{"id":4345,"date":"2021-01-13T06:51:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-13T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.helpteaching.com\/blog\/?p=4345"},"modified":"2024-09-17T05:33:17","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T09:33:17","slug":"how-to-teach-religions-on-world-religion-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.helpteaching.com\/blog\/how-to-teach-religions-on-world-religion-day.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Teach Religions on World Religion Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"World<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Did you know the third January of each year is World Religion Day? It’s a perfect time to foster tolerance and diversity. We offer tips and advice on navigating religious studies in the classroom.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religion is important to many<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s estimated that seven billion of the world\u2019s nearly eight billion people adhere to some kind of religious faith or spiritual belief system.  Religion<\/a> is an important part of many people\u2019s lives, and to ignore its study is to cut out a major part of our understanding of societies and cultures.  Even for the non-religious person, knowing about the many religious beliefs around us is important to help explain history and the motivations for people\u2019s behavior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is religion?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Religion<\/a> is a set of ideas about our world and our place in it.  It addresses questions such as: Where have I come from?  Who am I?  What is my purpose?  These are all questions raised by children and young people in their formative years.  The non-religious among us also hold a set of beliefs about the world and each individual\u2019s place in it, therefore traditional non-religious worldviews can successfully be studied within the context of religion.  Atheism, for example, is a belief that a supreme being does not exist.  It is an existential belief similar in scope to the way a Christian, Jew<\/a> or Muslim<\/a> believes God does<\/em> exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big three monotheistic religions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Almost everyone is familiar with \u201cthe Big Three\u201d faiths — Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.  But did you know these religions, though they appear quite dissimilar to the casual observer, spring from a common source?  All three trace their foundations back to a BCE figure called Abraham<\/a>.  He is revered in all three faiths as the originator of a new kind of understanding about God, namely monotheism.  4.3 billion Christians, Muslims and Jews claim Abraham as the beginning of their spiritual lineage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eastern religions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Faiths which have their origins in east, south and southeast Asia include Buddhism<\/a>, Hinduism<\/a>, Sikhism<\/a>, and Confucianism<\/a>.  Hinduism, which has no specific founder and is believed to have originated in the Indus River valley, is considered among the oldest of the world\u2019s religions with roots and customs dating back more than four millennia.  With about 900 million followers, Hinduism is the third-largest religion behind Christianity and Islam.  Like some other oriental religions, Hindus<\/a> are polytheists<\/a> — they believe there are multiple gods who perform various functions.  However, Hindus also believe there is one supreme god whose three main forms are Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the sustainer) and Shiva (the destroyer).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another popular eastern religion is Buddhism<\/a> which dates from the 6th or 5th centuries BCE. Buddhism is a non-theistic religion; in other words, adherents have no belief in a creator god.  Buddhism, founded by the sage Siddhartha Gautama, is considered a philosophy and a moral discipline.  It\u2019s thought there are about half a billion Buddhists worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many religions, or perhaps we should more rightly call them philosophical systems, which have their roots in ancient China<\/a>.  Confucianism is maybe the most well-known.  Confucius (551 to 479 BCE) was a philosopher whose teachings focus on ethics, good behavior, and moral character.  Like some other religions from the Far East, such as Taoism<\/a> and Shinto<\/a>, one aspect of Confucianism is ancestor worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other religions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here are some religions you may not be aware of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n