Human Geo Chapter 6 (key issue 1)

Baha'i (religions with 1 to 10 million adherents

- Baha'i is a universalizing religion, and roughly equal numbers of baha'is are found in India, other Asian countries, Africa, and the Western Hemisphere. - the Baha'i religion was established in Shiraz, Iran, in 1844. - it grew pit of the Babi faith, under the leadership of siyyid Ali Muhammad, known as the bab (Persian for gateway). - Baha'i provoked strong opposition from Shiite Muslims, and the bab was executed in 1850, as were 20,000 of his followers. - baha'is believe that one of the bab's disciples, husayn Ali nuri, known as baha'u'llah (Arabic for glory of god), was the prophet and messenger of god. baha'u'llah's function was to overcome the disunity of religions and establish a universal faith through abolition of racial, class, and religious prejudices. baha'u'llah was arrested and then exiled. - in 1863, his claim that he was the messenger of god anticipated by the bab was accepted by other followers. Before he died in 1892, baha'u'llah appointed his eldest son, abdu'i-baha (1844-1921), to be the leader of the Baha'i community and the authorized interpreter of his teachings.

Distribution of Buddhists

- Buddhism, the 3rd of the world's major universalizing religions, is clustered primarily in east Asia and Southeast Asia. - like the other two universalizing religions, Buddhism split into more than 1 branch, as followers disagreed on interpreting statements by the founder, Siddhartha Gautama. - The 3 main branches are Mahayana, Theravada, and vajrayana. - Mahayanists account for about 56% of Buddhists, primarily in china, Japan, and Korea. - Thervadists comprise about 38% of Buddhists, especially in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, sir lanka, and Thailand. - Vajrayanists, also known as Lamaists and tantrayanists, comprise about 6% are are found primarily in Tibet and Mongolia. - an accurate count of Buddhists is especially difficult because only a few people participate in Buddhist institutions. Religious functions are performed primarily by monks rather than by the general public. - the number of Buddhists is also difficult to count because Buddhism, although a universalizing religion, differs in significant respects from the western concept of formal religious system. Someone can be both a Buddhist and a believer in other eastern religions, whereas Christianity and Islam both require exclusive adherence. Most Buddhists in china and Japan, believe at the same time in an ethnic religion.

Syncretic

- Chinese traditional religions are syncretic, which means they combine several traditions. - religions based in east Asia show the difficulty of classifying ethnic religions and counting adherents. - adherents.com considers Chinese traditional religions to be a combination of Buddhism (universalizing religion) and Confucianism, Taoism, and other traditional Chinese practices. Most Chinese who consider themselves religious blend together the religious culture of these multiple traditions.

Distribution of branches of Christianity

- Christianity has 3 major branches: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and orthodox. In addition, many Christians belong to churches that do not consider themselves to be within any of these 3 branches. - Roman Catholics comprise approximately 50% of the world's Christian's and orthodox around 12%. The other 38% of the world's christians are divided between protestants and others, but sources do not agree on the magnitude of each. - the encyclopaedia britannica classifies 24% of the world's christians as Protestant and 14% as other, whereas pew classifies 37% as Protestant and only 1% as other.

Distribution of branches in the Western Hemisphere

- Christianity is by far the most widely practiced religion in the Western Hemisphere. Christians comprise 86% of the population of the Western Hemisphere. This includes 90% of Latin Americans and 77% of North Americans. People unaffiliated with any religion comprise 8% of Latin Americans and 17% of North Americans. - at the regional scale within the Western Hemisphere, a sharp boundary exists between North America and Latin America in the predominant branches of Christianity. - Roman Catholics comprise 81% of Christians in Latin America and 32% in North America, whereas protestants comprise 18% of Christians in Latin America and 63% in North America.

