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  • Hi, guys.

  • I got a secret to tell ya.

  • Do you have a religion?

  • Yeah?

  • Most people do.

  • I don't.

  • I am what is called "agnostic".

  • "Agnostic" means I do not believe in a god.

  • Do you want to turn the video off because you're offended by my religious views?

  • Go ahead, but you're going to miss a great lesson on religion.

  • My whole point of this educational video, if you will, is to preach tolerance.

  • Because guess what?

  • You have a religion, I have a religion-no I don't-and other people will have a different

  • religion than you, especially when you're travelling.

  • So, let's say that you leave your beautiful house and your beautiful country, and you

  • come to another country.

  • Guess what?

  • There are going to be people that don't have the same religion as you, and you get to respect

  • them, and hopefully they get to respect you.

  • Unfortunately, the world has kind of turned against us.

  • Thank you, media, for making all religions a point of war; which it shouldn't be, because

  • most religions should teach love.

  • Oh.

  • Where did that go wrong?

  • So, what I want you guys to understand is that I don't have a religion, I don't want

  • to have a religion, and it's my choice; as is it's your choice to have your religion.

  • But respect goes a far way.

  • So, let's dive right into religion.

  • What is it?

  • The cool thing is when I was researching this is the dictionary didn't really have a distinct

  • definition of "religion", but it said this - it said: "Religion is a cultural system

  • of designated behaviours"-so how you act in your culture-"practices"-so things that you

  • do; no matter what your religion is-"and world views".

  • So, this means how religion sees other issues in the world.

  • You with me so far?

  • So, religion has nothing so far to do with anything that is violent or bad; it has to

  • do with someone's opinion of a culture.

  • We have two words to start off.

  • The first one is "atheism".

  • "Atheism" means that you do not believe in a god; nothing.

  • There's no god that exists.

  • It's kind of close to "agnosticism", which I told you that I was.

  • "Agnosticism" means that you have no proof that god exists, or any gods exist.

  • So I teeter-totter between being atheist and being agnostic, but I don't have a religion.

  • I think religions are amazing, but "atheism" is a belief that god doesn't exist, and "agnosticism"

  • is a belief that: "I don't know yet, so don't ask me my question.

  • I haven't decided."

  • What I've done is I've written down the four top-and by no means best-religions of the

  • world.

  • In our crazy world we have 10,000 different distinct religions.

  • 10,000.

  • But over 85% of the population are in the top four religions.

  • Now, statistics: I don't believe them, so when I tell you percentages and stuff, it's

  • clearly all from the internet and I don't believe half of it; but let's see if you do.

  • Apparently the biggest population in the world, 2.4 billion or 33% of the population are apparently

  • "Christian".

  • Okay?

  • Apparently this involves people who are atheist and agnostic.

  • So that's statistic is blown out of the water right away, but Christianity is supposed to

  • be the religion with the most followers.

  • So, first word to learn is: "monotheistic".

  • "Mono" means one, and "theistic" means God.

  • So, Christianity is a religion with one god, and his/her...

  • His/her...

  • God's name is God.

  • Is God a him or a her?

  • What do you think?

  • Yeah, you don't know, do you?

  • Okay.

  • So, this...

  • Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

  • Okay?

  • We like to shorten his name and just call him "Jesus".

  • And Christians believe that Jesus was the son of God.

  • He was born to a virgin...

  • What?

  • In a manger.

  • That doesn't make sense, scientifically; don't tell my mom that.

  • The holy book that Christians use is called a "Bible" or "Gospel", so this is where all

  • of the teachings of Jesus Christ are written.

  • People who practice Christianity are called "Christians".

  • And the important thing that you guys have to realize is that if you are Catholic, you

  • are Christian; if you are Protestant, you are Christian; if you are Eastern Orthodox-these

  • are the top three-you are also Christian.

  • So you have to be careful.

  • You can't say to someone: "Oh, well I'm Catholic, but I'm not Christian."

  • Well, damn straight: You're both Catholic and Christian, because these religions practice

  • Christianity.

  • Okay?

  • So be careful what your ideas of... are from your country.

  • Christians believe that when you die-which we all will-you will either go to Heaven or

  • Hell.

  • Other religions, like Catholicism (Catholic people) believe that there's a purgatory.

  • And purgatory is kind of like the waiting room; that they haven't decided if you're

  • good or bad yet.

  • So, you can go to Heaven or you can go to Hell, or be rested in purgatory.

  • Where do you want to go?

  • You want to go to Heaven, don't you?

  • Okay.

  • The next one we have is 1.8 billion people; 24% of the population.

  • So, there isn't a big difference in the size of the population, if the statistics are true

  • (which they're not).

  • This religion is called "Islam".

  • It is, like Christianity, a monotheistic religion: One god.

  • In this religion, God's name is "Allah".

  • I think Allah's a man; sounds like a man's name.

  • And just like Christians have Jesus...

  • I can do this.

