in class assignment

Christianity is the number one most populated religion. It has around 31.4% of the world’s population with around 2.2 billion adherents. They are called Christians. They attend church on Sundays and their Holy Book is called the Bible. It has three major branches: Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox. Some Christians just attend a non-denominational church and consider themselves one or all of these three branches. 50% of the Christians are Roman Catholic. That leaves Orthodox with around 12% and the other 38% are divided between Protestant and “Others.” Christianity was founded upon the teachings of Jesus who was born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was raised a Jew, but he gathered a group of disciples and preached the coming of God.  Jesus was arrested and crucified on the cross, but three days later he rose again to be our savior. God sent his only son to save us from our sins. 

Islam is the second largest religion that has around 23.2% of the world’s population following with around 1.8 billion adherents. These people are called Muslims. They attend Masjid or Mosque which they usually attend on Fridays. Their holy book is called the Quran. Bangladesh and Pakistan are more than 90% Muslims. The word Islam in Arabic means “submission to the will of God” which also has a similar root to the word for peace. The word Muslim in Arabic means “one who surrenders to God.” The countries Indonesia, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh are the four countries that hold the majority of Muslims. Islam is divided into two principal branches called the Sunni and the Shiite. Funny enough, they actually don’t like each other that much. Shiite Islam is divided into three principal schools of thought, based in part on disputed over leadership after the Prophet Muhammad. 

Buddhism is the third most populated religion. They are called Buddhist. This religion mainly exists in east Asia and south east Asia. Buddhism is split into three main branches called Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana. It is almost impossible to get an accurate count for the number of Buddhists because there are a lot of people that participate in Buddhist acts and still consider themselves a follower of another religion as well. Someone can be both a Buddhist and a believer in other Eastern Religions. This is not allowed in Christianity or Islam though.

Hinduism is the world’s fourth largest religion with around 1 billion adhering to it. 97% of all Hindus are located in one country which is called India. There is also 2% located in Nepal and around 1% in Bangladesh. Hindus have allegiance to a particular god or concept within a broad range of possibilities. The manifestation of God with the largest number of adherents; an estimated 80% is Vaishnavism, which worships the god Vishnu who is known to be very loving and is the god who was incarnated as Krishna. 

Judaism is the last religion and it is necessarily the smallest. There are roughly 14 million Jews. These Jews are located anywhere but two fifths of them are located in the united states and the other two fifths in Israel. These people are called Jews and they worship in a synagogue. The name Judaism is derived from Judah who is a patriarch. Judaism is the first recorded religion to talk about monotheism. This is belief that there is only one God. Jews are similar to Christians in the way that they both believe there is one God who is the ultimate and powerful ruler of this world. The one thing that makes us both who we are is that Christians believe that Jesus was sent to be out savior, and Jews believe that he is just a prophet. They are still waiting for their savior. Judaism offered a contrast to the polytheism practiced by other religions, which means you worship more than one God.