Global distribution of religions

- Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in every country of the Western Hemisphere and in most countries of Europe and sub Saharan Africa. - Islam is the most widely practiced religion in nearly every country of southwest Asia & North Africa, as well as in Central Asia. - Asia also has countries where the most widely practiced religion is Buddhism or Hinduism. - in several countries, including china, the largest number of people are unaffiliated with any religion. - Judaism is the most widely practiced religion in the state of Israel. - many faiths are divided into branches that have distinctive spatial distributions. - according to pew, 27% of the world's people live in countries where their religion is in the minority. This includes 3% of Hindus, 13% of christians, 27% of Muslims, 29% of unaffiliated, 59% of Jews, 72% of buddhists, 99% of folk religionists, and 100% of other religious groups. - a large percentage of Christian's and Muslims live in countries where their branch of the religion is the minority.

Confucianism (Chinese traditional ethnic religions)

- Confucius (551-479 b.c.) was a philosopher and teacher in the Chinese province of lu. - His sayings, which were recorded by his students, emphasized the importance of the ancient Chinese tradition of li, which can be translated roughly as "propriety" or "correct behavior". - Confucianism prescribed a series of ethical principles for the orderly conduct of daily life in china, such as following traditions, fulfilling obligations, and treating others with sympathy and respect. These rules applied to China's rulers as well as to their subjects.

Islam's branches

- Islam is divided into two principal branches: Sunni and Shiite. - the word Sunni comes from the Arabic for "people following the tradition of muhammad." - the word Shiite (sometimes spelled Shia) comes from the Arabic word for party or support group. - sunnis comprise 88% of Muslims and are the most numerous branch in most Muslim countries in southwest Asia and North Africa, as well as in Southeast Asia. - sunnis follow various schools of thought and religious law, which have distinctive regional distributions. The hanafi, Hanbali, Maliki, and Shafi'i schools of thought and religious law are named for their founders. - shiites are the largest branch in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen. Nearly 40> of all shiites live in Iran, 15% in Pakistan, 12% in India, and 10% in Iraq. - Shiite Islam is divided into 3 principal schools of thought, based in part on disputes over leadership after the prophet Muhammad. The largest, known as ithna ashari, is the most widely followed tradition in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon. - other traditions include the Ismaili and zaidi. Ismailis are clustered in Pakistan and zaidiyyahs in Yemen. - a third branch of Islam, ibadi, is the predominant form of Islam adhered to in Oman.

Jainism (religions with 1 to 10 million adherents)

- Jainism originated in South Asia around 2500 years ago. It's important declined with the rise in importance of Buddhism and Hinduism in the region, especially since the 8th century a.d. - Jains believe that nonviolence and self control are the means to achieve liberation - India is the home to 95% of the world's 4 million Jains, although Jain centers are located in 25 U.S. States

Taoism (Chinese traditional ethnic religions)

- Lao-zi (604-531 B.C., also spelled Lao Tzu) organized Taoism. - although a government administrator by profession, Lao-zi's writings emphasized the mystical and magical aspects of life rather than the importance of public service, which Confucius has emphasized. - Tao which means "the way" or "the path," cannot be comprehended by reason and knowledge because not everything is knowable. It emphasizes the importance of studying nature to find one's place in the world instead of striving to change the world.

Distribution of branches and religions in the U.S.

- Roman Catholics comprise 29% of the u.s. population, evangelical Protestants 26%, mainline Protestants 18%, historically black churches 7%, other Christians 3%, and other faiths 5%. - southern baptist convention is the most numerous evangelical Protestant church, and Methodist is the most numerous mainline Protestant church. - Roman Catholics are more numerous in the northeast and southwest, whereas evangelical Protestant are most numerous in the southeast. - 16% of Americans are unaffiliated - other less numerous faiths have distinctive distributions within the u.s. - members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (mormons) regard their church as separate from the 3 branches of Christianity. About 2% of Americans are members of the Latter-day Saints, and a large percentage is clustered in Utah and surrounding states. - Jews are more likely to be in the northeast and buddhists on the west coast

Shinto (religions with 1 to 10 million adherents)

- Shinto, Japan's ethnic religion, is strongly rooted in the cultural history of the country. - Japanese government statistics report around 100 million Shintos, or 78% of the country's population. However, in opinion polls only 4 million Japanese, or 3% of the population, identify themselves as Shinto. - the large discrepancy stems in part from the fact that a 17th century law in Japan assigns Shinto organizations with the task of maintaining records of Japanese citizens. The discrepancy also stems from the perception by some Japanese people that Shinto is a cultural feature rather than a religion.

