CLass Today

Today in class we discussed the video again and we debated whether or not we thought Diamonds theory was accurate or not. In my opinion I think the fact that Papa New Guinea is geographically unlucky and can't produce nutritious crops are a big part in why New Guinea is stuck in this 'Stone Age'. However, there are ways to work around this such as trading or importing goods from another area. They could not actually want to grow into this modern life and think that the way they're living now is fine. After this discussion we continued watching the video and class ended there.

Guns, Germs, and Steel pt. 2

Today in class we continued on watching the video called guns germs and steel. We discovered that one of the main reasons why countries like Papa New Guinea have such difference from our modern world may lie in their farming and nutrition. The nutrition in the things they are farming is so low and what they are farming is very time consuming and not as convenient to grow. Along with this, they have not yet domesticated animals as we do often in the Americas and other modern countries. We have animals help us with farming and even a long time ago we had them do some of the heavier work that was harder for us humans to do.

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Today in class we carried on with the video Guns, Germs, and Steel. We started off the class with a 6 point pop quiz that NO ONE wanted. We were all panicking because none of us had finished the video, but we took it anyways. It wasn't awful but it wasn't good either. After the pop quiz we started the video all over again but this time we watched it as a class and Mr. Schick stopped it every time something important happened so we could talk about it. I definitely understand it more now that we talked about it.

WESTERN CIV

Today was our first day of western civilization, and in class we watched a video called "Guns, Germs, and Steel." A geographer goes on a journey to discover history's biggest questions. He is in the island of New Guinea, and a man asked him why the 'white man' has more cargo than New Guinea people. Diamond thought about this question and started to further look into it and this is the main point of this whole video. It makes you wonder why this is, because it is not that one race is smarter than the other. New Guinea is actually thought to be the location where there were farmers for the first time. At one point in the video it talks about how the crops available in New Guinea have so much less nutrition, that this could be a major role in why America has had larger growth.

LAST CLASS

TODAY WAS THE LAST CLASS OF HUMAN GEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  This class had some units that were interesting, but also there were units that were not. We just took a test that I may have done really bad on but Mr. Schick is telling our scores right now so maybe not. Just kidding I got an 80 which is way better than I thought I did. I don't know if I'm excited for western civ, because Mr. Schick said he likes human geo better and this was not my favorite class. Guess we'll find out.

Exam Essays

Today in class we got the essays from our exams back, and I got a 97 average. I'm really glad my exam grade was good so now it with hopefully pull up my overall grade. We're only about 10 minutes into class so I really don't know what we're going to do in class today, but Mr. Schick is finishing the last two essays he has to grade and gave us 15 minutes of free time. It is last period though and we never seem to get much done in these type of classes. Maybe I'll take a nap.

Class Today

Most of my blogs titled 'Class Today' all have the exact same summary of class. It was a D day today, and we didn't do anything major. We went over the 5 paragraphs we wrote yesterday on the religions, but that didn't take very long and that's the only class related thing we did. I did find out that I somehow got THE LOWEST EXAM GRADE IN THE CLASS!!!! Oops. Not sure how that happened but luckily my quarter 1 and 2 grades for this class are good so I should be okay. Also Mr. Schick hadn't graded my essay yet so that could save me a little bit too. Hopefully.

