Misconceptions about Religions - mental_floss on YouTube (Ep. 36) | Mental Floss

Hi, I'm Elliot. This is Mental Floss on YouTube. Today I'm going to talk about some misconceptions

about various major religions. It's going to be a lot of fun. Misconception number one, Muslims are usually Arab. According to the Muslim Journal, there are

around 1.2 billion Muslims and only 15% of them are Arab. In fact, there are more Indian subcontinent

Muslims, about 30%, and sub-Saharan African Muslims, about 20%, than there are Arab Muslims

Misconception number two, the Quran says you will receive 72 virgins in heaven

The Quran does extensively describe heaven, and there's no mention of 72 anything there

As for the virgin part, it's a confusing translation issue. The Arabic word abkurun appears in the description of heaven

This could be translated to mean either virgins or angels, and even Muslims debate the true

meaning of the word. In fact, German linguist Christoph Luxenberg argues that much of the Quran is in Syriac

making the term mean food and drink. Misconception number three to Muslims jihad means holy war The Arabic word translates to struggle or resisting but in the Islamic faith jihad actually means religious duty Misconception number four the Buddha is a deity Buddhists actually don view the Buddha as a deity or God In fact in Buddhism there not really a place for a god

figure. Often people view the Buddha as a god because that makes more sense in the context

of Western religion. But it's actually a little bit more complicated than that. So God-im-a-Buddha, who may have lived between 6th and 4th century BCE, is considered the

founder of Buddhism. But he's not considered a savior, god, or creator. Instead, he's

more of a teacher or guide to Buddhists, though it's worth noting that different branches

of Buddhism may view him differently. He's also not the only Buddha. In the branch of Theravada Buddhism, anyone who is enlightened without a teacher can be

a Buddha, and in Mahayana Buddhism, a Buddha is anyone with absolute wisdom

Speaking of which, misconception number five, the Laughing Buddha is Siddhartha Gautama

Many Westerners don't note that the Laughing Buddha, also known as Bhude or Hote, is not

the Buddha that I was just talking about. First of all, the two look nothing alike

The Laughing Buddha represents enlightenment, and in many Asian cultures he represents luck

happiness and wealth. Misconception number six, Mormons believe in polygamy. People who practice are effectively excommunicated from the Mormon Church According to Gordon B Hinckley the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Saints during the late 90s and 2000s this church has nothing whatever to do with those

practicing polygamy. They are not members of this church. If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the

most serious penalty the church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of

the law of this church. Misconception number 7, the Star of David has a long history in Judaism

Historically, the Star of David has been used in many different religions. Like in Hinduism, the star has been used as a symbol of Shiva and Shakti, or male and female

And it has even been used in Mormonism to represent, like, heaven and earth. We don't know for sure when Judaism adopted the symbol, but one of the first times was probably in 1354 CE

when Jewish people in Prague put it on a red flag. But it really took off during the 19th century, when Jewish people started using it to distinguish their communities from others

It was probably an attempt to create a religious symbol similar to the Christian cross

Misconception at number 8, a Hindu woman wearing a red bindi is married

Traditionally a red dot or bindi on the forehead meant that a woman was married but nowadays it more of a fashion accessory than anything Married and unmarried women wear red bindis in addition to bindis of pretty much every color Misconception number nine people who practice Judaism call God Yahweh

First of all, it's worth noting that the Hebrew language does not contain any vowels, so this word is represented by four letters, either YHVH or YHWH

This means that the vowels were added in much later and the original pronunciation has been lost

Because of this, the word is generally not spoken out loud, just like how many Jewish people don't write or say the word God

Misconception number 10, there's no technology in Amish societies. Actually, the Amish distinguish between using technology and owning it

So in many cases, it's considered okay for an Amish person to ride in a car as long as they're not driving

They're also allowed to go to work and use a computer with the internet. But they generally are against personally owning things like computers and cars because they can bring the temptation of sin

Thank you for watching Misconceptions on Mental Floss on YouTube. If you have a topic for an upcoming Misconceptions episode that you would like to see, leave it down in the comments and we'll check it out

And maybe we'll make like a whole episode about it. It would be fantastic. I'll see you next week. Bye