Folk religions

- a number of religions grouped under the title folk religions account for an estimated 6% of the world's population, although the number of adherents of these religions is especially difficult to measure. - adherents.com identifies the 3 largest groups of folk religions as Chinese traditional, primal-indigenous, and African traditional.

Sikhism (religions with 14 to 25 million adherents)

- all but 3 million of the world's 23 million sikhs are clustered in the Punjab region of India. - the founder of sikhism, guru Nanak (1469-1538), lives in a village near the city of Lahore, in present day Pakistan. God was revealed to Nanak as the one supreme being, or creator, who rules the universe by divine will. - Nanak traveled widely through South Asia around 500 years ago, preaching his new faith, and his many followers became known as Sikhs (Hindu for disciples). - Nine other gurus succeeded guru Nanak. In 1604, Arjan, the 5th guru, complied and edited the guru granth sa-hib (the holy granth of enlightenment), which became the book of Sikh holy scriptures.

Other religions

- another 1% of the world's people adhere to a number of other religions. - 6 other religions have between 1 and 10 million adherents: baha i, cao dai, Jainism, Shinto, tenrikyo, and Zoroastrianism. - many other religions have fewer than 1 million adherents

African traditional folk religions

- approximately 27 million Africans, 2% of the continents people, are estimated by pew to follow folk religions, sometimes called animism. - today Africa is 51% Christian-split about evenly among Roman Catholic, Protestant, and other-and 43% Muslim. This distribution is in sharp contrast with the past. - in 1900, more than 70% of Africans followed traditional folk religions. As recently as 1980, 1/2 of Africans (200 mill) were still classified as folk religionists. - The growth in the 2 universalizing religions at the expense of ethnic religions reflects fundamental geographic differences between the 2 two types of religions. - remaining folk religionists in Africa are clustered primarily in a belt that separates predominantly Muslim North Africa from what as become predominantly Christian sub Saharan Africa.

Sub Saharan Africa (regional diversity of religions)

- around 2/3 are Christian and 1/3 Muslim.

Southeast Asia (regional diversity of religions)

- around 40% are Muslims, 24% buddhists and 21 percent christians. - Indonesia is 87% Muslim, Cambodia and Thailand are more than 90% Buddhist, and the Philippines is more than 90% Christian.

Cao dai (religions with 1 to 10 million adherents)

- cao dai was founded in Vietnam during the 1920s. The name refers to belief in god as the supreme being, creator, and ultimate reality of the universe. - the religion found itself in opposition to a succession of rulers in Vietnam, including the French colonial administration and the communists. - since vietnams communist government granted cao dai legal status in 1997, the number of adherents has increased to an estimated 4 million, nearly all of whom live in Vietnam.

Distribution of ethnic religions

- ethnic religions typically have much more clustered distributions than do universalizing religions. -- - Unlike universalizing religions, which typically diffuse from one culture to another, most of the adherents of the world's leading ethnic religions have remained embedded in the culture where they originated.

Classifying languages

- geographers consider the distinction between universalizing and ethnic religions to be significant because the 2 types of religions tend to display different spatial characteristics, including origin, diffusion, and distribution. - in reality, the distinction between the 2 types of religions is not absolute because most religions display both universalizing and ethnic elements. - among the 5 largest religious groups, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism are considered universalizing, whereas Hinduism and folk religions are considered ethnic. - most of the religions with fewer adherents are ethnic, but several are universalizing, and others display features of both and so are especially difficult to classify.

South Asia (regional diversity of religions)

- in South Asia, around 2/3 of the people are Hindus and 1/3 Muslims. - however, adherents are sharply divided by country; India is 80% Hindu, whereas Bangladesh and Pakistan are more than 90% Muslim

Regional diversity of religions

- more than 90% of Latin Americans and more than 75% of Europeans and North Americans identify themselves as adhering to Christianity. - Muslims comprise more than 90% of the population of Central Asia and of southwest Asia & North Africa. > the four regions with more diverse religious compositions are east Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and sub Saharan Africa.

