The Smart Compared To The Wise

Today in class we were suggesting test questions to Mr. Schick. A lot of people kept on saying hard ones and I was like, why would you do that? Don't you want the questions to be easy? There is a difference between being smart and wise, a smart person would give hard questions, a wise person would give easy ones so that they would pass easily. I'm not sure how many people are going to agree with me on that one... But anyways, here are some of the questions that people were saying, including me (see I participate in class). Mason suggested who is the Enlightened One? Answer: Siddhartha Gautama. Then Maria said something about Saul/Paul who loved to conquer Christians until God made him see again. A question I suggested was what two main groups are Muslims separated into, and people were yelling at me because apparently the question was "hard," but it is the Sunnis and the Shiites. Then Matt said what two similar groups have been fighting for a long time in Africa. Answer: Hutus and Tutsis. Then Patrick said something hilarious to Maheer and I went into a super long laughing fit and I was crying and laughing for like ten minutes straight and everyone was staring at me uncomfortably. Then Mr. Schick brought me some tissues because I was literally crying. Then someone else said something and it happened twice more, but they weren't as bad as the first time. Class was super fun today(:

Hinduism = Hard to Learn

In class we still were going over the religions, we did Hinduism and Mr. Schick said that his slide was mainly wrong, so he had to ask a student in the other class to tell people about it. Apparently there is like one god that branches out into other gods, I don't really know... I didn't understand it that much, Mr. Schick said that it was hard to learn if you didn't grow up learning it. We also talked about Buddhism and Christianity more. We said that it was misleading that the Buddha was chubby in all of his statues and stuff, but in reality he was probably skin and bones. Also that Jesus is always painted with blue eyes, when in reality it was almost impossible for him to have blue eyes and to have been born were he was in Jerusalem. We also learned that Judaism is the oldest surviving monotheistic religion, and that Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have a lot in common, the only major difference is that we believe Jesus is the Messiah, Muslims believe that Mohammad was the messiah, and Jews are still waiting on the messiah. I think that is really funny that we have so much in common with them, but everyone thinks we are so different from one another. Just because we have different ideas and clothes and we don't really live that close together (for the main parts of the religions) doesn't mean we are like aliens to one another and should be fighting over it. We got sidetracked a lot again, which is fun sometimes but other times I wish we didn't. P.S. That picture of Buddha is creeeeeeeeeeppppppyyyyy.

Why Can't People Just Respect Others Beliefs?

Today in class we were talking about 9/11 and how people are all fighting over the differences in all of our beliefs and that we can't respect each others beliefs and how we have to take everything to the extreme and it was a very opinionated class. So we got really into it. It just really bothered me that people in the United States are bombing abortion clinics, just a lot about class today bothered me. But anyways, some of the stuff we learned was that Muslims were separated into two major groups, either the Sunni's or the Shiites. About 75% - 90% o Muslims are Sunni and 10% - 20% are Shiites. Also, you can either spell their holy book as Koran (English spelling) or Qurán (actual spelling) We also learned that in Buddhism they don't have a god or multiple gods, they just have nirvana which is them reaching enlightenment and getting rid of suffering and a bunch of other stuff. They don't really have a holy book either they just follow the Four Noble Truths and the Eight fold Path.

Cultural Geography: Religion

Today in class, I learned the five major religions in the world are Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam. Mr. Schick told us that Christians were looked at for being bad and doing illegal things as in not practicing the Roman religions. We started to go over our homework over the weekend, where we had to find out information on each of the five major religions. We weren't allowed to actually pull out our books and check it but we did try and remember what we wrote to see if we were basically correct. In the beginning of class we finished going over ethnic heritage, Mr. Schick said that the Hutus and the Tutsis are two dominating religions in some countries in Africa. In some parts the Hutus persecute the Tutsis and vice-versa in other parts, their arguments lead to constant war. Mr. Schick was telling us that they had more in common then different, but they still found the differences and fought over them. I think that it's kind of sad that they are arguing over differences when they have so much in common, its unnecessary violence that is only leading to death on both sides. P.S. My image is of arguing, therefore it is relevant. I just made it the Simpsons to make it more humorous.

Mr. Schick Was... TAKEN... 2.

Okay, I'm not really sure if he was taken, but I really want to see the sequel to Taken... so..yeah. Anyways. Today Mr. Schick wasn't in class and we had Mr. Perry as a sub. I'm not sure if we were supposed to blog, but I am anyways just to be safe. So we worked on finding out information for the worlds leading religions. I got pretty far so I only had to do one more religion when I got home from school, so I didn't have that much homework... at least for Mr. Schick. Anyways, today during class was kind of boring. Mr. Perry was really cool though. Whenever Matt yawned and he didn't cover his mouth, he made him stand on his chair and pretend to yawn and cover his mouth 10 times. It was hilarious, but it was one of those you had to be there moments. And then Mr. Perry kept yelling at the boys, it was so funny. I hope that I have him as a sub again! He was awesome.

Worlds Major Religions

Christianity
Christianity started around 30 AD in Palestine by the disciples of Jesus. It is a monotheistic religion. There is a holy book called the Bible. The religion has about 2.2 followers. The central figure in Christianity is Jesus Christ. Most followers of Christianity are in South America, North America, Europe, Australia, most of Asia., and Southern Africa. 

Islam
Islam started around 622 AD in Mecca and was founded by Muhammad. It is a monotheistic religion. Their holy book is called the Quran. It has around 1.5 billion followers. Their central figure is Allah. Most followers are in Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Buddhism
Buddhism was founded in the fourth or fifth century BC in North East India by Siddartha Gautama. It is a polytheistic religion. They do not have a holy book. They have around 200 - 500 million followers. Their central figure is Buddah, who is also known as Siddartha, the founder of the religion. Most followers are in Asia.

Hinduism
Hinduism was founded in 1500-500 BC in India. It is a polytheistic religion. They have several holy books, but the oldest one is the Veda.The religion has around 1 billion followers. The central figures in Hinduism are their gods and goddesses, so there isn't one official main figure. Most followers are in India. 

Judaism
Judaism was founded in 2000 BC in Israel. It is a monotheistic religion. Their holy book is the Torah. It has around 12 - 14 million followers. Their central figures are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, also known as the Patriarchs. Most followers are in Israel.

Cultural Geography

Today in class we started to take notes on a powerpoint Mr. Schick made called Cultural Geography. We hardly even got through it we wre sidetracked so much! Everyone had lots of questions and comments and the answers Mr. Schick gave would lead to getting even farther off topic. Anyways, some of the stuff that we did get the chance to take notes on was about cultural characteristics. They are parts of everyday life, ideas and themes which the group will teach to all members, and those same characteristics can link or divide a region. I gave the example like how in Sudan Muslims are in the north and Christians and tribal religions in the south, which caused them to go into civil war and eventually split the countries. Some examples of cultural characteristics are language, religion, and ethnic heritage. For language, we took notes that Arabic unites the Arab world and Spanish unites the Hispanic world. We also learned that English is the world language and is the language of money. For ethnic heritage we took notes that said Yugoslavia (which is no longer a country) had many ethnic groups and were made into a country. When the strong government died out, they got into a bloody civil war and now they all have different countries. P.S. I have a new goal to put a picture that relates to each of my bog posts from now on to make it more interesting!!