Culture & Vocabulary: Major religions of the world

Hi, guys.

I got a secret to tell ya.

Do you have a religion?

Yeah?

Most people do.

I don't.

I am what is called "agnostic".

"Agnostic" means I do not believe in a god.

Do you want to turn the video off because you're offended by my religious views?

Go ahead, but you're going to miss a great lesson on religion.

My whole point of this educational video, if you will, is to preach tolerance.

Because guess what?

You have a religion, I have a religion-no I don't-and other people will have a different

religion than you, especially when you're travelling.

So, let's say that you leave your beautiful house and your beautiful country, and you

come to another country.

Guess what?

There are going to be people that don't have the same religion as you, and you get to respect

them, and hopefully they get to respect you.

Unfortunately, the world has kind of turned against us.

Thank you, media, for making all religions a point of war; which it shouldn't be, because

most religions should teach love.

Oh.

Where did that go wrong?

So, what I want you guys to understand is that I don't have a religion, I don't want

to have a religion, and it's my choice; as is it's your choice to have your religion.

But respect goes a far way.

So, let's dive right into religion.

What is it?

The cool thing is when I was researching this is the dictionary didn't really have a distinct

definition of "religion", but it said this - it said: "Religion is a cultural system

of designated behaviours"-so how you act in your culture-"practices"-so things that you

do; no matter what your religion is-"and world views".

So, this means how religion sees other issues in the world.

You with me so far?

So, religion has nothing so far to do with anything that is violent or bad; it has to

do with someone's opinion of a culture.

We have two words to start off.

The first one is "atheism".

"Atheism" means that you do not believe in a god; nothing.

There's no god that exists.

It's kind of close to "agnosticism", which I told you that I was.

"Agnosticism" means that you have no proof that god exists, or any gods exist.

So I teeter-totter between being atheist and being agnostic, but I don't have a religion.

I think religions are amazing, but "atheism" is a belief that god doesn't exist, and "agnosticism"

is a belief that: "I don't know yet, so don't ask me my question.

I haven't decided."

What I've done is I've written down the four top-and by no means best-religions of the

world.

In our crazy world we have 10,000 different distinct religions.

10,000.

But over 85% of the population are in the top four religions.

Now, statistics: I don't believe them, so when I tell you percentages and stuff, it's

clearly all from the internet and I don't believe half of it; but let's see if you do.

Apparently the biggest population in the world, 2.4 billion or 33% of the population are apparently

"Christian".

Okay?

Apparently this involves people who are atheist and agnostic.

So that's statistic is blown out of the water right away, but Christianity is supposed to

be the religion with the most followers.

So, first word to learn is: "monotheistic".

"Mono" means one, and "theistic" means God.

So, Christianity is a religion with one god, and his/her...

His/her...

God's name is God.

Is God a him or a her?

What do you think?

Yeah, you don't know, do you?

Okay.

So, this...

Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

Okay?

We like to shorten his name and just call him "Jesus".

And Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God.

He was born to a virgin...

What?

In a manger.

That doesn't make sense, scientifically; don't tell my mom that.

The holy book that Christians use is called a "Bible" or "Gospel", so this is where all

of the teachings of Jesus Christ are written.

People who practice Christianity are called "Christians".

And the important thing that you guys have to realize is that if you are Catholic, you

are Christian; if you are Protestant, you are Christian; if you are Eastern Orthodox-these

are the top three-you are also Christian.

So you have to be careful.

You can't say to someone: "Oh, well I'm Catholic, but I'm not Christian."

Well, damn straight: You're both Catholic and Christian, because these religions practice

Christianity.

Okay?

So be careful what your ideas of... are from your country.

Christians believe that when you die-which we all will-you will either go to Heaven or

Hell.

Other religions, like Catholicism (Catholic people) believe that there's a purgatory.

And purgatory is kind of like the waiting room; that they haven't decided if you're

good or bad yet.

So, you can go to Heaven or you can go to Hell, or be rested in purgatory.

Where do you want to go?

You want to go to Heaven, don't you?

Okay.

The next one we have is 1.8 billion people; 24% of the population.

So, there isn't a big difference in the size of the population, if the statistics are true

(which they're not).

This religion is called "Islam".

It is, like Christianity, a monotheistic religion: One god.

In this religion, God's name is "Allah".

I think Allah's a man; sounds like a man's name.

And just like Christians have Jesus...

I can do this.

