Special Interest: Theology

Emily Kay
Dec 7, 2024
10 min read

Intro~

Welcome to our first special interest episode. This week, I’ll discuss the many religions practiced on Earth’s seven continents.

Add clip “Intro Music” to episode

Explanation

Growing up, I was raised Roman Catholic and went to Catholic private schools for almost all of my K-12 schooling. Even while I was homeschooled for three of those years, I attended PSR. For those unfamiliar with that acronym, it stands for the “Parish School of Religion,” which is basically an advanced version of the stereotypical “Sunday School” that most people are familiar with. Even though I was thrust into the Catholic religion, I don’t find myself believing in theology as strongly as I once thought adults were supposed to.

I find myself questioning religion more than anything. Miracles didn’t make sense to me. I wanted more details on how it worked instead of just blind faith that it did. Also, how do we know what really exists? If every religion has a basis in real-world events, then how do we know that the one we happen to be raised in is the correct interpretation of the universe? I’m just supposed to believe in Jesus over Buddha and Muhammad. All three are people who supposedly lived on this Earth and are present in our history books, not just scripture, and yet, only Jesus Christ was the person we relied on for the word of God. That being said, how do we know that there is only one god? Having many gods or even different levels of gods makes more sense with the vast spectrum of religions in our world. Believing only in Catholic rhetoric never made enough sense to keep my faith strong.

Blasphemy, I know, but these were valid questions for my little autistic mind. I realized in adulthood that I feel more connected to the universe, Fate, Karma, and other philosophies of believing that everything happens for a reason without putting my full faith into a specific deity or deities. All religions have some basis in reality, but humans have definitely taken that concept and run wild with it. Whatever is true about how our universe exists and how our souls entered our bodies, it’s most likely not going to be any one religion, word by word, belief by belief.

This is why I am absolutely fascinated with all religions outside of general Christianity. I spent so much of my life studying Catholicism that I missed out on the depth of so much more. My favorite to learn about in high school was the Muslim religion. It’s still my favorite, but I’m more fascinated by the differences in Islamic practices. For example, in the Ms. Marvel TV show, protagonist Kamala Khan is a Pakistani Muslim who is all-American in her attitude and attire and only wears a traditional hair covering in the mosque for prayer. Her friend Nakia, who is Turkish Muslim, wears a hijab for most, if not all, of the series. There are so many different types of people in so many religions, and it’s incredibly amazing to see how everyone’s experiences are so different.

I hope to brighten your theological horizons by discussing the top religions on each of the seven continents. I’m so excited to share my fascination with you.

North America

North America is our first continent, containing the United States—where I live—Canada, Mexico, and some smaller countries as well. Seventy-five percent of North Americans identify with one of the branches of Christianity. I was raised within this percentile as a Roman Catholic Christian.

Christianity as a whole is pretty well known, but I will give a brief explanation regardless. Christianity is a religion with many denominations that all follow the word of the Bible and praise the historical figure Jesus Christ as the “Son of God,” similar to how the Greek Mythos have demigods. Christianity may be the dominant religion within North America, but that doesn’t make the beliefs of others outside of that demographic any less real or meaningful.

Judaism, the precursor to Christianity, has a much smaller number of followers in North America, averaging to about 1.8% of the people on the whole continent. Judaism is similar to Christianity in that it is monotheistic and uses half the scripture of the Christian Bible. The Hebrew Bible, also known as the Tanakh, is the holy scripture of Judaism and makes up a large portion of the Christian Bible’s Old Testament. The Old Testament is a Christian translation of the Tanakh that attempts to show that the New Testament is the Tanakh's (tuh-naak) fulfillment. However, the Jewish people do not accept this. Their scripture contains the Pentateuch (Torah, taw-ruh), the Prophets (Nevi'im, nie-veem), and the Writings (Ketuvim, ket-too-vim). Rather than seeing Jesus Christ as the mouthpiece of the “One True God’s” wisdom, Judaism also recognizes Abraham, Moses, and other Hebrew prophets. The majority of the Jewish population in North America lives in Canada. Mexico has the fewest Jewish people out of all the countries in North America.

