many religions and its concepts

1. Unit 2: Religion and
Belief Systems

2. 1. Explain the nature of religion as key concept in
sociology.
2. Define animism, monotheism, and polytheism.
3. Explain the different types of religious
organization and religions.
4. Discuss the belief system of the major world
religions.
5. Examine the separation of Church and state as an
important provision of the constitution.
OBJECTIVES

3. What do you
remember when
you hear the word
“religion”?
Religion

4. Unit in
Brief
● Concepts of Religion (important terms
and definitions)
● Major Religions
● Religion and Human Interaction
○ Expansion/Conversion
○ Conflicts between/within
faiths
○ Impact on Culture
○ Secularism
● Animism
● Hinduism
● Buddhism
● Sikhism
● Confucianism
● Taoism
● Judaism
● Christianity
● Islam

5. Concepts
of Religion
Unit 2: Religions and Belief
Systems

6. Warm-up
With a partner…
1. Define monotheism and polytheism. Give an example
of each from a civilization we have learned about this
year
2. Define theocracy

7. Important Terms
● Theism
● Religion
● Deity/Deities
● Atheism
● Nontheism
● Agnosticism
● Deism
● Secularism

8. What is Religion?
● A religion is a set of values,
morals, rules, and/or traditions
that accompany the
supernatural or divine
● To date, there are around
4,200 different religions
practiced around the world

9. Largest World
Religions
Christianity
2.1 billion
Islam
1.3 billion
Hinduism
900 million
Buddhism
376 million
Sikhism
23 million
Judaism
14 million

10. What is religion?
● Most religions are
theistic, meaning they
are based around a
deity/deities
● Theism: Belief in one
or more deities
● Deity: Supernatural
being that has divine
power over humans

16. What is religion?
● Theism and religion often work together, but
do not have to
● There is such a thing as a non-theistic
religion
○ Non-theism: Apathy or silence towards the subject of
deities
○ Supernaturality is still at play, just not in the form of a deity

20. What is religion?
● Deities are responsible for
natural occurrences and laws
● Not all religions believe in
direct involvement from
deities
○ Deism: A religion that
believes God created
the universe and
allowed it to evolve on
its own

21. This analogy is a common way to describe the beliefs of deism:
If you are walking down a beach and happen across a watch, your
immediate assumption would be that someone created it—it’s far too
complex for nature to have randomly created it. The universe is like
the watch—it’s far too complex to have been created by accident.
Human beings are so fragile, and so complicated, that someone had
to have created them.
The watch is the universe and everything in it, and the watchmaker is
God.

22. With a partner...
What are the purposes of a religion? Brainstorm
some different reasons about why human beings
have religion

23. Purposes of Religion
● Religion is typically used for three main
things:
○ Explaining natural events and
phenomena
○ Providing a set of ethics and morals
○ Eschatology

24. Natural Events and Phenomena

25. Moral and Ethical
Rules

26. Eschatology (ultimate destiny of humanity)

27. What areas of the world appear to be the most religious? Why
might some countries be more religious than others?

28. Atheism vs. Agnosticism
● Atheism is the total lack of belief in deities or
the supernatural
○ Usually cites lack of evidence
○ Atheism is different than non-theism, because non-
theists still believe in the supernatural

29. Atheism vs. Agnosticism
Agnosticism and atheism are not the same
● Gnosis is knowledge of spiritual mysteries (God’s existence, the future,
God’s
will)
● Agnosticism: The idea that the existence of a deity/deities is
unknowable
○ Has nothing to do with whether a deity exists or not
● So…
○ An agnostic Christian still believes in God, but doesn’t believe his existence can be
proven
○ Becomes a matter of faith

30. Secularism
● Secularism: separating religious affairs from non-religious affairs
Example: Teachers or other public school officials cannot force students to pray
(separation of church and state)
Example: Freedom of religion in the 1st Amendment; the U.S. gov’t cannot impose
religion on its people nor can it infringe on its people’s religions

31. Philosophy
 A religion with deities and the supernatural is a theistic religion
 A religion with the supernatural but no deities is a non-theistic
religion
 But what is a religion called that has neither deities nor supernatural
occurrences?
○ A religion with no supernatural element whatsoever is no longer a
religion but instead a philosophy
● Philosophy: a set of values, morality, rules and/or traditions with no
accompanying supernatural belief in a divine being or force

32. Religion can be as
simple or
complicated as
people make it
For example…