More Religion Notes

January 3rd, 2019

Today in class we talked about 3 more religions which we didn't have a chance to go over yesterday and here are the notes below

Hinduism-

• 1.1 billion people follow this religion
• we call them Hindus
• Geographic location- India and Nepal
• The holy book is the vedas- eternal truths revealed to ancient sages and is composed in verse form/ meant to be sung and easily memorized
• Founder- no distinct founder, it is a series of intellect or philosophical points of view, rather than a rigid strict set of beliefs, probably the oldest extant religion, although Hinduism is less a religion than a way of life, or a faith

Buddhism-

• 500 million to 1.5 billion people follow this religion
• we call them Buddhists
• Geographic location- Southeast Asia, China, Nepal and Japan
• There are 1.2 million Buddhists in the United States
• Founder- Siddhartha Gautama
• Denominations- Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, Amidist
• Four Noble truths- There is suffering 
• Attachment to desire is the origin of suffering
• There is a cessation of suffering
• The eightfold path will lead to the cessation of suffering
• The eightfold path- Right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right dedication

Judaism

• 14-18 million people follow this religion
• we call them Jews
• Geographic location- Israel(6.4 million, 75.4%), United States(5.3-7 million, 1.7-2.6%)
• Founder- Abraham
• Holy book-Torah(the first five books of the Old Testament- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy)
• Beliefs- Ethical Monotheism- God is one, and concerned with the actions of humankind
• Ten Commandments and the 13 principles of faith

All in all today's class went pretty well but felt like it was like 2 hours long.