Why study Religion?

As a key concept of social science, religion is a key factor that influences the development of civilizations and culture. Religion helps students to
identify and understand behaviors. Furthermore, as the map below suggests, the study of religion offers students a global perspective on
traditions and cultural expectations.
England
Western Europe
Asia Japan
North America Israel
North Africa Arabian India
Peninsula
South America
 World Religions
Look at the World Religions Map provided to answer questions on a
separate piece of paper.

1. List the three types of Christianity on this map.

2. Which type of Christianity is most practiced in Western Europe?
3. Which type of Christianity is practiced in Mexico and South America?
4. List the two major branches (called sects) of Islam.
5. The people of modern Saudi Arabia (The Arabian Peninsula) and North Africa
are mostly which sect of Islam? Sunni or Shiite (also called Shia)?
6. Find India: Which religion is mostly practiced in India?
7. Buddhism is practiced mostly on which continent?
8. In Israel (just north of the Red Sea), you will see red. Which religion does the
red represent? Also, be informed that there are highly concentrated pockets
of this religion in major cities on the east coast of the United States.
9. If Catholic Christianity or Catholicism originated in Europe, what might
explain why Spanish speaking countries in South America and Mexico are
both majority Catholic?
10. What may explain why England and North America are mostly comprised of
Protestant Christians?
11. Provide evidence from the map or pie chart that supports the claim that
students should have a basic education about varying religions in order to
understand the world from which they live.

Copyright © 2015,2018 Instructomania

 World Religions Answer Key
Look at the World Religions Map provided to answer questions.
1. List the three types of Christianity on this map. Protestant, Catholic and
Orthodox Christianity
2. Which type of Christianity is most practiced in Western Europe? Catholic
3. Which type of Christianity is practiced in Mexico and South America? Catholic
4. List the two major branches (called sects) of Islam. Shiite/Shia and Sunni
5. The people of modern Saudi Arabia (The Arabian Peninsula) and North Africa
are mostly which sect of Islam? Sunni or Shiite (also called Shia)?
6. Find India: Which religion is mostly practiced in India? Hinduism
7. Buddhism is practiced mostly on which continent? Asia
8. In Israel (just north of the Red Sea), you will see red. Which religion does the
red represent? Also, be informed that there are highly concentrated pockets
of this religion in major cities on the east coast of the United States. Judaism
9. If Catholic Christianity or Catholicism originated in Europe, what might
explain why Spanish speaking countries in South America and Mexico are
both majority Catholic? The Spanish conquistadors and missionaries brought
Catholicism to this region.
10. What may explain why England and North America are mostly comprised of
Protestant Christians? The English immigrated top North America.
11. Provide evidence from the map or pie chart that supports the claim that
students should have a basic education about varying religions in order to
understand the world from which they live. According to the map, one can see
that large parts of the world practice varying religions. One could infer that in order to
understand the behaviors of these people, one should know the basics of their
religion. Also one can see from the chart that while Christianity is the majority
religion, other religions like Islam and Hinduism comprise a higher percentage than

Copyright © 2015,2018 Instructomania