Chapter+Seven-We+follow+world+wide+faiths


 * Chapter Seven-We found worldwide faiths: **
 * India's civilization first began along the Indus River.The natives lived in houses made of brick, and sewer systems, and seals with their language written on, as well as pictures. Most of the beliefs, that we can tell, from back then is very similar to how Hinduism is now, they had similar gods. The civilization ended in 1750 B.C., around the same time Aryans came to India. These people are known for their hymns that they created, then left behind to be discovered. They believed in sacrifices, to please their gods, and the priests had to do just right, or things will start going horribly wrong. People started to rebel from this religion, instead they began to write essays about life's questions, these essays were called Upanishads. One of the big questions is what happens after you die. These people came up with reincarnation. Hinduism was created by the combined Upanishads, Aryans, and other groups and religions.
 * Buddhism was created by a man who left his father's town to become a teacher, and to teach that your suffering and continuous reincarnation, living and dying over and over, would end if you followed what he discovered. This man, Siddhartha Gautama, believed that you keep being born to suffer over and over because you must heal yourself, from being greedy, then you will reach peace. Siddhartha died somewhere between 500 and 350 B.C. Buddhism became popular in the 200s B.C. because of India's emperor became one. Emperor Ashoka not only taught this religion to his people, but also to the surrounding countries. Buddhism did eventually leave India, but continued to thrive in other Asian countries.
 * Jesus was born around A.D. 4 to Jewish parents. He became a holy man at age 35 and went place to place teaching his beliefs. Some people believe that Jesus came to tell everyone that Judgement Day was coming, and either you were with God, and would survive, or you were not. The Jews hated him because he was said to be the son of God, and the Romans hated him because he talked about an enemy kingdom. When he went to Jerusalem for Passover one of his followers betrayed Jesus and turned him over to people that disliked him. He was killed by the Roman empire. He was put into a tomb, but when his followers came back he was gone. He often would appear in front of his followers and would talk and touch them. His followers called Jesus Christ and themselves, Christ’s followers, Christians. They continued to follow Jewish rules and considered themselves still part of the Jewish religion. One man named Saul was a Jew that would capture and put Christians into jail. He continued to do this until Jesus showed up in front of him, and then Saul, or Paul, became a Christian. Paul then traveled around and spread Christianity around. In order to get more people to join Paul told pagans they did not have to follow Jewish rules. Christianity continued to spread and now about a third of the human population consider themselves Christian.
 * Muhammad is the creator of the religion Islam. He was born in Mecca in A.D. 570, Mecca later became an Islam holy city. One day Muhammad was meditating in a cave in the mountains when the archangel Gabriel came to him. Gabriel told him that he was the messenger of God, and he should spread these messages around. Muhammad told people there was one God, Allah, that he was his messenger, and that there was Heaven waiting, after death, if you believed in Allah. Many people did not approve of this new religion, and hated Muhammad. Muhammad and his few believers ran off to a clan named Yathrib who believed in him. Muhammad and his new small army was able to take over Mecca. Most of the people converted to Islamic ways. Muhammad died in A.D. 632. After his death, Muslims began to put together all of his messages from Allah into a book called the Qur'an, which is a sacred book for Muslims. The next few leaders were good choices, and Islams were able to take control of the Middle East, North Africa, and some of Asia, but never Europe.