  • Just like Christians have Jesus, Islam has Muhammad.

  • Now, Muhammad is apparently the messenger of God.

  • Jesus was the son of God, but Muhammad is the messenger of God; so he directly told

  • the people what God was saying.

  • Interestingly enough, in the Islamic religion, they have prophets: Adam, Abraham, Moses,

  • Jesus...

  • What?

  • Muslim people or people who are Islamic - they believe in Jesus.

  • Jesus was a prophet.

  • Okay?

  • So, all of these guys: Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, who exist in Christianity are also

  • prophets in the Islamic religion.

  • But they believe that Muhammad was the last messenger of God, so he's the most important

  • prophet.

  • Just like Heaven...

  • Just like Christianity, there's a final judgement where people go to Heaven or go to Hell.

  • Well, that sounds really similar to Christianity.

  • What are you guys fighting about?

  • You all go to the same place; you do good, you do bad.

  • People who follow Islam are called "Muslim", and the holy book is called the "Qur'an".

  • So it's a book that has the teachings.

  • Do you see a lot of similarities between these two religions yet?

  • Open your mind.

  • Have a look.

  • The next religion is "Hinduism".

  • Hinduism is polytheistic or monotheistic.

  • So, I've told you that "monotheistic" means one God.

  • What do you guys think "polytheistic" means?

  • "Poly" means many.

  • So, Hinduism is polytheistic or monotheistic.

  • Or, if you choose-it's your choice-you can be "atheist".

  • What?

  • A religion that can be atheist...

  • Oh yeah.

  • Hinduism - this is pretty cool.

  • So, check this out: It was made in India and it's the oldest religion in the world, apparently.

  • And it's based on dharma, and dharma is the way of life.

  • It's like a life path; telling you what are good things and bad things to do.

  • Check this out: There are no religious authorities.

  • What?

  • Nobody's telling me what to do?

  • Well, this is pretty cool.

  • There's no governing body, which means there's no...

  • Again, there's nobody telling you what to do; there's no one god, there's no one person

  • that is almighty.

  • There's no prophets, and there's no special holy book.

  • This sounds very open-minded.

  • The pronunciation of the common Islam faith...

  • I forget.

  • So, we've got Sunni, which is 75 to 90%, and we have Shia which is 10 to 20%; I forgot

  • about that.

  • But if you guys look at the Hinduism...

  • These words are very difficult for me to say; I do apologize.

  • Let me go to my notes; my pronunciation notes.

  • So, we have: "Vaishnavism".

  • If I've said that wrong, I do apologize; it's not my intention.

  • And then we have: "Shaivism" and "Shaktism".

  • Again, if I've done that wrong, I'm sorry.

  • The Hindu people...

  • So people who practice Hinduism are called "Hindus" - they believe in "reincarnation".

  • So, "reincarnation" means: When you die, your soul doesn't go to Heaven or Hell; it comes

  • back again, maybe to this Earth, and you live a whole other lifetime.

  • Wow.

  • Do you believe in reincarnation?

  • I do.

  • I think I've lived many, many times; and I was probably hanging out with you at some

  • point.

  • We were like: "Yeah!

  • This is great, Ronnie!"

  • I'm like: "Yeah."

  • Okay?

  • So, reincarnation is very different from Heaven or Hell.

  • Okay?

  • Reincarnation means you are born again and you live again.

  • Amazing.

  • Super cool.

  • And the last one is "Buddhism".

  • If you guys have ever been to China or if you're from China, you can go to a beautiful

  • Buddhist temple.

  • Awesome.

  • Like Hinduism, Buddhism has no personal god, so you don't worship one person; but it's

  • based on the teachings of this one guy who was a real person named Buddha.

  • He's pretty cool.

  • He looks nice.

  • So, this is based on his teaching or his ideas.

  • All right?

  • This only makes 520 million; 15 to 16% of the population of the world.

  • Again, statistics.

  • Basically, Buddhist people believe in rebirth into five realms of being.

  • Check this out.

  • The top one would be heavenly, so this means you've achieved all the amazing things you

  • should in your lifetime; you would not be reincarnated again and you'd be heavenly.

  • We have demi-gods; humans, that's me and you; animals; hungry ghosts; and hellish.

  • Now, hellish, obviously would be the worst one.

  • Maybe some humans are actually hungry ghosts and hellish - I don't know.

  • So, Buddhism is based upon the teachings of Sidda...

  • Sidda-ta...

  • Siddhartha-I'm sorry; I can't do it- Gautama.

  • If I said his name right, amazing.

  • That's it.

  • So, I want you to think about your religion, and I want you to also think about the people

  • around you.

  • Do you know people who have a different religion?

  • Do you know people that have a religion that's not written down here?

  • Cool.

  • Talk to them about it.

  • We have a saying in English that you shouldn't talk to people about sex, religion, or politics.

  • I'm not talking to you guys about politics ever.

  • Love people; don't hate people.

  • I'm out of here.

Hi, guys.

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