1/16/19

Today, we are working quietly on anything we need to. I'm doing my blog. Mr. Schick is grading the last two essays that aren't finished. I got a 97 on my essay and I'm very happy about it because the essays were stressful to write. It was time-consuming. I tried to write them at night but it was difficult to focus because I was so stressed and tired from rehearsal. The last day I worked on them, I set time aside when I got home from school so I could finally work on it in the daytime when I was awake. That was the major day I got work done. I'm happy the stress paid off and I did really well on them.

1/15

We reviewed our paragraphs today to see what information would be on the upcoming test. We found out that if it snows on Thursday, we'll have the test on Tuesday. I need to do well on the test because I am happy with where my grade is and I would like it to stay that way. I learned all about these religions last year in Social Studies. We had a lot of assignments on each religion and we took notes on descriptive videos so I remember a lot from 8th grade. I especially remember Hinduism from last year. I would have to review Islam to be completely sure of all the information. It's really helpful that we mainly are covering the same information that I learned. It's a good refresher because I was starting to forget things about each of them.

Paragraphs

5 Major Religions

Christianity is the most popular religion in the world. It has approximately 2.2 billion followers. Followers are referred to as Christians. Europe, the Americas, and Southern Africa are the geographic locations with the highest amount of Christians. Main denominations of Christianity are Catholicism, Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox. The founder is Jesus Christ and the holy book is the Bible (Old and New Testaments). The Pope is the head clergy of Catholicism. Priests are local authorities in all denominations. The central belief is that Jesus is both the human and divine Son of God. He led a virtuous life and and at the end he was crucified, died, buried, and resurrected. After his death, he ascended into Heaven where he reigns with God.

Islam is the second largest most popular religion consisting approximately 1.5 billion followers. Adherents of Islam are called Muslim. The locations with the highest amount of Muslims are Indonesia, Middle East, and North Africa. The two main denominations are the Sunnis and Shiites. The founder of Islam is Muhammad and the holy book is the Qur’an (Koran). Islam is a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion. Muslims follow the Five Pillars (testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, pilgrimage). The purpose in life as serving and submitting to Allah (God), and practicing Islamic law.

The third largest religion is Hinduism. It has approximately 1.1 billion followers called Hindus. The central areas to find Hindus are India and Nepal. The holy book is called the Vedas. It contains eternal truths revealed to ancient sages in form of song. It is meant to be easily memorized and sung. There is no distinct founder of Hinduism. This religion is more of a philosophical view of life. It does not have a rigid set of beliefs and rules to follow. One main, consistent belief of Hinduism is reincarnation.

Buddhism is a difficult religion to determine how many adherents there are since some people who classify as buddhists as well as another religion. The number of adherents ranges from 500 million-1.5 billion. Followers are referred to as Buddhists. The main geographic locations are Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, and Japan. The denominations are Tibetan, Zen, Theravada, and Amidist. The founder is Siddhartha Gautama. Buddhists follow the 4 noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. Buddhism is about appreciating the simple things in life and focusing on what truly matters.

Judaism has 14-18 millions followers. Adherents are referred to as Jews. The main geographic locations are Israel and U.S. The founder is Abraham. The holy book is the Torah (first 5 books of the Old Testament). The main beliefs are monotheistic. God is one, and concerned with the actions of humankind. They follow the Ten Commandments and the 13 Principles of Faith.

1/10/19

We worked on a packet today and had many other conversations as well. We, also talked about Belle and how she used to play guitar for her church, but when the church tried to bring a more modern band into the service, older people threatened to leave the church. Some older generations do not condone or appreciate upbeat, contemporary church services. I would prefer an upbeat service because the congregation feels more enthused and involved. I think that's how God would want you to feel in the place of worship. He wouldn't want the environment to be cold or intimidating. While I'm on the topic, I also think that the Catholic Church should let anyone receive communion, not just Catholics. Any other denomination lets everyone receive the Body and Blood of Christ. He died for everyone, so why would a church exclude certain people from receiving him? I don't understand that at all and I don't think I ever will. It's been an adamant belief of mine ever since I learned about the topic.

1/9/19

We started class by reviewing our blog from yesterday. Then we talked about religion classes in elementary/middle schools.There are a lot of differences between Catholic religions classes and Lutheran religion classes. I shared some stories of what I experienced when I went to a Catholic school after years of Lutheran school. I had never learned Sacraments or prayed to Saints. The church service was very different as well. We also discussed the Pow Wow and how we should all go it. I will be at JC that day for rehearsal so if I get there early I can go to the Pow Wow.  

Assignment 1/8/19

4 basic Vedic texts in use by Hindus are the
1. Rig-Veda
2. Sama-Veda
3. Yajur-Veda
4. Atharva-Veda

The Rig-Veda is the “Knowledge of the Hymns of Praise” for recitation of 1,017 hymns. The Sama-Veda “Knowledge of the Melodies”, for chanting 1,059 hymns. The Yajur-Veda is the “Knowledge of the Sacrificial formulas” for liturgy with hymns. The Atharva Veda consists of 730 hymns and it is the “Knowledge of the Magic formulas”, named after a kind of group of priests.

A Catholic indulgence is when a person could ask a priest to take away their sin. Years ago, people would pay to be granted forgiveness. Martin Luther was against this part of Catholicism because he thought that God could absolve your sin if you are truly repentant and asking for forgiveness, not by paying a priest. I used http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his101/web/37luther.htm for an article called "Martin Luther, Against the Sale of Indulgences."

The Hajj is an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. This is the holiest city for Islams. There is a step-by-step pilgrimage to perform Hajj. Islams must enter the city of Ihram, head to Mina, spend the day at Arafat, collect pebbles at Muzdilifah, throw stones at the Pillars, and spend the final days in Mina. This follows the actions of Muhammad.

class 1/4/19

Today, we took an online test about Islam and Christianity. It gave several quotes from the two religions' holy books. The test taker had to differentiate if the quotes came from the Qur'An or the Bible. It was actually difficult to find differences between the two. The Qur'An and the Old Testament of the Bible are very similar in content. Most people may think the Qur'An would be more violent but the Bible states many violent things as well. the Bible says that women may not speak in Church and to throw their little ones against a rock.