Today there are many different religions and many misconceptions about those religions. I believe that if we learn about other people religions could be beneficial. There are many groups of people that are getting treated wrong due to their beliefs. We should not be judgmental to people for any reason, especially over their beliefs.
I believe that learning other religion past your own could be very beneficial to you. I’m a future social worker so knowing religions other Christianity will be helpful. If I’m working with a Muslim family I would want to know their religion, so I do not disrespect them or their culture. The value you get from learning other religion is the knowledge you gain. When you see a woman a hijab you can say she is a Muslim. She is wearing that hijab because it is a symbol of fashion, modesty, and privacy. The Qur'an instructs Muslim women to dress modestly. Before this class, I did not know this was why they wore the Hijab. I learned that Muslim will make a pilgrimage that is a sacred journey that only Muslim can enter the city.
I believe teaching all different types of religion in school is a great thing to do. Children are very narrow-minded about their own religion. Children obtain their religion from their parents and they do not have a chance to learn other religion until they get older. I do not think that teaching religion in school should be against law. People think if children learn about different religion in school it is considered push a certain religion on the children. I think the town hall should hold a religion fair to give the opportunity for people to learn different religion. This would give people the chance to learn a religion past their own.
I have seen the bunker of isolation at my old high school. There was a group of white girls that sat at the popular table. There was a Muslim girl that wore a hijab that was new to the school. She wanted to make friends at school. She went up a group of the white girls and asked to sit with them. These girls did the unthinkable to this Muslim girl. They told her that they did not want a Muslim terrorist seating at their table. The Muslim girl ran away crying because of the comment they made. The girl had just moved from Iran and she wanted to fit in. She got treated like trash just because of appearance and religion. I wish I had stopped and said something to those girls that day. This experience made open to learning about other religions past my own. I did not know what religion wore hijabs or why they wore them. I did some research to figure out what religion this girl was. I know the next time I see something like this I will step in a defend the one getting attacked no matter what religion. This also shows that those girls need to learn about a Muslims religion and now that 98% of them are not terrorist.
There are multiple difficulties involved in studying new religion. A language barrier could be a major difficulty. For example, if you're learning Islam it could be difficult trying to go to church or reading the Quran. The Quran is written in the in the eastern Arabian dialect. Unless you can read Arabian dialect, you won't be able to read the Quran. Some people family are against them learning other religions. Some people get disowned for venturing out of their religion. Some people might not learn or convert to different because of the fear of getting disowned by their family. Some people worry about society judge them for learning different religion than their own. I do not believe there are any dangers to learning a different religion.
Before this class, I had little knowledge of any religion. I have never been super religious, so I had no prior knowledge of any religion. I think the three religion we learned about in this class that stuck out to me the most is Islam, Zen, and Daoism. Zen is the crystallization of various Asian philosophies. Which includes meditation and intuition. I really liked this lesson because we had to do a zazen meditation for a discussion post. I did not find it calming but I know people that find it very calming. I wish more teachers would do more lesson like this because made me remember that lesson. I hope I will be able to practice Zen it would help with my stressful life right now.
Islam was my favorite lesson in this course. I have also been curious about this religion of Islam. Islam means “submission” to God and a Muslim is “one who has submitted to god”. The 5 messengers: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. The Quran is their bible and it Believed to be the literal word of God as revealed to Muhammad Consists of 114 suraus (chapters). I never knew that Islam had anything to do with God until this class. I thought that every religion had its own god or gods. I found out a lot of the religion relate to each other.
The prayer should be done 5 times a day at specific times. Mu'adhdhin calls for prayer at prayer times. They only worship in the mosque on Fridays and a short sermon is given in the Imam. When they pray they face the direction towards the mecca and the Ka’ba. They have five pillars that they live by which is the following that there is no god, but God and Muhammad are his Prophet, Pray/worship five times a day toward Mecca, give mandatory alms, fast during the month of Ramada and make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once if one is physically and financially capable. The month of Ramadan starts May 5 through June 4th.
I also learned about the Muhammadiyah movement which was created to improve the Islamic education, preserving Islamic ways while adapting to modernity. This quote is from the Quran “O children of Adam! We have provided you with clothing to cover your bodies, and for luxury. But the clothing of piety—that is best. These are some of God’s revelations, so that they may take heed”. (Quran 7:26). This quote is about the female appropriate clothing. This saying that women should cover up and the more clothes the better.
Women and men are perceived as equal in Islam, but this does not happen. Women are treated differently than men. They must have permission to go on the pilgrimage or do anything in the Islamic community. In my opinion that isn't equal, that is showing that a man is over women. I think a woman should not have to get the husband or the closest male relative to go on a religious pilgrimage. I would say that this the only thing that would hold me back from learning more about this religion is the women rights aspect of this religion. The third religion that stuck out to me is Daoism.
Daoism involves harmony with nature, rejection of high culture and cultural refinement, the balance of opposites (yin/yang) and nonaction/effortless action. This quote relates to the harmony of nature side of this "People model themselves on the earth. The earth models itself on Heaven. Heaven models itself on the Way. The Way models itself on what is ziran. (chapter 25). I believe it is Everything comes from the Way, and it all comes from nature. The yin/yang symbol is related to this religion. The yin/yang symbol the yin is the dark/negative side and the yang is the light passive side. The yin is the valley and the yang is the peak. In this religion, there are multiple gods that are for different things.
Zhuangzi wrote a book called 7 "Inner Chapters" that included work from multiple different authors which include 33 chapters in total. This book was different than the other during this time. This book was known to pick fun of other schools of thought.
Wu Wei is another component of Daoism. Wu Wei is meant the non-action or non-doing. Wu Wei has three masters in the Zhuangzi which are the butcher, swimmer and the woodworker. The swimmer has this quote “ Confucius was seeing the sights at Lu-Liang, where the water falls from a height of thirty fathoms and races and boils along for forty li, so swift that no fish or other water creature can swim in it. He saw a man dive into the water.” I believe that this means that he is the only one that can swim in the water because he is the chosen one.
In conclusion, I do believe that learning about different religions can be very beneficial to everyone. There would be less judgment and more knowledge about different religions. If this would happen I believe America would be a stronger country. I found this class one of the most informational classes I have taken. I have gained so much knowledge that will help me be successful in my job field.