More Notes!!


Spatial Divisions                    

• Political Alliances

- North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

- Commonwealth of Nations

- Organization of American States (OAS)

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Religion

• Number of adherents: around 2.2 billion (largest in the world).
• Call them: Christians
• Geographic Nation: Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa.
• Denominations: Baptists, Methodists... 

More on Christianity 

• Founder: Jesus Christ (it's Abraham in origin).
• Holy book: The Bible, especially the New Testament
• Beliefs: Jesus is both human and divine - the Son of God; he led a virtuous life; he was crucified, died, buried, and resurrected; descended into heaven where he reigns with God the Father. 
• Clergy: Pope, priests, etc.

Islam         

• Number of adherents: 1.5 billion (second largest). 
• Call them: Muslims
• Geographic Nation: Indonesia, Middle East, North Africa.
• Denominations: Sunnis (75-90%), Shittes (10-20%)

• Founder: Muhammad (570-632).
• Holy Book: Qur'an
• Beliefs: Monotheistic, Abrahamic
• Five Pillars (testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, pilgrimage)
• Muslims see their purpose in life as serving and submitting to Allah (God), and observing Islamic law. 

Hinduism

• Number of adherents: 1.1 billion (third largest) 
• Call them: Hindus
• Geographic Location: India, Nepal
• Holy Book: The Vedas - eternal truths revealed to ancient sages; composed in verse form (meant to be sung and easily memorized). 

• Founder: No distinct founder - it is a series of intellectual or philosophical points of view, rather than a rigid, strict set of beliefs - probably the oldest religion, although Hinduism is less religion than a way of life, or faith. 
• Example: " As a person puts on new clothes and discards old and torn clothes, similarly an embodied soul enters new matrials bodies, leaving the old bodies." 
• In other words :: re-incarnation. 

Buddhism

• Number of adherents: 500 million to 1.5 billion (estimates vary quite a bit)
• Call them: Buddhists
• Geographic Location: Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan (there are 1.2 million Buddhists in the US). 

• Founder: Siddhartha Gautama
• Denominations: Tibetan. Zen, Theravada, Amidist