Domesticated Animals

There are about 150 species of animals in the world that weigh over 100 pounds. Only 14 of them are domesticated. These animals are goats, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, bactrian camels, arabian camels, water buffalo, llamas, reindeer, yaks, mithuns, and bali cattle. None of these animals are from New Guinea, Australia, Africa, or North America. South America is home to one of these animals, which is the llama. Asia, North America, and Europe are home to 13 of the domesticated animals. If you live in a place with these domesticated animals, you will survive and thrive much better than someone who doesn't have any of these animals.

Pop Quiz

Today I had to go see the counselor, so I missed most of class. When I got back, everyone was getting their grades for their quizzes and I was very confused. Then, I went over to Mr. Schick's desk and he helped me review for it. Then I took the quiz on a nurses note. I only got one question wrong. I said they didn't have advanced technology for their time, which was wrong because it was advanced. I know the answer was that they didn't have weapons.

New Guinea

Today we watched a video about a place called Papua New Guinea. They live in poverty and don't have a lot of things. A man named James Diamond goes there often to look at birds. Over the many times of going there, he became friends with many of the locals. A man asked him why American's have so much more cargo than the natives. He didn't know the answer to this question. His goal became to solve this problem and figure out why this happens. this film focused on the people who live there as well. They live the way everyone in the world lived thousands of years ago. Unfortunately, their technology has not evolved like the rest of the worlds. They still are hunter-gatherers which is a very hard life. They are constantly looking for food and do not have a steady home or source of income. Watching films like this makes me realize how good I have it. There are the "haves" and the "have nots." Unfortunately the people who live in Papua are "have nots". They hardly have anything, even the basic necessities.

First Day of Western Civ

Today was the first day of Western Civilization. Mr. Schick. went through all of the rules and told us what we would be learning about this semester. I am not very interested in history but I am going to try to be interested this semester. I tried to go to the bathroom during class today, but Mr. Schick said no. I really had to go so I asked again. Then, he asked me if I was chewing gum. I got flustered and said no but really i was. Then I spit it out and was finally able to go to the bathroom. Now everyone is typing their blogs. Overall, I think this will be a good class, even if I don't love history. I am excited to learn and have Mr. Schick again!

Test Day

Today we took our religion test. I think I got an A on it. There were one or two questions that I wasn't sure about. I didn't know what the answer was for the religion that originated in the 7th century. I knew it wasn't Christianity or Islam. I didn't think it was Judaism either. It was between Buddhism and Hinduism. I ended up picking Hinduism. Hopefully i get that question right, but it won't hurt my grade too much if I don't because I think that was the only one i got wrong. I really hope I did well because my grade right now is a very low A and I would like it to be a little higher.

Review for Test

Tomorrow we have a test on religion. We went over our blogs today. I think I will do pretty well but I need to study a bit tonight. The things i need to focus on are the number of adherents for each religion. The number of adherents of Christianity are around 2.2 billion, 1.5 billion adherents of Islam, 1.1 adherents of Hinduism, 500-1.5 billion of Buddhism, and 14-18 million adherents of Judaism. Christianity has many different denominations including Europe, The Americas, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Protestants. Islam's denominations are the Sunnis and Shiites. Buddhism's denominations are Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, and Admidist. Everything else I feel very good about but those things I am going to study more tonight.

All 5 Religions!

          Christianity is a religion that is most prominent in Europe, The America’s, and Southern Africa. There are about 2.2 billion adherents in the world, we call them Christians. The founder of Christianity was Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God, who died for our sins. The holy book is The Bible, especially the New Testament. The Pope is the head of the catholic church, and priests are local authorities. The denominations are the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Protestants. 

          Islam has 1.5 adherents, making it the second largest religion. We call these adherents muslims. Islam is most common in Indonesia, the Middle East, and North Africa. The founder was Muhammad who lived from 570-632. The holy book for Muslims is the Qur’an. They have monotheistic beliefs, similar to Christianity. They also have five pillars which are testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, and pilgrimage. There are two different denominations. One is the Sunnis who make up 75-90% of Muslims. The other is Shiites who are 10-20%. 

