Friday, October 12, 2012

Religions Around the World

Today we are researching five different religions. One of those religions is Christianity. Christianity was found by Jesus of Nazareth in AD 30. It was founded in Israel, where the teachings of Jesus Christ began. Christianity is a monotheistic belief in one God religion. Christianity's holy book is the Bible. There are about 2.2 billion people that follow Christianity, that is nearly a third of the worlds population. Jesus is the central figure of this religion. Christianity is mostly practiced in bot Americas, followed by Russia, Europe, and Australia.
We also researched Islam. Islam was founded by Muhammed in Mecca. It was found in about 632 AD. Islam si a monotheistic religion. Its doctrine of faith requires belief in one god and one god only. Islam's holy book is called Quran. Islam has a world population from about 1.4 to 1.6 billion followers, constituting about 25% of the world.  The central figure is Allah, which is "God" in Arabic. The main geographic concentration of Islam is in Africa and the Middle East.
Another religion that we researched today is Buddhism. Buddhism was founded in the fourth or fifth century B.C. in northern India by a man known traditionally as Siddhartha. Buddhism is a polytheistic religion. People say the number of Buddhists in the world is between 230 million and 500 million but some also say that the number of followers are over a billion. Buddha is the central figure in Buddhism. The highest number of Buddhists is in Tibet.
We also looked at Hinduism. No one knows the exact date that Hinduism was founded and it doesn;t have any real founder. Hinduism is a monotheistic religion. Hinduism has a lot of holy books. Some include the Vedas, Upanishads, and Mahabharata. But there are many more. Hinduism has about 900 million followers or 14 percent of the world population. Brahman is the central figure in Hinduism. Hinduism geographic concentration is mostly in India.
The last religion we looked at was Judaism. Judaism was founded by Abraham in Israel, around the year 2000 BCE. Judaism is monotheistic. Jews believe that there is only one god and he created the world. Judaism's holy book is called the Tanakh. Judaism has about 12 to 14 million followers. The central figures in Judaism are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Judaism's geographic concentration is mostly in Israel, and small pockets of North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

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