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Where in the World? Finding the Major World Religions Read Through The

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Where in the World? Finding the Major World Religions Read Through The Where in the world? Finding the major world religions Read through the information carefully. Here are some facts about religion in the world today: • 86% of the world’s population are religious. • Nearly a third of people in the world are Christians. • A quarter of people are Muslims. The charts below show details of the religious populations in the world. The table gives information on the major world religions. Religion People World UK Numbers Started in Main Numbers countries today Buddhism Buddhists 500 million 63,000 India Eastern Asia Christianity Christians 2.3 billion 33 million Palestine/Israel Worldwide Hinduism Hindus 1.1 billion 832,000 India India Islam Muslims 1.8 billion 4.1 million Arabia Middle East, Africa, Pakistan Judaism Jews 14.5 million 290,000 Palestine/Israel Worldwide Sikhism Sikhs 27 million 430,000 India India, UK Where did the major religions start? India The Middle East The oldest of the major religions is Hinduism. In a Judaism started in the land that is today called sense, Hinduism is not a single religion but a Israel. About 2000 years ago, some Jewish people mixture of various related traditions. The began to follow the teachings of a Jewish leader youngest religion is Sikhism. Although its founder, named Yeshua ben Yosef, better known as Jesus. Guru Nanak, was born into a Hindu family, the They were the first Christian. religion he started is completely separate. In 610CE, in Arabia, a man called Muhammad Similarly, the founder of Buddhism came from a claimed to have received messages from the God Hindu background, but established a new religion of the Christian and Jewish people. This was the birth of Islam. How did the religions develop? The major religions all changed in the centuries after they started. All the religions began to spread, for example: • 2000 years ago, Jewish people were persecuted by the Romans and forced to move to other parts of the world. • In the 19th and 20th centuries, some Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs settled in the UK as British subjects. The numbers of people practising major religions grew, for example: • Buddhist merchants travelled along international trade routes, and people they did business with became Buddhists. • Christians sent missionaries to different countries to teach their faith. The religions began to split, for example: • There have been disagreements among Christians about teachings and the leadership of the Pope, dividing the religion into different groups. • Some early Buddhists believed their ideas and practices should be more inclusive, so started a new movement. As a result of these changes, the major religions are now practised across the world. What is the future of religion? According to the Pew Research Center, fewer babies are born into non-religious families than into religious ones. As a result, the number of people growing up with no religion is projected to fall. It is therefore predicted that more people will become religious. For example: • Between 2015 and 2060, the population of Christians is likely to rise by 34%. • Over the same period, the Muslim population will increase by 70%. • By 2060, the numbers of Christians and Muslims will be roughly equal and will amount to two- thirds of the world’s population. • Apart from the USA and much of Europe, the proportion of non-religious people is declining compared to the population as a whole. Activities Now you have read through the information, have a go at these activities. The ones in the GREEN box are the easiest ones, then YELLOW, then RED. If you find one set of tasks easy, move up to the next set. If you find you are struggling, do your best to finish that box and then stop. 1. What proportion of the world’s population is Christian? 2. What was Jesus’ Hebrew name? 3. Which three of the world’s major religions started in India? 4. Draw a bar chart to show the numbers of followers for each of the world’s religions. 5. Draw a bar chart to show the numbers of the followers of each of the religions in the UK. 6. Draw a timeline of the founding of the major religions of the world. 7. Explain how the major faiths developed. 8. ‘The major religions have no relevance to people in the 21st century.’ Consider arguments for and against this statement. What do you think? .
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