Religion

From A+ Club Lesson Planner & Study Guide

Religion

Origins & cultural practice[edit | edit source]

Explaining the world[edit | edit source]

World and human origins[edit | edit source]

  • Humans naturally want to know "why"
  • Why are we here?
    • religions and founding myths usually intersect
  • What is our purpose?
    • religions

Purpose of life[edit | edit source]

  • a primary function of religion is to order daily life
  • religion may guide
    • social structures
    • political structures
    • class, profession, and other hierarchies

Reflect or reinforce social structures[edit | edit source]

  • religious belief provides authenticity and legitimacy to political, social and cultural systems or structures
  • ex.:
    • across human history, hereditary rule (especially monarchy) is the most stable political system
      • because the "first born" of the ruler is selected by God/gods
        • therefore the first born is legitimized by belief in that God/gods

Mitigating Uncertainty[edit | edit source]

Ritual[edit | edit source]

  • burial
  • sacrifice
    • purpose
    • types of sacrifice
      • animal sacrifice
      • human sacrifice

Superstition[edit | edit source]

  • 13 and Friday the 13th superstitions
    • many ancient counting systems, especially Babylonian, were 12-base
      • therefore 13 marked a bad number
    • in Christianity, Judas was considered the 13th disciple at the Last Supper
      • since he betrayed Jesus, 13 is associated with him
      • it is likely that the prejudice against pre-existed the story of the Last Supper and Judas
  • see:


Prehistoric[edit | edit source]

  • animism
  • polytheism

Paleolithic[edit | edit source]

  • conceptual thought
  • spirituality
  • examples
    • cave paintings
    • pictograms
    • figurines
      • Venus figurine
      • lion man
      • totemism

Neolithic[edit | edit source]

  • examples
    • ritual burial
    • megaliths

Ancestor Worship[edit | edit source]

  • Neolithic origins *

Mythology[edit | edit source]

Polytheism[edit | edit source]

Organized Religions[edit | edit source]

  • listed in approximate chronological order of development

Hinduism[edit | edit source]

Zoroasterism[edit | edit source]

Bhuddism[edit | edit source]

Abrahamic religions[edit | edit source]

Judaism[edit | edit source]

    • Old Testament

Christianity[edit | edit source]

    • New Testament

Islam[edit | edit source]

Worldwide religiosity[edit | edit source]

Pew Research 2018 worldwide survey[edit | edit source]

Worldwide rates of daily prayer rates[edit | edit source]

Worldwide importance of religion rates[edit | edit source]

Worldwide weekly religious attendance rates[edit | edit source]

Worldwide religion importance rates[edit | edit source]


Teaching religion[edit | edit source]