Religion Introduction

Religion can be explained as a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values.

Many religions have narratives, symbols traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explain the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious, laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.

Many religions may have organized behaviors, clergy a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, holy places, and scriptures.

The practice of a religion may also include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration a god or gods, funerary services, matrimonial services, mediation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service or other aspects of human culture. Religions may also contain mythology.

Religions are:

• Cultural-linguistic traditions

• Human constructions/products

• Responses to the experience of the sacred

• Wisdom traditions

• Means of ultimate transformation

And religions

• Use sacraments as mediators of the sacred/spirit.

Why study religion?

• Understanding

• World politics

• Global village

• Cultural reality

• Universality

Our goal to study religious:

Religious literacy

Ability to identify the religions of the world by name, know the name of the founders and names of the writings.

An understanding of the historical context of a religion and its general chronology.

Where a religion is practiced today and by how many people.

The historical relationship between the different religions of the world.

“Language is such an integral part of a religious tradition that it cannot be replaced to any great extent without becoming another religion. There is much to be gained by reclaiming traditional language and much to be lost by replacing it. “

Current number of followers

1/ Christianity: 2.1 billion

2/ Islam: 1.8 billion

3/ Hinduism: 0.9 billion

4/ Buddhism: 0.4 billion

5/ Chinese: 0.4 billion

6/ All others: 0.4 billion

7/ No religion: 0.4 billion

Categories of all religions:

• Prehistoric

• Indigenous

• Ancient

• Hindi

• Chinese

• Revealed

• Modern

Where does religion come from?

Since the dawn of humanity, humans tried to make sense of a unpredictable and chaotic world.

Prehistoric religion

Humans have been active on Planet Earth for a million or more years but we only know a fraction of human history.

All religious practice of humanity left in the archaeological

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