           The third largest religion is Hinduism, with 1.1 billion followers. Hindus read the Vedas which are eternal truths revealed to ancient sages. The Vedas are composed in verse form or songs. Their geographic location is mostly in India and Nepal. There is no distinct founder of this religion. In fact, Hindus believe in intellectual and physiological points rather than commandments. They also believe in reincarnation. 

          Buddhism is most common in Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, and Japan. There are about 500 million-1.5 billion Buddhists in the world. It is very hard to get an exact count because Buddhism allows it’s adherents to follow another religion as well. The founder was Siddhartha Gautama. There are four different denominations which are Tibetan, Zan, Theravada, and Admidist. They believe in the four noble truths and the eight fold path.

          Lastly is Judaism with 14-18 million adherents. They are called Jews. They are mostly found in Israel. The founder was Abraham and The Torah is their holy book. They believe in ethical monotheism, meaning that God is one, and concerned with the actions of humankind. They also have 10 commandments and 13 principles of faith. 

Religion Game

Today in class, we played a religion game. It was very hard to get them all right because most people haven't read all of the Bible to know what is in it and what is in the Quaran. After a lot of arguing and having to redo the game a couple of times, we finally got 19/20 right.

Christianity and Islam

It is very interesting how Christianity and Islam both started in Southwest Asia. They are both are very different from one another and spread into all different places. When Christianity started in the same place as Islam, people chose to be Christian or Muslim or maybe even another religion. The people who are Christians then split off to form other branches. There are so many different branches of Christianity, but only two branches of Islam. Although we have very different views of on the world and our God, it is important to remember that Christianity and Islam originated from the same location.

Religion Questions

The four basic Vedic texts in use by Hindus are Rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda. The Rig-Veda “Knowledge of the Hymns of Praise” is used for recitation. It has 1,017 hymns. The Sama-Veda “Knowledge of the Melodies”, is for chanting. It consists of 1,549 hymns. The Yajur-Veda “Knowledge of the Sacrificial formulas”, is for liturgy. It includes 1,028 hymns. The Atharva-Veda “Knowledge of the Magic formulas”, is named after a kind of group of priests and contains 730 hynmns.

Indulgences, according to the Roman Catholic Church, is the way to reduce how much punishment someone has to endure for sin. Martin Luther had a big problem with indulgences and wrote 95 statements and put it on the door of the Castle Church. He ended up breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church and formed his own religion called Lutheran. 

The Hajj is a very beautiful place of worship for Muslims. It is one of the pillars of Islam. It is mandatory for Muslims to go there at least one time in their life. It is an open area with so many places to worship. It is a wonderfulplace for Muslims. 

Religions in the World

The CIA World Fact Book and the chart on adherents.com have very similar statistics. The World Factbooks data is more up to date however. According to the CIA, Christianity makes up 31.4% of the population, Islam makes up 23.2%, Hinduism makes up 15%, Buddhism makes up 7.1% and Judaism makes 0.2% of the population. Adherents.com says a little different. They say that Christianity is 33%, Islam is 21%, Hinduism is 14%, Buddhism is 6%, and Judaism is .22%. Although the statistics aren't that much different for each religion, they are still a little bit off. Both of them tell us the biggest and smallest religions in the right order, but the CIA World Factbook is more accurate. Overall in order from biggest to smallest religion it goes, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism.

Religions

Today we started a new unit in Human Geography! We will be learning about 5 major religions in the world, but today we focused on Christianity and Islam. I learned a few new things today. I learned that there are 2.2 billion people who practice Christianity in the world. This is a lot of people considering there are about 7 billion people on the planet. There are also a lot of Islamic people in the world which make these two religions the largest. I thought it was weird at first that we were going to be learning about religion in human geo class, but then once I started to see how it related I was pretty interested. I like learning about people's beliefs and different religions in the world.