Preface

If you were hoping to hear a course on the nuts and bolts of the world's major religions in this audiobook, you came to the wrong place. Any good anthology of Islam, Judaism, or Christianity could easily be volumes in size and might be more than a little boring to listen to. Instead, this course begins with why humans believe in anything at all and how we as a planet have evolved from traditional belief systems to the many major religions practiced in the world today.

In this course, we will try to make sense of the earliest known formed religions and the traditional belief systems we know about – many that were practiced by human beings thousands to perhaps millions of years ago. The evolution of religion is fascinating enough; we will expand on this history to explore what the major theistic religions believe today, including how they are practiced. There are many more belief systems besides the major religions. You will hopefully learn what these are and the major components of each. We will lastly discuss what it means to be religious versus spiritual and how religion factors into a person's ethical decision-making.

In chapter one of the course, you get to begin the study of theology by looking at why people believe in a divine being or beings in the first place. Is it hard-wired into us from an early age or is it taught to us in some way? At one point in our distant past, humans did not believe in anything – as far as we know, that is. Let's explore what science tells us about the purpose of having a belief in god. If there is a purpose for billions of believing people living on earth today, what might that be?

Chapter two will help you understand the evolution of belief into a religion. Is anything a person believes considered a religion or is there more to it than that? If we pick apart what is and isn't religion, what do we find as the things all or most religions have in common? You will hear much about the differences between belief systems soon enough. This chapter will help you find a common framework or lens through which we can study the different ways people practice their faith on Earth.

In chapter three of the course, you get your feet wet in your understanding of the different world religions and will learn how the faithful in each religion perceive the world. You will see that not all religions are theistic and that, while some theistic religions share a belief in one god,

this is where the similarity between them ends. By the end of the chapter, you will be able to see what defines many of the major religious organizations throughout the world.

In chapter four, you will learn what we know about the oldest known religions. You will see that this is a complex topic made more difficult by the fact that most are not practiced today nor did they leave much in the way of written record. We start the course looking at why people might believe in god in the first place. In chapter four, we talk more about prehistoric religions and Zoroastrianism, which is believed to be one of the oldest continuously-practiced religions we know of.

Chapter five in the course looks at the major East Asian religions and where they came from. These include the major Chinese and Japanese religions of Shintoism, Taoism, and Confucianism as well as the lesser known Sindoism religion. This is the chapter where you get to see if and when any of these East Asian religions had similar origins.

Chapter six allows you to expand your knowledge of eastern religions by discussing the major religions in East India. These include Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. You will be able to see that several of these have influenced thinking all over the world. India is a populous country and so has more of an influence on religious thinking outside of its borders than one would expect. Billons of people consider themselves to be followers of Hinduism or Buddhism alone.

In chapter seven of the course, you will learn about the origin and timeline of the major Abrahamic religions, each of which has its origins in the life of Abraham. You will learn about the story of this man and how he influenced Judaism, Christianity, and even Islam. You will also study the major similarities and differences between these major world religions.

Chapter eight in the course teaches you more about the Jewish faith. Why and how did it start from a historical perspective? What do the Jewish people believe and where did

these beliefs come from? In chapter 7, you will get a basic history of Abraham and learn how the religions that came from him are the same and differ. This chapter lays out how the Jewish people have interpreted the meaning of God and the ways they worship him.

Chapter nine starts with a discussion of the religious climate in the time of Jesus Christ and talks about the life of the man who now has more people in the world worshipping him than any other person in history. We will talk about the development of Christianity from the time of his first disciples and trace the history to modern times, focusing on what Christians believe and why.

Chapter ten introduces you to the theology of Islam, which means to "submit to the will of God". This is the second largest religion in the world, with nearly 2 billion followers who base their beliefs on the concept of one God and on the revelations of Muhammad, who lived in the seventh century and who received messages from the Angel Gabriel. You will trace the path of this religion to learn how and why the Muslims of today practice their faith.

Chapter eleven in the course is a collection of belief systems that often transcend different religions. It talks about Deism as it relates to both philosophy and religion. Other common belief systems include panentheism, which differs slightly from pantheism or the idea that God is in everything. Apotheosis involves the worship of one's self or of a human person. Certain religions of modern times are heavily based on Deism and on spirituality rather than a specific set of rigidly defined beliefs. You will learn how each of these philosophies fits into some of the major religions of today.

In chapter twelve, you can learn about agnosticism and atheism. These are broad categories of belief systems that many individuals endorse as part of their own system of beliefs. In chapter one, you will have studied the fact that humans are essentially programmed to believe in something. Here we explore the phenomenon of having a lack of belief in God and when individuals question the existence of God in varying ways. You will also learn what it means to be apathetic about the existence of God.

Chapter thirteen in the course talks about the modern practice of religions considered to be -traditional or at least not of the mainstream set of religions already discussed. There are hundreds of traditional religions practiced by a diverse group of people, including

Africans, Native Americans, and other ethnic groups. While a complete discussion of all of these is out of the scope of this course, we will talk about contemporary or modern paganism as a good example of how older or ancient religions have been revived in modern times.

In chapter fourteen, we will finally discuss the relationship between religion, spirituality, and ethics. Does one need to have religion to be ethical, for example? What is the difference between spirituality and religion? You will learn the mental health benefits of being spiritual and whether there are advantages or disadvantages to practicing a religion.