A smaller percentage of people practice Buddhism, Mormonism, or Islam. The rest of the population in North America either follow a lesser-known religion or are irreligious. 15.8% of North American people practice obscure religions, and 5% are considered irreligious, which includes atheists, who believe that there is no god; agnostics, who believe it is impossible to know the truth behind the idea of a god, and any other group that does not have a profound belief system. I want to be clear that every belief is valid, and I respect any religious practice as long as no one is harmed or the object of hate. I am sharing these facts because they genuinely interest me. I am not here to shame anyone or make any beliefs seem less important. I will state that, as of right now, I identify as agnostic.

South America

In my research on this topic, I found significantly more information on the religions of South America. Similar to North America, 83.4% of the continent identifies as Christian. The more popular denominations are Catholicism, Protestantism, Spiritism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Oriental Orthodoxy. However, there are many, many, many other religions as well.

Contrary to the information I provided on North America, Islam is the second most practiced religion in South America, directly behind Christianity. This is my excuse to infodump about the Muslim faith. Similarly to Judaism and Christianity, Islam is also a monotheist religion that believes their God is all-knowing. Muslims use the Arabic word for god, “Allah”. (Fun fact: the term “People of the book” is used in Islam to refer to Muslims, Jews, and Christians because they all recognize the same God. The histories of all three religions are intertwined, some of which have the same prophets and other holy people.)

The word “Islam” itself is Arabic for “surrender,” this works well for the religion because they believe in surrendering themselves to the will of Allah. Just as Christians worship in churches and Jews in synagogues, Muslims worship in mosques. Their sacred scripture is called the Qurʾān (core-an). There had been false allegations in the past accusing the scripture of being a manifesto for terrorism, but those that do so are religious extremists, which can happen in any faith. Just so we are clear, Muslims are not inherently terrorists and should not be treated as such. That behavior is ignorant, intolerant, and downright cruel. Okay, Emily, step down from the soapbox.

Like Christianity, which has the Ten Commandments as the rules for its beliefs, Islam’s core practices are called the Five Pillars. These are Shahadah (shah-ha-dah), Salat (sah-lut), Zakah (zah-kuh), Sawm (s-ah-w-m), and Hajj (h-A-j):

Shahadah (shah-ha-dah) is the declaration of faith. Muslims testify that there is only one God, “Allah,” and Muhammad is Allah’s prophet.

Salat (sah-lut) is a ritual prayer. It is commonly known that devout practicing Muslims tend to pray five times a day: at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. The prayers must be said in Arabic while facing Mecca, their holy land.

Zakah (zah-kuh) is the alms tax. Muslims are expected to donate a minimum of 2.5% of their money to those with less. This is similar to what I was taught, which was 10% of wages for the church.

Sawm (s-ah-w-m) is the act of fasting. Every nine months of the Islamic lunar calendar, Muslims celebrate Ramadan by not eating during daylight hours. This is a way for them to show Allah their self-discipline and a time to study the Qurʾān (core-an).

Hajj (h-A-j) is a pilgrimage, a journey with a sacred or otherwise important destination. Muslims believe they must make a pilgrimage to Mecca to visit the Ka'bah (kah-bah) at least once in their lifetime. The Ka'bah (kah-bah) is a very sacred place to Muslims, for they believe Ibrahim and one of his sons built it. Ibrahim is the same person as Abraham in the Jewish and Christian texts. Muhammad restored the worship space and dedicated it to Allah. Muslims pilgrimage to praise Allah from the very place where Allah’s prophet stood.

Other less common religions in South America are Judaism, Baha’i, Buddhism, Hinduism, Kardecist Spiritualism, Umbanda, and Shinto. There are also indigenous religions, including Inuit (in-you-it), Quechua (ket-chuh-wuh), Aymara (eye-mar-uh), Guaraní (gore-ran-ee), and Mayan.

Ad Break~

Asia

There are many religions in Asia, which makes sense since the continent is the most populated in the world. The most popular are Islam and Hinduism. As I’ve already dived pretty deep into Islam, so let’s take a closer look at Hinduism!

