Chapter 6 - Religion

The belief that God's existence cannot be known.

Belief that objects, such as plants and stones, or natural events, like thunderstorms and earthquakes, have a discrete spirit and conscious life. EXAMPLE is Shintoism in Japan.

Belief that there is no god.

A religious group which is self sufficient, meaning their interaction with other religious communities is confined to little more than loose cooperation and shared ideas. EXAMPLE: Islam and Protestant denominations.

A large and fundamental division within a religion.

A Hindu social class system that controlled every aspect of daily life, a set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person's occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society

Stories about how the universe came into being

A division of a branch that unites a number of local congregations in a single legal and administrative body.

A religion in which a person is likely to be born into, rather than convert to. Such religions usually do not have missionaries or are not seeking new believers. Judaism, Hinduism and Shinto would all be examples.

A religious movement characterized by a return to fundamental principles, usually including resistance to modernization and an emphasis on certainty through literal interpretation of scriptures.

During the middle Ages, a neighborhood in a city set up by law to be inhabited only by Jews; now used to denote a section of a city in which members of any minority group live because of social, legal, or economic pressure.

A religion in which central authority exercises a high degree of control.

A person of a particular faith that travels in order to recruit new members into the faith represented.

Belief in one God.

A follower of a polytheistic religion in ancient times.