Assignment

1. Compose a first person narrative discussing your personal experience (or lack thereof) with and perspective on religion to this point in your life and reflect on what you expect from this course. Some guiding questions:

• Would you consider yourself to be a "religious" person? Why or why not?
o What religion(s) are you personally most familiar with?
o How is your involvement with religion today different from how it was when you were growing up?

• What are your hopes and expectations for this course?

• How might this course challenge you: intellectually, spiritually, academically or otherwise? How do you plan to address those challenges?

Also:

This is an exercise in "discovery" intended to expand your "global awareness" of a variety of religions.

• You will also be introduced to several websites where information about various religions can be found.

• Information filled in on this worksheet will also help you identify some places you might visit for your field research later in the semester.

1. Download and save the Download and save the Religion Basics worksheet it is attached below.
2. Fill in the blanks in the charts in the document by using the resources indicated on the worksheet.
3. Answer the questions, locate the closest non-Christian religions, and add your reflections on the exercise on the worksheet.
4. Be sure to re-save your worksheet with the additions you have made to it (and make sure you add your name to the top).
5. After you have completed your worksheet, click the "submit" link above and attach your completed worksheet.

Major Religions: The Basics

The who, what, where, why, when of religions:

Use the resources provided to discover the basics of the major religions of the world. Specifically:

• When they started: how old is each religion (an approximate century is sufficient)
• Where they started: country or region of the world
• Who was the founder or other key person(s) in the early development of the religion (if unclear, just indicate as "unknown")
• What is the name of the sacred or important text(s) (scripture)
• How many followers in the world today (approximate)
• What country (today) has the most followers for each religion

Fill in the chart below with your findings:

Now let's focus more on the number of followers for each religion as well as for several different Christian denominations. Use the resources provided to find out how many followers for each religion are in your state and your county. I've given you the counts for the world and the USA for comparison.

Note: the shaded spaces do not seem to be indicated in the sources provided. If you can find reasonable information at some other source, bonus points for you (please provide the URL for the source). If some information seems unavailable you may indicate "NA" in the space in the chart. But be warned: your "NA" notation will be checked against the ARDA resource and if the information is present, your NA will be counted as a blank (=wrong, for grading purposes). Putting a zero instead of NA or leaving an NA blank will both be counted as wrong.

*Counts for Christian denominations in the world from Adherents.

Use the Quicklists at The ARDA.

• US RELIGIOUS FAMILIES and US RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS (breakdown for states and counties)

Hints:

• the lists are alphabetized by county (or state) to make it easy to find your county/state
• at the top of the same page, next to the name of the religion, you can click on "states" to get that count
• If a religion (like Hinduism, Buddhism or Sikhism) does not appear on these Quick Lists, look for it using the following option:
• For county and state you can also use the U.S. Congregational Membership.

Hints:

• Select the reports for your state and county

• Be sure to take the counts from the "adherents" column (not the "congregations" column)

• Sort by "family" (click "family" at the top of the report) and total the counts together for related denominations (you may want to use a calculator). For instance, there may be 20 or more different kinds of "Baptist" denominations; for our purposes here, add them all up to get one total count to put on the above chart

• It is OK to round up or down to the nearest 1000 if that makes it easier to get an approximate total count for any given "family".
[More on next page]

Now, using the information in the charts, above, answer these questions (10 points):

1. Which religion is the youngest?
2. Which three religions were founded in India?
3. Which religion has no known founder?
4. Which religions are older than Christianity?
5. Which country today has the most Buddhists?
6. Which country today has the most Muslims?
7. What country has the most Sikhs?
8. What are the top three Christian denominations in the USA?
9. What are the top three Christian denominations in the World?
10. Which is the smallest non-Christian religion in the world (out of the six religions on the chart)?

Locate the closest place of worship to you for each of the following religions (you may want to reference this information when it comes time to select a place to visit for your field research).

Include the NAME and ADDRESS of the places and indicate how many miles away each place is.

Jewish synagogue:
Muslim mosque (or Masjid):
Hindu temple (Mandir):
Buddhist temple:
Sikh temple (Gurdwara):

Christian Church (any denomination, including Catholic, Orthodox, Mormon, any Protestant, non-denominational, etc.):

Include your (or nearby) address (at least zip code) here to identify the location from which you were doing this search (I cannot give you points for correct findings if I do not know the area you are in):

Note: even if the "closest" place is 100 or more miles away from you, you should still include it here

Reflect on this activity in a paragraph or more:

• What is a valuable insight or something interesting or surprising that you learned from this exercise?
• Why is this valuable, interesting or surprising to you?
• How does this activity/insight relate to your life?
• What questions does this activity raise for you?

Write your reflections here (you may go onto another page if needed):