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One of the ideas discussed in class this week dealt with how people can look at religion, and the different facets the word "religion" can hold. I can distinctly remember the discussion about religion being based on human experience, and how our experiences shape our views and values. It reminded me of a video I recently saw that I loved, in the video, the individual being interviewed talks about how she views the meaning of life and what it means to be truly alive. She says "Humanity is the universe experiencing itself" which is a premise she and I find beautiful and exciting.

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This week in class, we heavily talked about the academic versus the devotional study of religion, and the difference between the theological approach and the academic approaches. One question that was brought up was, "Is it better to study religion from an academic approach, or from a devotional approach to gain a deep understanding?" which I gave much thought to over the course of these lectures. Each option has it's positive and negative qualities, and I think it truly depends on the way in which you view it. The academic approach has an obvious benefit when you consider how much you can learn by simply observing and studying with out bias, and I think this can greatly contribute to one's understanding of religion as a concept. But to truly garner a deep and full understanding of a specific religion as a whole, the devotional approach is unmatched. When an individual is devoted to a topic such as faith, they bring a sort human quality of comprehension that is lost when an observer is simply looking into the practice from a birds eye view. This is not to say that one method is better then the other, but I believe that each method has it's time and place.

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One topic I wanted to touch on this week was the concept of relativism versus absolutism. It really put into perspective the phrase, "speaking my truth" especially in regards to how common place it became within the past few years. I didn't grasp the full meaning of the phrase, and just kind of adopted it as slang into my vernacular.

It's kind of cool to see how in a post-truth and enlightenment-centered world, my generation is "swinging the pendulum", so to speak, towards a more relative truth spectrum. I even saw a hoodie that said "living my truth" on campus the same week we talked about this concept in class.

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This week in class, we discussed the relationship of culture and religion, and we specifically brought up subcultures to use as an example. I brought up the metal scene and of course, the punk community was used as an example of a specific subculture. I think it's a great example to use, especially within the realm of religion because from my experience they're actually very similar. The punk community has an "all or nothing" mentality, meaning you believe in the movements the group believes in or you're a "poser"/ might not fall underneath certain subcategories of punk which makes it especially difficult to find a group to truly belong in within the metal scene. Some religious organizations can create the same sort of exclusively within their churches as well which is interesting.

I also thought it was interesting to think about the abundance of catholic imagery in goth culture, while the goth community isn't necessarily religious and the general "satanic" stereotype that gets assigned to alternative groups. It could be due to the Romantic influences and imagery used in multiple different subgroups, but I'm curious to trace the roots of the religious imagery to a certain time period in the possible late 80's- 90s.

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One concept brought up in class today was how stories can influence decisions and help teach important lessons. This idea immediately brought me back to how the Pixar film Wall-E can be perceived from so many different angles. Wall-E at face value is a story about how a robot finds love and adventure on a trash-ridden planet and how he overcomes the challenges he faces. Reading more into this film from an adult perspective is entirely different and alters the meaning to offer a warning on the dangers of climate change and excessive waste. When you look up the moral behind Wall-E, Reddit offers that it's "Living is more than Surviving" which speaks to the deeper meaning of supporting an environmentally conscious lifestyle. This animated film struck an extremely deep cord within people when it was released in 2008 and thus kickstarted multiple movements battling the effects of climate change and overconsumption.

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This week, we discussed how language shapes the way people interpret text and how culture influences meaning. Specifically, I think culture has a huge impact on how people interpret religious texts. For example, people who grew up in the Bible Belt in the southern United States view the bible differently than those who grew up in the Midwest despite belonging to the same denomination and practicing similar amounts (going to church every week, praying before eating, etc.). The culture of the region has a huge impact on how the bible is interpreted especially concerning how one worships and how open worship can be. In the Bible Belt, worship/ church services can be described as "intense" and "extremely community-based" as opposed to services up North. Christianity is not as prevalent in marketing and community building as it is in the South due to the culture surrounding worship and the interpretations of the Bible overall. These cultural differences continue to spark differences in specific verses which creates contention between Northern and Southern installations of the same denomination.

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We discussed the importance of ritual in class this reading and what can be deemed a "ritual". One example the textbook used to help recognize a religious ritual would be to compare it to a fraternity or sorority. Being newly initiated into a sorority, I think I have a unique perspective on this topic. I can't divulge too much into the details of our rituals, however, I can allude to the fact that none of my specific sorority's creeds or rituals point to one specific religious influence. This could be due to our founder's goals and aspirations for this sorority to be an inclusive environment for all women/non-binary individuals to succeed in a STEM field and due to their own personal differing religious beliefs (one is Christian, one is Hindi I believe). However, to describe the rituals as 'religious' per se I think would depend on the individual more than the ritual itself. Yes, the ritual holds a great deal of meaning in the scope of my sorority. However, every girl takes something different from it at the end of the day depending on the preconceived notions they have about joining before they even approach the point of being initiated/ inducted. Rituals are also performed at weddings and funerals which is also a common space for more conventional religious rituals.