Just like Christians have Jesus, Islam has Muhammad.

Now, Muhammad is apparently the messenger of God.

Jesus was the son of God, but Muhammad is the messenger of God; so he directly told

the people what God was saying.

Interestingly enough, in the Islamic religion, they have prophets: Adam, Abraham, Moses,

Jesus...

What?

Muslim people or people who are Islamic - they believe in Jesus.

Jesus was a prophet.

Okay?

So, all of these guys: Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, who exist in Christianity are also

prophets in the Islamic religion.

But they believe that Muhammad was the last messenger of God, so he's the most important

prophet.

Just like Heaven...

Just like Christianity, there's a final judgement where people go to Heaven or go to Hell.

Well, that sounds really similar to Christianity.

What are you guys fighting about?

You all go to the same place; you do good, you do bad.

People who follow Islam are called "Muslim", and the holy book is called the "Qur'an".

So it's a book that has the teachings.

Do you see a lot of similarities between these two religions yet?

Open your mind.

Have a look.

The next religion is "Hinduism".

Hinduism is polytheistic or monotheistic.

So, I've told you that "monotheistic" means one God.

What do you guys think "polytheistic" means?

"Poly" means many.

So, Hinduism is polytheistic or monotheistic.

Or, if you choose-it's your choice-you can be "atheist".

What?

A religion that can be atheist...

Oh yeah.

Hinduism - this is pretty cool.

So, check this out: It was made in India and it's the oldest religion in the world, apparently.

And it's based on dharma, and dharma is the way of life.

It's like a life path; telling you what are good things and bad things to do.

Check this out: There are no religious authorities.

What?

Nobody's telling me what to do?

Well, this is pretty cool.

There's no governing body, which means there's no...

Again, there's nobody telling you what to do; there's no one god, there's no one person

that is almighty.

There's no prophets, and there's no special holy book.

This sounds very open-minded.

The pronunciation of the common Islam faith...

I forget.

So, we've got Sunni, which is 75 to 90%, and we have Shia which is 10 to 20%; I forgot

about that.

But if you guys look at the Hinduism...

These words are very difficult for me to say; I do apologize.

Let me go to my notes; my pronunciation notes.

So, we have: "Vaishnavism".

If I've said that wrong, I do apologize; it's not my intention.

And then we have: "Shaivism" and "Shaktism".

Again, if I've done that wrong, I'm sorry.

The Hindu people...

So people who practice Hinduism are called "Hindus" - they believe in "reincarnation".

So, "reincarnation" means: When you die, your soul doesn't go to Heaven or Hell; it comes

back again, maybe to this Earth, and you live a whole other lifetime.

Wow.

Do you believe in reincarnation?

I do.

I think I've lived many, many times; and I was probably hanging out with you at some

point.

We were like: "Yeah!

This is great, Ronnie!"

I'm like: "Yeah."

Okay?

So, reincarnation is very different from Heaven or Hell.

Okay?

Reincarnation means you are born again and you live again.

Amazing.

Super cool.

And the last one is "Buddhism".

If you guys have ever been to China or if you're from China, you can go to a beautiful

Buddhist temple.

Awesome.

Like Hinduism, Buddhism has no personal god, so you don't worship one person; but it's

based on the teachings of this one guy who was a real person named Buddha.

He's pretty cool.

He looks nice.

So, this is based on his teaching or his ideas.

All right?

This only makes 520 million; 15 to 16% of the population of the world.

Again, statistics.

Basically, Buddhist people believe in rebirth into five realms of being.

Check this out.

The top one would be heavenly, so this means you've achieved all the amazing things you

should in your lifetime; you would not be reincarnated again and you'd be heavenly.

We have demi-gods; humans, that's me and you; animals; hungry ghosts; and hellish.

Now, hellish, obviously would be the worst one.

Maybe some humans are actually hungry ghosts and hellish - I don't know.

So, Buddhism is based upon the teachings of Sidda...

Sidda-ta...

Siddhartha-I'm sorry; I can't do it- Gautama.

If I said his name right, amazing.

That's it.

So, I want you to think about your religion, and I want you to also think about the people

around you.

Do you know people who have a different religion?

Do you know people that have a religion that's not written down here?

Cool.

Talk to them about it.

We have a saying in English that you shouldn't talk to people about sex, religion, or politics.

I'm not talking to you guys about politics ever.

Love people; don't hate people.

I'm out of here.