Religon 101 Journal by Andrew Easterling

Week 13

andreweasterling213 — 2024-04-29 18:31:28 UTC

In class that week we finished talking about Buddhism and the origins of the religions. We later got into Islam and talked about the origins of that and explain it's cultural significance. The discussions in the class were interesting and thought provoking, and when we got into talking about Islam I thought about how many practicing Islamic I know, and I only knew a few. Still, I was glad I got to learn more about the religion. Something I learned was that in Islam people pray five times a day, and I think that's an interesting practice.

Week 12

andreweasterling213 — 2024-04-29 18:36:38 UTC

Class was cool this week, we talked about Buddhism and the origins of Siddhartha. I learned that Buddhist practice meditation not just for peace but to also reach nirvana. I also didn't know buddha had the noble eightfold path and the four noble truths. I only knew a little bit of buddhas story but the video we watched in class gave a us a detailed breakdown of it, and I learned more from that then what I've seen in other media.

Week 11

andreweasterling213 — 2024-04-29 21:15:27 UTC

This was another cool week of class. We talked about Hinduism and the origins of the religion. There was a point where the Indian students in class helped the rest of the class pronounce the Hindu gods properly and I thought that was cool because no one should be mispronouncing anyone's Gods, so being taught by actual believers helps us get an authentic explanation. Plus they also spoke about their personal experiences when practicing Hinduism so that was interesting hearing a firsthand experience.

Week 10

andreweasterling213 — 2024-04-29 21:26:20 UTC

I enjoyed the class this week, we continued to talk about indigenous religions. I thought it was cool learning about that because I've never heard of the term and I didn't know the word "religion" in itself is a colonial term. I think we also watched a video explaining the history of indigenous religions and the philosophers involved with the discoveries and the theories they had.

Week 9

andreweasterling213 — 2024-04-29 21:38:13 UTC

Spring break was relaxing but it was time to go back to class. We started off with talking about science vs religion, and if the two could interact together. Unsurprisingly enough, the two could and we watched a video to supplement the lesson about a scientist who turned Buddhist and his experience about that. I used to think that the two couldn't interact because science is logic based and religion is faith based but I learned early in life they could from my previous theology teacher. The class also had some good discussions, I remered a girl asking a very thought provoking question that started up a good discussion, I don't remember exactly what it was but there was a lot of back and forth going.