All cultures and areas of the world have belief systems that explain how the world was created, why there is good and evil in the world, and how humans are supposed to act towards each other and towards the divine. 

No religion is created out of a vacuum. Religious beliefs come from geography, human fears, and longings and cultural meetings through trade and conquest. 

The goals of these 15 hours are to create an understanding within the student of how human history and conditions have influenced religions and how many beliefs are similar in many different religions. 

This class will work with themes. Each theme will be covered in two hours. 

The themes are:

Creation myths

Gods and the role of men

Goddesses and the role of women

Rituals 

Moral rules

Founders of Religions ( Siddharta Gautama, Zoroaster, Jesus, Muhammad and Confucius) 

Women in Religion (Nuns, priests, shamans, Saints) 

The themes will come from the following religions: 

-Religion in Egypt  

-The Greek, Roman, and Norse beliefs.

-Zoroastrian, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 

-Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism,  and religion in Japan

-Native religions in Africa, the Americas, northern Asia, and Australia 

It is a good idea to have a large paper for each class to be able to create a “comparison table” for each theme and religion.

There will be a document with assignments in the Outschool classroom. The assignments will build upon each other and become more involved for each class. The final assignment will ask the students to do a bit of research and to write a report by the end of the 15 weeks. The assignments will require the student to compare and draw conclusions and see parallels to today’s world. 

At the end of the 15 hours, I can schedule a 90-minute long test about two weeks later for anyone who is interested in taking a test in real-time.

The test will consist of 6 questions that will ask the student to describe (creation myths, gods/goddesses and rituals, religious funders, and women's role in religion)  and to analyze a moral dilemma using two given religious moral rules. This is included in the class fee. 

If you choose to do the test I will send you practice questions to prepare for the test. These questions won’t be exactly the same as on the test but will help the student to learn what will be on the test. 

The student needs to have general geography and history knowledge and be able to take notes to get the most out of this class.