Day off

      Today in class we just had an off mod because a few people still had to take, and retake quizzes. During the off mod I did my math homework and then looked at the "Curtains" pictures. We stayed in the room and just silently worked on whatever we wanted to.

Test today

    Today in class we took the test on Cultural geography, and five major religions. It asked questions on the founders of the religions, the holy books, the location, the beliefs, and the order of how many adherents each one has. There were questions on cultural geography as well. There were questions on language, ethnic heritage, and religion. The questions were easy but you had to have memorized the answers. Meaning, it was a good idea to study. I studied and knew most of the answers. I ended up getting a 90% and received a "ding" for getting an A.

religions and cultural characteristics

      Today in class we reviewed for the test we have tomorrow. The test will be on the 5 major religions which are, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism. There are 2.2 billion Christians, in Europe, the Americas, and Southern Africa. There are 1.5 billion Muslims, located in Indonesia, Middle East, and North Africa. There are 1.1 billion Hindus, located in India, Nepal. There are 500 million - 1.5 billion Buddhists, located in Southeast Asia, Nepal, Japan, and 1.2 million in the U.S. There are 14-18 million Jews, located in Israel. The holy book of Christianity: Bible, The holy book of Islam: Qur'an, The holy book of Hinduism: Vedas, the holy book of Buddhism: 4 Noble truths and The eightfold path, The holy book of Judaism: Torah and Talmud. Founder of Christianity: Jesus Christ, Founder of Islam: Muhammad, Founder of Hinduism: unknown, The Founder of Buddhism: Siddhartha Gautama, The founder of Judaism: Abraham. The 3 parts of Cultural Geography are, Language, Ethnic Heritage, Religion. English is considered a "Bridge" language.

Cultural Geography

     Today in class we talked about Cultural characteristics, which describes what the people in your culture do in their everyday life. For example; Language, Religion, Ethnic Heritage. First is language. The Arabic language unites the Arab world (middle east). The Spanish language unites the Hispanic world. Brazil is the only South American Nation which does not primarily speak Spanish. Brazil is the only South American Nation which does not primarily speak Spanish. Brazilians speak Portuguese. Canada is a Bilingual nation, French and English are its official languages. The US has no official language. Switzerland and has 4 official languages; German, French, Italian, Romansh, and there are little conflict between these groups. Worldwide English is considered a "Bridge" language used for most international business transaction. Next was Ethnic Heritage. In Yugoslavia there are many ethnic groups; Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Albal. After strong leadership died out and a civil war occurred. It was split from one country into five. In Rwanda and Burundi in Africa, there are two ethnic groups; The Tutsis and The Hutus. The Tutsis are sometimes dominant in Burundi and they persecute the Hutus. Then when the Hutus dominate Rwanda they persecute the Tutsis. There is constant war. During the 100 day period between April and July 1994, 500,000 - 1,000,000 Tutsis (70% of them) were killed by Hutu majority. The religious demographic of Burundi is 3% Muslim and 91% Christian. However the US and Switzerland are peacefully merged with multiple ethnic groups in their territory. Korea and Japan have primarily one ethnic group. We learned that religion can be a unifying and disunifying force.

5 Major religions

     Today in class we continued talking about; Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism. We had students in our class ask us questions about everything we have learned so we could review. Then we started talking about what happened in France recently. We argued about solutions to the problems. Then we watched a video about a Syrian child. It started out with it being her birthday and everything was fine and then throughout the video clues about the current events in Syria. There was news reports on her TV and fighter jets flying overhead. Then bombs began to hit and her and her family were  stuck in the house without water and medicine. As they escaped her dad was left behind and the girl became ill. The video ended with the girl on her birthday again, showing how much had changed since the fighting began.

5 major religions

      Today in class, we continued to talk about 5 major religions. We talked about Buddhism. It's number of adherents is 500 million to 1.5 billion. They are called Buddhists. Their geographic location is Southeast Asia, China, Nepal, Japan. There are 1.2 million Buddhists in the United States. The founder of Buddhism is Siddhartha Gautama. The follow the four noble truths. 1) There is suffering 2) Attachment to desire is the origin of suffering 3) There is a cessation of suffering 4) The Eightfold path will lead to the cessation of suffering. The Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Dedication. The next religion we learned about was Judaism. It's number of adherents is 14-18 million, it's the 9th largest religion in the world. They are called Jews. They are located in Israel and Abraham was the founder. Israel has only been around 60-70 years. The holy books are the Talmud and the Torah(The first five books of the old testament; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) The Jews beliefs: ethical monotheism - God is one, and concerned with he actions of humankind, the 10 commandants, and the 13 principles of faith.

5 Major Religions

Today in class we took a survey about our class and teacher. Then we continued the lesson from our last class. We were going over the 5 Major religions. We went over Islam today. The number of adherents is 1.5 billion (2nd largest). They are called Muslims. The geographic location is Indonesia, Middle East, and North Africa. Their denominations Sunnis (75-90%) and the Shiites (10-20%). Muhammad was Islam's founder and their holy book is the Qur'an. Their beliefs; Monotheistic, Abrahamic, five pillars (testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, pilgrimage). Muslims see their purpose in life as serving and submitting to Allah (God) and observing Islamic law. Then we talked about Hinduism which has 1.1 billion adherents making it the 3rd largest. They are called Hindus and it is mainly located in Nepal India. The Vedas is their holy book and don't have a distinct founder. They believe in reincarnation. Hindus believe in a series of intellectual or philosophical points of view rather than a rigid strict set of beliefs. Hinduism is more of a way of life or faith then a religion.

Christianity

     Today in class we received the tests we took. We went over them and corrected the ones that were wrong. Then we started a new unit about 5 Major Religions. The first one we talked about was Christianity. The number of adherents is 2.2 billion which is the largest in the world. Anyone practicing Christianity is called a Christian. The locations of where this religion is practiced is; Europe, The Americas, Southern Africa. It's founder was Jesus Christ. The holy book is the Bible , especially the New Testament. Their clergy is the Pope, who is head of the church, and Priests who are local authorities. Their belief: Jesus is both human and divine-son of God, he led a virtuous life; he was crucified, died, buried, and resurrected; he was ascended into heaven where he reigns with God the father.

Test

      Today in class we took a test on what we had learned from the World in Balance video. We were allowed to use our blogs on this test, so if you didn't write your blogs, or didn't write them well, you didn't have much help for this test. The test was pretty easy as long as you remembered or had some of the notes. I remembered most of them from the video and then looked a few up on my blog. I didn't write some of the questions down in my notes from the video so hopefully I still got those questions right. The test didn't take long as now I have had time to write this blog.

Finishing World in Balance

     Today in class we finally finished the World in balance video. Then we spent most of class discussing what we saw in the video. Developing countries like India have to many people, and places like China don't have enough kids. We were asked if we should help these places. I agree that we should but also disagree. What if when we help them it doesn't work out long term or something backfires against us. Someone in our class just suggested we nuke their country. But that wouldn't solve the problems, we would just be killing a bunch of people. Also if we don't help them it could hurt us. Problems with population could effect what we export and import and that will effect our economy. There is a test on this on Thursday.

World in balance, again

    Today in class we tried to watch JC tv news because they made a new video. The computer we were using didn't work so we didn't get to see it. Then we tried finishing our video but YouTube stopped working. We tried students computer but it didn't work either. So we went over the notes that we had already taken on the video. Everyone had a lot of the same things. We went over how India women are treated and that the men want boy babies. Then we talked about China's low birth and fertility rate. We were told this will all be on a quiz later in the week.