve a state of enlightenment by living a righteous life, at which point the soul returns to be a part of God, and is no longer born any more.

A vast majority of the almost 1 billion Hindus world-wide live in India, and for the most part, they follow a caste system. The Indian caste system is basically a classification system that separates people based on their social class. The table at the left illustrates how the Indian caste system is set up. Hindus are forbidden from marrying anyone outside of their caste, and are discouraged from even having conversations with people of another caste unless they are doing business with them. People in the lower classes believe that if they live a good life, and serve the priests and others in the higher castes, that when

their soul is reborn in their next life, they will be in a higher caste.

Souls can be reborn as animals as well as people, so pretty much every Hindu is a vegetarian. Several of the most sacred texts followed by most Hindus are the Bhagavad-Gita, the Upanishads, and the Rig Veda. Hindus are typically very peaceful, and seek to live in harmony with all people and nature. Mohandas Gandhi, who is one of the most influential civil rights leaders in modern world history, was strongly influenced by Hindu beliefs.

Judaism is largely credited as one of the oldest religions in the world. It is also the foundational religion for all of the major monotheistic (one god) religions in the world today, including Christianity and Islam.

Judaism has its origins in Abraham. Jews (and Christians) believe that at one point, around 1900 B.C., God (Yahweh,

Judaism

Colorful murals depicting multi-armed gods are common Hindu artwork.

Jehovah) made a special promise to Abraham, that he would have a son, and that God would make him the father of a great nation. This was the beginning of the Hebrew nation. God also promised Abraham that through him, he would send a great leader who would save the Jews. About 500 years later, the Jewish people established a nation in the Middle East, what is modern-day Israel and Palestine. For about 1000 years, the Jews occupied that region and established a monarchy as their government. Even once they were overthrown by the Babylonian and Assyrian empires, the Jews continued to live in the region.

Jews follow the Law of Moses, which is found in the Jewish holy book called the Torah. The Christian Bible incorporates the Torah as a part of its Old Testament. They continue to wait for the Savior promised to Abraham. Most Jews believe that Jesus was a heretic, since he claimed to be the son of God. There is also long-standing animosity between Jews and Arabs, who also live in the same region. The reason is because Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. In Middle Eastern culture of the time, the first born son (Ishmael) was the heir to the father’s property, while the other sons (Isaac) got a much smaller portion of the

inheritance. Abraham believed that God told him that Isaac was the promised son, and therefore Abraham gave Isaac the inheritance, even though he was younger than Ishmael. This decision has led to a lot of hard feelings and jealousy between the two groups. Ishmael’s descendants have become the people-group called the Arabs, while Isaac’s descendants became the Hebrews (Jews.)

Judaism is an extremely small religion, with only about 15 million followers world-wide. However, since it gave birth to the two largest religions in the world, it is included as one of the most historically significant religions. In 1948, Great Britain established a Jewish state in Palestine, and after almost 1900 years, the nation of Israel was reborn in the Middle East.

The Jews believe that they are the only true heirs to Abraham’s blessing. Both Ismael and Isaac can claim that Abraham is their father.