Hinduism is the oldest organized religion in the world and began in ancient India. 80% of India’s population identify as Hindu. Hindus believe in Brahman, the cosmic spirit within the religion, similar to a “god.” The beliefs of Karma and Reincarnation originated in Hinduism. While we see Karma now as “doing good things brings good outcomes,” the original belief was that Karma is “the universal law of cause and effect that governs the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.” Reincarnation is the idea of the soul’s rebirth after death. The ultimate spiritual goal of Hinduism is to achieve Moksha, transcendence from the reincarnation cycle. This is similar to the more commonly known word from the Buddhist religion, “nirvana.” Buddhism also originated in India, and has beliefs similar to Hinduism while being unique in its belief system. Buddhists do not believe in a being like a god or the Hindu’s Brahman. Instead, they follow the path of Siddhartha Gautama, the “enlightened one” or Buddha. The religion is mainly focused on reaching enlightenment. Jainism is similar to both Buddhism and Hinduism as an ancient Indian religion that concentrates on nonviolence and the cycle of reincarnation.

Confucianism is another religion popular in Asia. Unlike the other religions we have discussed in this episode, Confucianism is more based on the harmony within societies and human relationships. They believe in honoring the five main relationships: Hsiao/Xiao, Chung, Yi, Xin, and Jen.

Hsiao/Xiao is about filial piety, the love between children and their parents or vice versa.

Chung is about having conscientiousness in reactions with others and being loyal to the state.

Yi is about the righteousness of a person and doing good for others.

Xin is about being true to one’s word within relationships.

The final relationship, Jen, is about the principle of common humanity.

Sikhism (seek-ism) is another religion that believes in rebirth and karma and praises a genderless, eternal god called Waheguru (wow-guru).

Shinto, translated to “the way of the gods,” is an indigenous religion in Japan. Shinto is the belief that spirits and deities inhabit all things. Taoism believes in being one with the natural flow of the universe, which they call Tao. While Christianity and Judaism are less prevalent in Asia than in the Americas, they are also practiced. Other religions that are found in smaller demographics among Asian people are Zoroastrianism (zoro-as-tree-an-ism), Tenrikyo (ten-ree-kee-oh), Animism, and Neo-Paganism.

Africa

African religions we’ve already discussed include Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity. Not yet talked about is the Baha’i (buh-hi-yee) Faith. The Baha’i Faith originated in Iraq and was named for the phrase “Bahāʾ Allāh,” meaning “Glory of God.” The Baha’i believe that their god’s true nature is unknown and that all of humanity works toward the unity of all religions. This is actually really beautiful to me because it’s similar to how I feel about my agnosticism.

Ad Break~

Europe

The majority of Europeans practice Christianity. 41% is Roman Catholic, 10% is Eastern Orthodoxy, Protestantism is 9%, and 4% are other Christian denominations. 17% of Europe is irreligious, and 10% is atheist. 6% of Europe identifies with different religions, including Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism, among other faiths.

Australia

The continent of Australia has similar religious breakdowns. 43.9% of the population practices Christianity. Islam is 3.2%, Hinduism is 2.7%, Buddhism is 2.4%, Sikhism is 0.8%, and Judaism is 0.5%. The rest of the population is either irreligious or not devout in any specific religion.

Antarctica

Antarctica is the only continent that has no permanent human population. Due to the frigid weather and dangerous elements, all scientific personnel stationed there are rotated out every so often. There are 70 permanent research stations maintained by over 40 countries, the only human settlements. Significant research suggests that of all the scientists in Antarctica at any given time, up to 70% of them are Christian, 2.7% are Muslim, 1% are Hindu, 0.4% are Buddhists, and 23.6% don’t practice a specific religion.

Outro~

08/20/2024

Religions in North America

The Major Religions in North America

Hebrew Bible

What's the difference between the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament? [Monday Q&A w/ Prof. Wingert]

Pronunciation of Torah

Pronunciation of Tanakh

How To Say Nevi'im

How To Say Ketuvim

Religion in America

History of religion in the United States