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This week we had discussions about the relationship between science and religion, and how they interact with one another. One of the big ideas brought up in the lecture was that science cannot explain certain anomalies that occur which is an argument for the existence of a higher power. I think this argument has a lot of different elements to consider when you take in the full scope of the main premise. On the one hand, the chance that our atmosphere is the perfect cocktail of elements to promote life is slim and even, "miraculous", but to quote one of my favorite comedians, "everyone always ignores the 'chance' part in 'slim chance'. There's always a possibility, but people like to ignore that part when talking about miracles; except when they gamble. Anyone who regularly gambles thinks they can win a million on their next scratch-off." This argument also fails to mention the fact that there is always something undiscovered, or there's a blind spot in the known discoveries of a field. As the field of science grows, these ideas can be revealed but there's always the possibility that there is no feasible or tangible explanation for certain concepts.

Personally, I try to keep my mind open to ideas I cannot easily explain away with a formula or theory to other higher forces. However, I know that the world as I know it is rapidly innovating and I have to accept any change with evidence regardless or my previously held beliefs in theory.

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This week we began the discussion about indigenous religions and practices. I wanted to briefly touch on what background knowledge I have on specifically indigenous American traditions, and important history I've learned about in some of my previous classes.

I wanted to acknowledge that a lot the names we have for tribes and the labels we cast on certain groups of Natives are derived from the languages of their oppressors. For example, a lot of "Iroquois" members are in actuality called members of the Six Nations, or Haudenosaunee, and have tried to completely shed the previous title . The word 'Iroquois' is a French word and was imposed on the tribe in an attempt to simplify and inappropriately label this group of North-Eastern Natives, and the continued usage of this word in textbooks is heavily protested. This tribe deserves to be freed from the name bestowed upon on them from their oppressors going forward in history, and if we can teach kids to pronounce "Charlemagne", we can teach them to pronounce Haudenosaunee.

This second anecdote is even more personal then the first observation because it was explained to me through a close family friend and neighbor when she went through this process herself. In order to acquire a 'headdress' as we would know it, your tribe requires you preform outstanding acts for your community and earn every feather featured in the garment. This can take a large portion of one's life to achieve and the amount of cultural significance in each of these pieces is outstanding and is diminished each time it's used inappropriately in media. My neighbor inherited her grandfather's headdress when he and her father passed but she was still able to walk me through the meaning of each feather and explain to me the rich history that it's born witness to.

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This week we continued our discussion on indigenous religions, especially South American and African indigenous practices and I wanted to discuss a few takeaways I had from this class, as well as some comparisons I've made to other media I've consumed since.

It was really interesting to see how the religions can intersect and otherwise coexist when I've only witnessed how they can otherwise exclude one another. For example, the video shown in class about the vodun priestess being a devout Catholic. In a lot of Western and Abrahamic religions, you can only accept one methodology to worship but in this corner of the world, you can whole-heartedly believe and follow both facets of faith without contradictions.

Another thing I kept thinking back to is an episode about Voodoo in a Netflix docu-series I love titled "Dark Tourist". In this episode, a Swedish journalist travels to the Ivory Coast to follow a voodoo priestess as she shops in a "voodoo market", and he's initiated as a disciple of her idol under this priestess. He also attends the festival of another spirit with this priestess, where followers are possessed by a malevolent energy that causes the subjects to injure themselves and others as offerings for this spirit. The journalist is in constant awe of how much he had gotten wrong about voodoo, and how normal it is to its followers like the priestess.

That episode was one of my first educational experiences when it came to the realm of voodoo and hoodoo, and it was really interesting to witness part of real rituals within the practice.

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In lecture this week, we discussed Hinduism. I didn't come in with too much previous knowledge or experience so it was interesting to learn about and experience.

The part I found particularly interesting was the section about yoga because that is something I'm fairly experienced in. I've taken and led introductory yoga classes before in different settings (at school and my job), and I've taken some core ideas away from it.

The key point of focus in yoga is your breath and controlling it as you move into different positions. I always to try express to students if I'm leading a course that they should be both connected with their bodies and the space around them, which is a hard premise to teach to beginners especially. If they're just starting out with yoga, there's a good chance the student is more focused on trying to successfully move into the poses correctly or focused on their outward appearance which is understandable. However, I tell them that with time they should be less focused on the stretching aspect of the exercise and more concentrated on the mindfulness aspect. One easy way for students to try including mindfulness is by leading them through a few imagery exercises. For example. asking the class to move into a new position while telling them to focus on how the mat feels under their palms and describe the feeling mentally.

By far, the breath is the easiest and hardest part for a student to master. Initially, people tend to disregard how they're breathing unless they're panting hard from exertion. Once they get used to familiar motions, they have to conquer the task of breathing correctly but once it clicks, the process is seamless and the student normally notices a huge shift in their progress from then on out.

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We had a major discussion in class this week about culture and specifically cultural appropriation because of how themes from Buddhism have been adopted into Western culture and the implications this action has on the religion.

I think that cultural appreciation toes the line with cultural appropriation, and the only things that differentiate the two are respect, acknowledgment, and intention. For example, for a close friend's wedding who is Muslim, I dressed modestly and covered my hair and neck with a pashmina when I attended the temple portion of her ceremony. I wore the hijab with the acknowledgment of the significance of the garment to Muslim practices and intending to respect the wishes of the temple and married couple. However, if I were to start claiming the hijab is an accessory or wore it immodestly, I'd be appropriating her culture deeply. Culture can be shared effectively, however, it's too common that it's taken out of the important context behind it and used inappropriately. I think most importantly though, is that we listen to those who have such rich cultures when they say that certain aspects cannot be used or claimed or borrowed by those outside their community.