Describing the leaders of the "BIG 3" religions.

Dude, I can't believe you forgot to mention the most important religious leader of all time, Tom Cruise and his church of Scientology.

Just a clarification: the position of caliph in Sunni Islam was never a spiritual position, but only political. Caliphs never claimed to themselves a special connection to God or a special authority to interpret scripts. They were just symbols of the unity of the "Umma", or the Muslim believers.

I’m thankful of how respectful we was when talking about the religions. Most people nowadays would be making jokes about them when talking about it but J.J stayed professional the entire time and so detailed

Thank you for this great video. I am a Sunni Muslim. The Caliphe or successor was the political leaders for Muslims. The first 4 caliphas were close companions to the prophet. However, theological questions were answered by the most learned of the Prophet's companions, including the Caliphe. Later day Caliphas did not have a role in the religious guidance of the Islamic community, in most cases. Actually, history has recorded many cases of disputes between a Caliphe and a Muslim religious leaders. This is a very simple explanation for a very complex history. Thank you again for this very concise comparison. May all people be guided to respect and caring for all humanity.

"All catholics regard the pope as their leader" Sedevacantists: are we a joke to you? Rest of the catholics: well, you are.

You really have a God-given talent for making complex things easy.

The thing with Judaism is that we have Sephardim and Ashkenazis, two distinctly different groups. Originally, we did not have this split, but over time we moved into two regions: Catholic Europe, and the Muslim Middle East and North Africa. The Europeans became Ashkenazis, with their own literature, while the African/Arab Jews became Sephardic, with their own literature. For example, in Halachic literature (Where Jews can find most interpretations of laws, the Original Shulchan Aruch (A comprehensive guide for Jewish law) was originally written for Sephardic Jews, while Rabbi Isserles added on the Ashkenazic version. Even before this split, there was the time of the Geonim in places like Babylon, who headed excellent Jewish institutes, often with a different way of teaching Torah from one another, so you seè, Judaism has often not had a big leader, usually a local Rabbi or authority. Really, the only way to properly “rally” Judaism would be the Messiah coming and rebuilding the third temple. (Interestingly, in some very thorough Halachic works, there are laws for after the building of the third temple)

*Laughs in Orthodox* *Priest smacks me for laughing*

Don't forget the Anglicans, headed by the queen of England

Can't talk on behalf of other religion but Islam, but there's something I want to correct. According to Sunni Muslim (can't talk on behalf of Shia because I'm not one of them), the founder of Islam is not Prophet Muhammad PUBH. He was simply the LAST messenger of the deen (way of life) out of the 25 messengers mentioned in the Quran and at least 124,000 (estimated, correct me if I'm wrong) messengers as explained in a hadith. The Quran simply says that there's a prophet for every nation (tribe, kindom, etc.) including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jesus, etc. but the exact number is not mentioned, and Muhammad will be the last and final universal prophet of the deen of Islam (the seal of all prophets and messengers). The revelation that was given to Muhammad that relates to the oneness of God (Tauhid) is consistent with the previous revelations that were given to the other prophets. The revelations that relates to religious practices, dietary laws and conducts, were changed and developed along the way. The big difference is that Muhammad's revelation is intended for the whole world until the end of time, while previous revelations were only relevant and applicable to each of the previous prophet's time and people. The Sunni Muslim perspective towards religious and political leaders is that we have to obey them but not so much as to exalt, glorify, praise and worship them (even to prophets, that's why there's no images, idols, etc.) And yes, political and religious leaders are only seen as human. They make errors sometimes and it is inevitable. Again, this is from the perspective of Sunni Muslims.

Thanks, JJ! World religion as an academic topic is truly one of my favorites. This was VERY well done! Kudos to you and your sponsor for such an excellent piece.

Us Hindus and Buddhists: Sitting in the corner softly crying.

As an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I really appreciate for you being so accurate! Thanks so much, my homie My Ortho bros, where u at?

When he said at 1:40, that „the jews were mostly concentrated“, I started to sweat a little

Thank You for commenting respectfully and truthfully on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, many or most people who do comment on us are not respectful or truthful, so a change of pace is very appreciated

I loved this video. One note on the Christianity section (for reference, I am Catholic) is that a few of the Apostles traveled in directions outside of the Roman Empire, most notably establishing Ethiopian Orthodox, there is also a section of this that became part of the Catholic Church, called Ethiopian Catholicism (basically, their mass is slightly different from Roman Catholic masses). The other notable established Christianity from the Apostles was a Church in India, though I know considerably less about this Church than the admittedly thin amount I know about Ethiopian Orthodoxy.

this guy has the most pronounced Canadian accent ever.

As a muslim im not sure if this really represented muslims but more like a minorities within the Muslim faith

Your about page should be named “Abuutt” 😂

An addition to your section on Christianity. The Anglican and Episcopalian Churches, while Protestant, are much more hierarchical than the Lutheran/Calvinist counterparts. A different history which I believe might make them eligible for another "faction" of Christianity. The Head of the Anglican Church is the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, a position inherited from the Catholic days. For the Episcopalians, the presiding bishop is Micheal Bruce Curry. Welby is technically above Curry, but I believe most Americans who worship as Episcopalians would not have known that. So add Archbishop Justin Welby to your list of religious big-wigs.