Juche (religions with 14 to 25 million adherents)

- most North Koreans are classified as following juche, which is Korean for "self-reliance." - Juche was organized by Kim 11-sung, the leader of North Korea between 1948 and his death in 1994. Other sources regard juche as a government ideology or philosophy rather than a religion. - pew classifies 71% of North Koreans as unaffiliated, 12% as folk religionists, and 13% as other.

Tenrikyo (religions with 1 to 10 million adherents)

- originally regarded as a branch of Shinto, tenrikyo was organized as a separate religion in 1854 by a woman named nakayama Miki (1798-1887). - followers of tenrikyo believe that god expressing the divine will through nakayama's role as the shrine of god. - 2 million adherents around the world, 95% in Japan

Distribution of branches in Europe

- overall in Europe, 47% of christians are Roman Catholics, 18% are Protestant, and 35% are orthodox. - Roman Catholicism is the most widely practiced branch of Christianity in the southwest and east of Europe, Protestantism in the northwest, and orthodoxy in the east and southeast. - the regions of Roman Catholic and Protestant majorities frequently have sharp boundaries, even when they run through the middle of the countries. For example, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland have approximately equal percentages of Roman Catholics and Protestant, but the Roman Catholic populations are concentrated in the south of these counties and the Protestant populations in the north.

Judaism (religions with 14 to 25 million adherents)

- roughly 2/5 of the world's 14 million Jews live in the U.S. and another 2/5 in Israel. - the name Judaism derives from Judah, one of the patriarch Jacob's 12 sons; Israel is another biblical name for Jacob. - the Tanakh recounts the ancient history of the Jewish people and the laws of the Jewish faith. Tanakh is an acronym for Torah (also known as the 5 Books of Moses), nevi'im (prophets) and ketuvim (writings). - Judaism plays a more substantial role in western civilization than its number of adherents would suggest. - Judaism is the first religion to espouse monotheism, belief that there is only one god. Fundamental to Judaism is belief in one all powerful god. Judaism offered a sharp contrast to the polytheism practiced by neighboring people, who worshiped a collection of gods. - the world's 2 most widely precipices religions-Christianity and Islam-find some of their roots in Judaism.

Primal indigenous ethnic religions

- several hundred million people practice what adherents.com has grouped into the category primal-indigenous religions. Most of these people reside in Southeast Asia or on South Pacific islands, especially in Vietnam and Laos. - followers of primal-indigenous religions believe that because god dwells within all things, everything in nature is spiritual. Narratives concerning nature are specific to the physical landscape where they are told. - included in this group are shamanism and paganism. - According to shamans, invisible forces or spirits affect the lives of the living. - "pagan" refers to the practices of Ackerman peoples, such as the Greeks and romans, who had multiple gods with human forms. The term is currently expanded to also include other beliefs that originated with religions that predate Christianity and Islam.

Spiritism (religions with 14 to 25 million adherents)

- spiritism is the belief that the human personality continues to exist after death and can communicate with the living through the agency of a medium or psychic. Most spiritists reside in Brazil.

Islam in Europe and North America

- the Muslim populations of North America and Europe have increased rapidly in recent years. - in Europe, Muslims account for 5% of the population. France has the largest Muslim population, about 4 million, a legacy of immigration from predominantly Muslim former colonies in North Africa. Germany has about 3 million Muslims, also a legacy of immigration, in Germany's case primarily from turkey. In southeast Europe, Albania, Bosnia &a Herzegovina, and Serbia each have about 2 million Muslims. - estimates of the by bee of Muslims in North America vary widely, from 1 million to 5 million, but in any event, the number has increased dramatically from only a few hundred thousand in 1990. - Muslims in the U.S. come from a variety of backgrounds. According to the U.S. state department, approximately 1/3 of U.S. Muslims trace their ancestry to Pakistan and other south Asian countries and 1/4 to Arab countries of southwest Asia & North Africa. Many of these Muslims immigrated to the U.S. during the 1990s. Another 1/4 are African Americans.

