Cultural Differences & Regional Patterns - AP Human Geography

Atheism is the belief that no higher power exists; agnosticism is the belief that there could be a higher power. An atheist will tell you with certainty that God does not exist, whereas agnostics will tell you that they do not actively believe in God, but that they are unsure of whether a higher power exists or not.

There are approximately two billion people in the world who identify as Christian (most estimates or data puts the number at slightly over two billion). Christianity is the dominant religion in North America, South America, Europe, parts of Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and parts of Oceania.

Hinduism is the dominant religion of India. Hinduism is not a global religion, its observers outside of the Indian subcontinent are almost exclusively of Indian ethnicity, yet because of the sheer size of India’s population Hinduism is the third most widely followed religion after Christianity and Islam.

Monotheism is characterized by the belief that there is only one god or divine being. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are all monotheistic religions. These religions all also spring from the same source. Judaism emerged roughly one thousand years before the birth of Christ. Christianity, rather obviously, began around two-thousand years ago. And Islam began in the early seventh century with the life of the Prophet Muhammad.

Islam is the dominant religion of North Africa, as it is for the Middle East and a portion of Central Asia. Interestingly the Sahara Desert acts as a sort of boundary between Islam-dominated North Africa and Christianity-dominated Sub-Saharan Africa. This is caused by the different historical, particularly colonial, experiences of these two parts of Africa.

Shamanism is a term used by cultural geographers to refer to a specific form of local religion that exists in many different parts of the world and has been a part of human society for countless thousands of years. In religious that fit under the umbrella of Shamanism a member of a local community, or sometimes all members of that community, can actively convene with the spiritual world; can ask the spirits for guidance or assistance or approval. Often rituals in Shamanism take the form of the inhalation or ingestion of hallucinogenic drugs that are assumed to be a conduit to the Gods by the community.

Animism is one of the oldest forms of religious expression in human history. It also actively persists in many indigenous and localized communities in several different parts of the world. Animism is based on the belief that the nonhuman world is spiritual and that everything - from animals, to rocks, to plants, to rivers- can have a spiritual essence and sometimes a soul.

The Islamic observance of Ramadan requires a month of fasting during the day. The fast can be broken after sunset. It is one of the five pillars of Islam that all Muslims are expected to adhere to. Ramadan falls in the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which is not consistent with the western calendar, so it generally falls about ten days earlier each year. In 2015 it occurred from the middle of June until the middle of July.

Eastern Orthodoxy is adhered to by the majority of the population of Russia. All of the rest of these countries have large Catholic majorities with small Protestant minorities. Eastern Orthodoxy in Russia has an interesting history, particular in the last century. During the communist era of the Soviet Union religion was officially discouraged by the state (as it generally is in all communist states), but in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union Eastern Orthodoxy has witnessed a remarkable recovery. Slightly less than fifty percent of all Russians self identify as Eastern Orthodox.

Islam is a monotheistic religion that emerged in modern-day Saudi Arabia in the seventh century C.E. It is part of the Judeo-monotheistic tradition and can trace part of its roots through Judaism and then Christianity. As it did not emerge until seven hundred years after the birth of Christ the religion obviously does not predate Christianity.

Siddhartha Gautama is another name for “the Buddha.” Siddhartha the man lived in the sixth century B.C.E. and practiced the “middle path” which led to the development and spread of Buddhism.

“Ahimsa” is an important concept in both Hinduism and Buddhism and affects a great deal of everyday life in South and East Asia where these two religions are dominant. “Ahimsa” involves practicing nonviolence towards all living beings, both humans and animals. It is a major reason why so many Hindus and Buddhists are vegetarians.

Judaism is the world’s oldest monotheistic religion. To be clear a monotheistic religion is a religion based on the belief that there is only one God. Judaism as a religion is over three thousand years old. It is the progenitor of the two most widely followed religions in the world - Christianity and Islam. Although the raw number of Jewish people in the world has always been relatively small they have had an immense impact on culture and western society for thousands of years.

When a religion is described as evangelical it means that many of its followers actively try and convert others through missionary work, education, and general proselytizing. Islam and Christianity are both evangelical religions. Hinduism is sort of an evangelical religion but is not truly a global religion because it is followed in significant numbers only in the Indian subcontinent. Judaism, despite its immense cultural and historical significance, is not followed in large numbers anywhere in the world except Israel and the United States. Buddhism is a global religion, followed by people in a wide variety of places, which is not considered to be evangelical.

Although all of these religions are predominantly Christian, most of them are either majority Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or else have do not have a uniform distribution of any of these denominations of Christianity. South America, on the other hand, was settled by the Catholic empires of Spain and Portugal, and Catholicism continues to be adhered to by the vast majority of the population to this day.

Christianity, by most estimates and data, has slightly over two billion global followers. The next most practiced religion in the world is Islam, which has approximately one-billion and five hundred million followers. The third biggest is Hinduism which has approximately one billion followers, almost all of whom who live on the Indian subcontinent.

Many of the early European settlers in North America were religious dissidents, fleeing persecution in Europe. They were, almost exclusively, Protestants (although of different denominations). When the United States was formed and the American frontier began to spread ever westward the advancing settlers carried their notions of religious freedom with them and Protestantism exploded in America in an unprecedented fashion. Although it is true that Catholicism and Islam have their adherents in America, they are in the minority, and besides the popularity of Catholicism in Europe and South America, and Islam in North Africa and the Middle East, should tell you that the spread of these religions in America could not be considered “unprecedented.”

Of these answer choices only baptism is not one of the five pillars of Islam. Baptism is an important sacrament in Catholicism and many Protestant denominations of Christianity. The five pillars of Islam provide guidance to Muslims on how to live their daily lives. They consist of prayer, pilgrimage, charity, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and testimony of faith.

These are all large cities in the Middle East that have close ties to Islam, and, in the case of Jerusalem and Cairo, to other religions as well. Mecca, however, is considered the birthplace of the Islamic faith. It is found in modern-day Saudi Arabia. It is where the Prophet Muhammad was born. As part of the five pillars of Islam all Muslims are expected to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at one point in their lifetime (assuming they are physically and financially able to do so).

The idea that human suffering emerges from our attachment to life, to life’s pleasures and pains, and that all suffering can eventually be overcome through a series of steps is central to the Buddhist faith. Translation and oversimplification have led to the common misunderstanding that Buddhism teaches that life itself consists only of suffering, but in reality the teachings are far more complex and nuanced. It is far from true that Buddhism holds that all of life is suffering, rather the fundamental aspects of desire, imperfection, and ephemerality lead to "suffering" or spiritual angst. the teachings of Buddhism focus in large part on transcending this suffering through an acceptance of their necessity in any long and fundamentally enriching spiritual journey.