Different Religions Around the World

Today in class we started to take notes on each other's power points...

Islam

• monotheistic belief in a god or gods, and is an arabic religion
• the Qu'ran is a book like our bible (considered to be the exact words of god)
• followers of islam are called Muslims
• Muslims live in Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan, and Bangladen
• Its a belief that god is one, and the purpose is to love & serve him
• They believe that Islam is the universal religion of faith & was revealed through Abraham, Jesus, & Moses
• Believed that Jesus was more of a prophet than the Messiah, Muhammad was their messiah
• Allah is the one & only god
• He's completely perfect
• No one is as high or divine as him
• He never sleep, dies, or gets tired
• Humans are not created in Allah's image
• Humans can ask Allah for anything they want 
• 5 pillars - creed must be recited under oath, ritual prayers must be performed 5 times a day, fasting must be performed dusk to dawn during the month of Ramadan, give money to the poor, pilgrimage is done during the Islamic month in the city of Mecca
• Hajj mean pilgrimage - several ceremonies symbolizing the concept of Islamic faith

Christianity
Parts of Christianity

• Roman Catholic
• Baptist
• Presbyterian
• Lutheran
• Protestant
• Methodist
• Mormon
• Quaker
• Orthodox
• Jehovah's witness

• 50% of Christians are Catholic
• 11% is Orthodox
• 1.3 % are others
• 2.8 billion Christians in the world
• US, Brazil, & Mexico - most Christians
• Holy book- bible
• Believe that Jesus was killed on Earth and resurrected to heaven
• Most/biggest populated religion in the world
• Believes that Jesus is the son of God/ fully human

Cultural Geographic Quiz Review

Today in class we went over our test we took last week on Culture Geographic. I's got a few wrong. I thought that Islam has the smallest number of members but Islam isn't, Hinduism is the right answer. I also wrote that the UN was a military alliance including the Unites States, France, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and 23 other nations formed in the years following WWII but it is actually the NATO. The economic alliance intended to coordinate the policies of oil-producing countries is NAFTA not NATO. And the problem solving alliance whose members include virtually every nation on earth is the UN not the NAFTA. All of these are organizations that take place all over the world.

Notes on Cultural Geography

examples of spatial divisons

1. countries 

• economic alliances
• european union (EU)
• organization of petroleum exporting (OPEC)
• north america free trade agreement (NAFTA)
• association of southeast asian nations

1. political alliances

• north atlantic treaty organization (NATO)
•  commonwealth of nations
• organization of american states
• league of arab states
• african union (AU)

Reasons for spatial divisions

• differences in culture, language, and or religion
• keeping of historical boundries
• implies conquest and control
• economics simularities and differences
• cultural differences (Indonesia,Canada (quebec), Ireland, Sudan
• NATIONALISM- the belief that your nation is superior to all others
• Economic differences - fertile land, access to fresh water, access to the coast, fishing rights, natural resources,different economic philosophies 

Cultural Geography

Today in class we learned about cultural geography
cultural characteristics

• parts of groups everyday life
• the ideas and themes which the group will teach to all members
• these same characteristics can also link or divide a region

examples

• language
• religion
• ethnic heritage

language

•  arabic unites the arab world
• spanish unites the hispanic world
• brazil is the only south american nation that speaks portuguese instead of spanish
• canada is bilingual (french & english offical language)
• switzerland has multiple languages
• english is considered the worlds language
• ^ used for most business transactions around the world (lingua franca)

Ethnic heritage

• in yogoslavia, many ethnic groups were made into one country ( serbs, croats, bosniaos, albanians)
• when strong leadership died out, the different group fought a very bloody civil war & now they all have seperate countries
• the united states & switzerland have peacefully merged multiple ethnic groups in their countries
• korea & japan have primarily one ethnic group

Religion

• can be both unifying and disunifying force

5 major religions in the world today

hinduism

buddhism

judaism

islam

christianity 

jews- desendants of abraham

shiites and sunnis

• religion has over millions of followers all believing the same thing
• can also be a dividing force around the world
• hindus & muslims fight india (hindu) & pakistan (muslim)

Lost Boys

We finished watching the movie and they made an event for everyone who traveled to America to al meet and see eachother again.  It was getting harder for them to manage money because now they have to pay for rent, phone bills, their car, gas, and even buying food or new clothes.  Also in Sudan they dont celebrate Christmas like we do. They dont have a Santa or get presents. They are all together and sing songs to celebrate. We found out that John got to meet his mother. She flew down to New York from Sudan and was so happy to see him. Pather goes back to Sudan to go marry his girlfriend and plans to come back to the US with her.

Movie About the Struggle of the Sundanese

Today we continued watching the movie about 3 men in Sudan, Africa that are kicked out of their terriotory by the government and most are killed. The women are either killed her raped, the men are killed and the young boys are just stabbed to threaten and show people they arent afraid to kill. They were also doing this because they thought the population was too much. So as result of them kicking the Sudanese out of Sudan they has to travel all the way to find a safe place to live which so happened to be Kenya. Then the US aid got ahold of their situation and sent over some food and clothing to help them out during this tragic time. Then finally a couple Sudanese people were given the opportunity to travel to the US to live and start a new & better life. But eventually after they found a job they would have to pay the US government back for the expensive of the airfair it took to fly them over.