The Aztec religion included elements of human sacrifice. The Aztecs waged many brutal wars of conquest in Central America before the arrival of the Europeans. The people they conquered would be assimilated into the empire and some of their citizens would be sacrificed to appease the Aztec gods.

Henry VIII was a devoted Catholic king before his break from Rome, even earning the title "Defender of the Faith" after he published literature attacking Martin Luther. However, his desire to end his marriage to Katherine of Aragon overcame his love of the Church, and the English Reformation began as an attempt to circumvent Church laws and legitimize Henry's new marriage to Anne Boleyn. Henry would later argue that his decision was based on English laws that had long been ignored, although Parliament did not officially make Henry the head of the English church until the schism was already well under way. Henry's argument that the Church had no authority in England had already been used to get rid of his Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, who had failed to secure Henry's divorce and was branded as a traitor.

John Calvin founded the Calvinist denomination in the 1530s, preaching that God had chosen a small group of people to be saved and planned on damning everyone else. God's decision was immutable, hence the term "predestination." While Calvinists did live a highly strict lifestyle and were required to adhere to Calvinist teachings, these actions had no bearing on their admittance to heaven. Like most Protestant denominations, they also did not believe in purgatory.

The images of Luther in this cartoon are increasingly unflattering, and for that reason, it is safe to assume that the artist wants to convey an anti-Lutheran message. However, most radical reformers at this time were more concerned with defining their own doctrine and distributing it to the public, and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V did in fact use force against his rebellious duchies. Therefore, it makes sense that the image would be Catholic propaganda, especially given the Church's desire to portray Luther as a rogue, hypocritical monk.

The full title of the 95 Theses was "The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the power of indulgences". Luther sought to reform the corrupt practice of "selling salvation". He believed that religion should be accessible to the common man, and that man should have a direct relationship with God, not be forced to have his faith brokered through a corrupt clergyman. 

As Calvinists began to openly criticize and otherwise verbally (and sometimes physically) assail Catholics towards the end of the sixteenth century, the Catholic Church knew that something had to be done. Accordingly, the Catholic Church’s top levels of leadership — namely, the Pope and bishops — collaborated to institute a new program, called the Counter-Reformation. The Counter-Reformation was intended to push back against Calvinist attacks on the Church, while also shoring up popular support for Church doctrine and deeds across the region. As part of this new policy, the Catholic Church increased its support for the institution of monarchy, the more authoritative and absolute the better. This is because Church leaders found it easiest to work alongside and negotiate with powerful kings and queens, who could command and enforce their subjects’ strict obedience. Additionally, the Church and monarchy shared very similar structural systems — both were constructed on the principle of one sovereign leader (a King and a Pope) who dictated his laws down a rigidly hierarchical chain of command.

The Catholic Church was greatly worried by the success of the Protestant Reformation, especially as the doctrines of Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli gained strong footholds across Western Europe. King Henry VIII’s secession from Catholicism with his Act of Supremacy, as well as his son, King Edward I’s legalization of Protestant practice in England, finally convinced the Catholic Church that something had to be done. Accordingly, the Council of Trent was convened in 1545 – this was an assembly of top Catholic figures, expressly assembled by Pope Paul III, to come up with various reforms that could be made to Church practices. The Council hoped that any reforms which they would devise and then implement would hopefully convince many Europeans to abandon Protestantism and return to Catholicism, while also stopping any further abandonment. The Council met, off and on, until 1563, when it finally announced a sweeping program of reforms. These included prohibiting the sale of Church positions, the granting of increased powers to local bishops, and the creation of more seminaries to educate young men. These reforms were limited however – they were purely administrative and practical in nature; no doctrinal changes were made.

Deism emerged during the Enlightenment. It is based on the belief in a "watchmaker God." That is to say, a God that created the universe with a set of absolute natural laws, and then left the universe to its own devices. It suggests that God does exist, but that he does not interfere in day-to-day life. Many Enlightenment thinkers were Deists including Thomas Jefferson.

The Spanish and Portuguese empires divided South America between themselves in the late fifteenth century (through the Treaty of Tordesillas). The missionary efforts of Spanish and Portuguese missionaries in the subsequent centuries led to the conversion of the population of South America to Catholicism. Today, Latin America is overwhelmingly Catholic.

Typically, whenever religion is discussed in regard to China, mention is made of “the three teachings.” The three “teachings” refer to Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism – three religious faiths which either originated in or took their first crucial hold in ancient China. To this day, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are the three most frequently practiced patterns of faith in the modern Chinese nation. China also has a long history of minor but enduring folk religions; such beliefs are difficult to quantify, as they vary extensively from location to location, but they are usually practiced in various places across the rural countryside and often incorporate elements from each of the various “three teachings.” The current Chinese government, although officially secular in nature, is mostly quite tolerant of a variety of religious beliefs and practices, provided that religious leaders do not overtly preach any sort of political message alongside their spiritual one. One native Chinese faith, known as Falun Gong, has recently been outlawed by the Chinese government for preaching what the Communist Party of China claims are anti-CPC political messages. Most human rights scholars and political scientists, however, object to the CPC’s reasoning; instead, it appears that the CPC has banned Falun Gong due to the religion’s recent massive growth in popularity and the emphasis upon human rights and equal democratic treatment advocated by the group’s many adherents.