Exploring International Religion

ARDA LEARNING RESOURCES Exploring International Religion

Religious beliefs and practices can vary dramatically across nations. For example, while some countries have mostly Christian populations, other nations have larger proportions of Muslims, Buddhists, or Hindus. Nations also vary in the proportion of people who attend church and describe themselves as being religious. In addition, while the governments of some countries allow their people to join any religion they want, the governments of other nations only let their people join one or two religions. This, in turn, affects people’s religious beliefs and behaviors. In this learning module, we’ll explore the beliefs, practices, and religious regulations found in several countries.

Open your web If you find yourself lost at any point, look to the instructions on the browser and go to right. www.theARDA.com

Open your web browser and go to the homepage for the Association of Religion Data Archives (www.theARDA.com). Click on “International” in the main ARDA Begin by finding the link at the top of the page labeled menu. “International” and clicking on it.

Scroll down to the To start off, let’s look at the nation of Taiwan. Scroll down through bottom of the page the alphabetical list of nations and find the link for Taiwan. Click on and click on the link it once you find it. marked “Taiwan.”

The first page that appears will provide summary data on the nation that you have selected. Using the information on this page, answer the following questions. Look in the gray box titled “National Profiles” for the 1. How many people live in Taiwan? population size.

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2. What is the most common religion in Taiwan? What is the second Look at the green pie most common religion? chart titled “Largest Religious Groups.” ______

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Next we’ll look at some measures of religious freedom in Taiwan. While some governments allow their people to join any religion that Locate the red they want, other governments restrict the religious choices of their and white citizens. This second approach is referred to as the government diagrams in the regulation (or government control) of religion. Find the diagram on gray box titled the summary page that shows the level of government regulation of “Indexes.”. religion in Taiwan. Examine the first of the four 3. Is the level of government regulation in Taiwan generally high or diagrams, titled low? (Hint: You can scroll over the diagram to see information on “Government how the index was calculated and what the scores mean.) Regulation of Religion Index.” ______

There are several patterns that researchers have tended to observe across nations. Countries with high levels of government control tend to have one large, dominant religion. These nations also tend to have a lot of religious persecution (or religiously motivated violence). In contrast, countries with many religions (where no single religion is dominant) tend to have lower levels of religious persecution.

4. Based on these trends and the information that you have about the level of religious diversity in Taiwan, develop a hypothesis (e.g., an educated guess) about the level of religious persecution that is likely in Taiwan.

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Locate the last of To test your hypothesis, locate the diagram that shows the level of the four indexes, religious persecution in Taiwan. over on the right side of the page, titled “Religious 5. Is the level of religious persecution high or low in Taiwan? Persecution.”

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Next we’re going to examine religious beliefs and behaviors. Return Click the “back” to the “National Profiles” page and select France from the list of arrow on your countries. web browser.

Find the blue link 6. According to the information provided, what are the three most marked “France” common religions in France? and click on it.

______Scroll down to the green pie chart ______titled “Largest Religious ______Groups.” Click on the Next, click on the gray tab for “Public Opinion.” Here you will find “Public Opinion” information about the opinions of people in the nation that you tab at the top of selected. the page. Locate the 7. Looking at the trends in the data available on this page, has the subheading for percent of people belonging to a religious denomination gone up or "Religious down over the past three decades in France? Affiliation / Identification." ______

8. What about the percentage of individuals who identify themselves as being a religious person?

______Locate the subheading for Next, locate the table titled “Religious Behaviors” and find the row “Religious labeled “Percent attending religious services at least once a month.” Behaviors.”

9. Has the percentage of people who attend church in France gone up or down over the past 30 years?

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Click the “back” Now it’s your turn to explore the “National Profiles” section of the arrow on your ARDA website. First, return to the page labeled “National Profiles” web browser twice and scroll down the page, looking at the nations in the database. and select a Select a country to examine. country that interests you.

10. What country did you choose? Locate the pie chart titled ______“Largest Religious Groups.”

11. What are the three most popular religions in that country?

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12. Is the level of government regulation high or low? How about the Locate the red level of religious persecution (or violence)? Does this support or and white disprove the idea that countries with high levels of religious diagrams in the regulation have more religious persecution? gray box titled “Indexes.” ______Examine the first ______and last diagrams

______Click the drop- down menu in the Now, let us compare nations to each other. Click on the “Summary” “National tab of the nation you are currently examining. Profiles” box and select a country Locate the drop-down menu in the gray box titled, “National for comparison. Profiles.”

Click on the down arrow and select a second nation that looks interesting to you. You will be taken to a page that compares the two nations you have selected.

13. What nation did you choose?

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14. Are the two countries you selected similar or different when it Click on the gray comes to government regulation of religion? What about religious tab marked, persecution? “Religious Freedom.” ______

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______Click on the “Adherents” tab. Click on the gray tab labeled, “Adherents.”

15. Do the people in the two countries tend to belong to the same religions or different religions? How do the two nations differ in terms of their religious makeup?

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Click on the Finally, click on the “Public Opinion” tab and compare the religious “Public Opinion” beliefs and behaviors of individuals in the two countries. tab.

16. Which nation appears to be more religious?

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17. On what specific information did you base your answer to the previous question?

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Let’s say you wanted to rank nations based on their religious characteristics. For example, let’s say you wanted to know which nations have the most Muslims. How would you do this?

In the main ARDA menu, find and click on QuickLists. In the ARDA menu, click on On the right-hand side of this page you will see a section for QuickLists. Compare Nations. Under this you will see a link for Indices and a link for Religions.

Click on the Religions link. Click on Religions Find and click on the link for the “Most Muslim Nations.” under the You will see a list sorted by the percentage of each nation that is Compare Nations Muslim. section.

18. Based on percentage, what are three most Muslim nations?

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You can re-sort the list based on total population by clicking on the Click on the “Adherents” column name. “Adherents” column heading.

19. Based on total population, what are the three most Muslim nations?

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In this learning module, we have looked at how religious regulation (or control) and religious persecution can vary from one country to the next. We have also looked at how religious beliefs and practices can vary from nation to nation.

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