All Five Religions

          Christianity is the largest religion in the world, with 2.2 billion people following these beliefs. Geographically, christians are most prominent in Europe, the Americas, and Africa. It has multiple denominations, consisting of Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Protestants, and more. This religion was founded after the death of Jesus Christ, who is a very important figure in this religion. The holy book of Christianity is the Bible, with the Old and New Testament. The beliefs of Christianity include that Jesus is the son of God, and that he was crucified, died and was buried, and then resurrected and ascended into heaven.
             The religion of Islam is the second largest religion with a following of 1.5 billion people. Islam's are referred to as Muslims, and are found primarily in the Middle East,  but more specifically in Indonesia. The denominations consist of Sunnis and Shittes. The founder of the Islam religion is Muhammad, who lived from 570-632 AD. This religion is monotheistic, as they worship Abraham. They also worship their holy book, which is called the Qur'an. Their beliefs include the Five Pillars- testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting, and pilgrimage.
          Hinduism is the third biggest religion in the world, following closely behind Muslims with 1.1 billion followers. They are called Hindus, and worship the holy books called, The Vedas. They have no distinct founder, rather a series of philosophical point of views than a strict set of beliefs. Because of this they are not considered polytheistic or monotheistic. This religion however believes in the idea  of recreation after death.
         Buddhism's following is a large range, with really no indication of the exact amount. It ranges between 500 million to 1.5 billion followers, ranking it as possibly the second largest religion, but also the second smallest. They are referred to as Buddhists, and are found in South East Asia, China, Nepal, and Japan. Their founder is Siddhartha Gautama, and they believe in the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold path.
         Judaism is by far the smallest religion with only 14-18 million followers. They are referred to as Jews, and went through a very rough time in the 1940's in the Holocaust. They are primarily located in Israel and the United States. Their founder is Abraham, and their holy book is the Torah, which is the first 5 books in the New Testament. (Book for Christianity) They believe in ethical monotheism, that God is one and concerned with the acts of mankind. What makes this different from Christianity is that they do not believe Jesus Christ is the son of God.

Missed Class

Today I had to miss class because I had a doctors appointment.

Class Today

Today we were on a community bell schedule because of the pow wow assembly, so classes were only 45 minutes. We began class with a few unrelated stories from Mr. Schick, and then we started talking about our blogs from last night. We talked about the second topic for the majority of class, but we did also talk about the first and second questions. I don't really know how to stretch this blog out any longer, todays class was pretty uneventful.

Three Questions

There are four basic Vedic texts in use by Hindus. The first Vedic text is called, "Rig-Veda". It is described as “Knowledge of the Hymns of Praise”, for recitation. The second is called, "Sama-Veda". This is described as, “Knowledge of the Melodies”, for chanting. The third is, "Yajur-Veda". Described as, “Knowledge of the Sacrificial formulas”, for liturgy. The fourth and final basic Vedic text is called, " Atharva-Veda". Described as, “Knowledge of the Magic formulas”, named after a kind of group of priests.
        Practice of indulgences is a teaching in the Roman Catholic Church that is a way to lower your amount of punishment you earn for committing sins. It reduces these punishments in the the state after death, called Purgatory. Martin Luther objected to these indulgences because people were actually purchasing this indulgence in order to exempt themselves from the punishment earned by sin. I think the concept of actually spending money on this idea played a huge role in leading Martin Luther to object indulgences. He thought that the church was becoming corrupt, and didn't agree with this teaching. 
        The Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca is called the Hajj. The Hajj takes place in the last month of the year, and every Muslim is expected to go at least once in their lifetime. The movement is about a 6 day process, with multiple steps before you complete this 'journey'. It is a very big commitment for you spend every hour of every day for these 6 or so days following these steps.

Our 5 Religions

Of the five religions we've been studying, Christians are the leading religion with a percentage of 31.4%. The next religion we talked about is Islam with a percentage of 23.2%. Third, is Hinduism with 15%, then Buddhism with 7.1%. Finally Judaism falls with 0.2%. The website you suggested to look up, Aherents, tells it slightly different. This website agrees with the number one religion being Christianity with a percentage of 33%. It has the next biggest religion as Islam at 21%. Third is Hinduism at 14% with Buddhism falling at 6%. And finally, Judaism at .22%. The biggest difference between the two is CIA World Factbook is updated more frequently and has newer information than the other website. You see how the religions have all mostly grown by one or two percent within recent years.

Religions

Today in class we continued the powerpoint on the 5 religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Buddhism. We found that there are a lot of connections between religions, and in some cases when following a religion, you are even able to simultaneously follow another. Today I also learned that the main difference between Jews and Christians isn't that Jews don't believe in God, but it is that they only believe in God. They don't believe Jesus was the son of God which is the reason they don't celebrate Christmas. Guess you learn something new everyday.

First Day Back From Break

I'm realizing that the quality of my blogs have dropped greatly since the start of the year, and I'm really struggling to write this. Today was the first day back from break, and I think every teacher knows kids in no way want to be there that day. Because we took exams before break, we now have a few extra weeks left in this semester, so we started a new unit on religion. We only got through 3 of the 5 religions we're learning about: Christianity, Islamic, and Hinduism. Hopefully tomorrow we're all more awake and ITS THURSDAY!!