Distribution of Hindus

- the ethnic religion with by far the largest number of followers is Hinduism, which is the world's 3rd largest religion, with 1 billion adherents. - in contrast to the large universalizing religions, 97% of Hindus are concentrated in just one country (India), 2% are in Nepal, 1% are in Bangladesh, and small numbers are elsewhere. Hindus comprise more than 80% of the population of India and Nepal, while about 9% live in Bangladesh, and a small minority are found in every other country. - the average Hindu has allegiance to a particular god or concept within a broad range of possibilities. - the manifestation of god with the largest number of adherents (80%) is vaishnavism, which worships the god Vishnu, a loving god incarnated as Krishna. The second largest is Shaivism, dedicated to shiva, a protective and destructive god.

Zoroastrianism (religions with 1 to 10 million adherents)

- the prophet Zoroaster (or zarathustra) founded the religion that bears his name around 3,500 years ago. - the religion was more formally organized around 1,500 years ago in the Persian empire (Iran) and was the state religion for several ancient empires in Central Asia. - the number of adherents declined after Muslims came to dominate Central Asia. - current records show 70,000 Zoroastrians in India, 25,000 in Iran, and 20,000 in the U.S. - however adherents.com says that a more realistic worldwide count is between 2-3 million because Zoroastrianism are said to be reticent about identifying themselves.

Unaffiliated

- the remaining 16% of the world's population are unaffiliated with a religion. - according to adherents.com, most people in this category affirm neither belief nor lack of belief in god or some other higher power. - in the u.s., many classified as unaffiliated believe in god and attend a religious service at least on occasion, but they do not have a formal association with a religious institution. - in some countries, the unaffiliated are primarily people who express religious interest or preference and do not participate in any organized religious activity.

Distribution of Muslims

- the word Islam in Arabic means "submission to the will of god," and if has a similar root to the Arabic word for "peace." An adherent of the religion of Islam is known as Muslim, which in Arabic means "one who surrenders to god." - Islam predominates in Central Asia and in southwest Asia and North Africa. However on a cartogram, most of the world's Muslims live further east, in south and Southeast Asia. - the countries with the most Muslims are Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. These 4 countries together are home to more than 40% of the world's Muslims.

Four largest religions

- these 4 religions together claim the adherence of 77% of the world's people: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. - pew estimates that 2.2 billion people view themselves as Christian, 1.6 billion as Muslim, 1 billion as Hindu, and 500 million as Buddhist.

Religions with 1 to 10 million adherents

6 religions have an estimated 1 to 10 million adherents: Baha'i, tenrikyo, Jainism, Shinto, cao dai, and Zoroastrianism.

Congregation

A local assembly of persons brought together for common religion worship

Ethnic religions

Appeal primarily to one group of people living in one place

Atheism

Belief that god does not exist

Agnosticism

Belief that the existence of god can't be proven empirically

Monotheism

Belief that there is only one god

Religions with 14 to 25 million adherents

Four religions have an estimated 14 to 25 million adherents: Sikhism, juche, spiritism, and Judaism

Animism

Inanimate objects such as plants and stones, or natural events such as thunderstorms and earthquakes, are "animated" or have discrete spirits and conscious life.

Branch

Is a large and fundamental division within a religion

Dividing religions

Many religions, including the 3 most widely practice universalizing religions, are divided into congregations, denominations, and branches.

Denomination

Unites a number of local congregations in a single legal and administrative body

Universalizing Religion (two types of religions)

Universalizing religions attempt to be global-to appeal to all people, wherever they may live in the world, not just to those of one culture or location.

Polytheism

Worshipping a collection of gods

East Asia (regional diversity of religions)

in east Asia, more than 1/2 of the people are unaffiliated with any religion. Most of the other 1/2 are divided about equally between Buddhism and folk religions