Religion is a system of beliefs, practices and worship of one or more Gods. There are many religions in the world, and all of them had great impact on the world history. Throughout the history religions controlled actions and beliefs of many people, and even today it is a dominant force. Very often religions unified or divided people.
One of the largest religions in the world is Christianity. Its origin is Middle East. Christianity is divided into three branches - Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholics, and Protestants. Christianity is monotheistic religion, which means that people believe in one God. All Christians regard to Jesus as the Son of God, who died to save humans. Christians refer to Bible as holy book. Bible has two parts - Old Testament, and New Testament. In Old Testament described the history, Hebrew Scriptures, and books of law. New Testament begins with the birth of Jesus, and his teachings (Global History and Geography, p. 58-59).
Very often religious beliefs acted to unity society, but also they caused conflicts in society. One of the examples of conflict between Christians was when Britain had control over Ireland in 1600. Henry VIII encouraged English Protestants to move to Ireland dominant by Catholics. Catholics wanted to gain independence from British, so in 1916, they made an Easter Uprising to gain independence. After the Uprising, Ireland was divided. Northern Ireland remained a part of Britain where the most Protestants lived. And South Ireland became Irish Free State with Catholics living there (World History, p. 668).
The other large religion is Judaism. Hebrew believe in one God, who gave them Ten Commandments. These were laws that described how people should behave toward God and toward each other. They believe that Ten Commandments were given to Jewish people by God through Moses when he led them out of Egypt. Torah is Hebrew Bible. Torah describes the actual event that happened in Jewish history, and also it contains Ten Commandments.
