Montaigne's Argument On Curiosity And Religion

I was raised going to a catholic school until high school, and there in catholic school they taught me what it meant to believe, love, and accept. I learned to believe when things cannot even be seen. I studied many things and went to church two times a week, once on wednesday and once on sunday. I was surrounded with people who were able to find hope even when it seemed like there was no way out, people who were able to believe when many couldn’t, and I was able to find that motivation too.

Montaigne in his Apology for Raymond Sebond begins his exploration into the human capacity for knowledge with this belief that only though God can one achieve true knowledge. God is the only infinite, all seeing, being with divine wisdom. He is not subject to the laws and rules of the human domain, and he exists in a realm outside of human comprehension. God is an unchanging, permanent being, and only from this state can the concept of truth propagate.

Ever since I was a little girl my parents’ made it clear that I needed to do this or that because it reflects what type of family I was raised into. My family is very well known in a small little town in Northern Michigan. Anything that I did that was against my parents expectations was corrected in private, and then expected next time we went out. My family was persistent on being represented well. They valued things like respect. My mom grew up in a family where they all went to a catholic church every Sunday so it is viewed as a ritual that my she always took part in. Therefore, if she was to go to church, then I was too. From the time that I was a baby until I was 16 I never had the choice to choose what I wanted or what I believed. So how was I supposed to understand other religious views that people held if I wasn’t able to learn about them? The day I questioned my own religion was the day that I became myself. I started reading. I started learning. I started meditating. I explored the unknown natural surrounding that had never been exposed to me.

As a child, I grew up going to Catholic School, from Kindergarten, until eighth grade. My mother thought private school was best for my brother and I, as there’s a misconception that since you’re paying a tuition, the education is better. My mother was also Catholic at the time, so she was more comfortable with us growing up being taught religion, which should inevitably cause us to be Christians and believe in God. Years went by of me being educated on religion, and by the age of twelve, I felt guilty that I couldn’t process or accept the idea of there being a God. I came to this reality due to the fact that I didn’t feel the connection to God that our teachers taught us we should have; I didn’t feel loved by an alternate being, I felt alone, and I didn’t grasp how such a thing could be possible.

I went to Catholic school because my great-grandmother influenced my mother to do so, arguing that the values that I would learn there would not compare to anything else. As a single mother, she took as many advices as possible on how to raise me, especially coming from the most important person for her. However, my mother has never considered herself a devout catholic, or religious person whatsoever, and although she enrolled me in Catholic school she tried to give me as much religious freedom as possible so that I could find my own spirituality when the right time merited it. I was raised with a hybrid of religious and liberal values, and while I consider to have a strong pillar of moral values based on what I learned in Catholic school,

The world is a place of chaos nowadays. At every turn of a corner, there is desolation triggered from humanity's sidetracked views of what the world is about. With all this deception and superficiality, pureness in the human soul seems almost non-existent. Michel de Montaigne recognizes the essential need of this purity for the improvement of society in his Essays. Although the main topics he is focusing own are his own nature, own habits, and own opinions, he uses these personal vignettes to illustrate larger truths about man and his behaviors, his strengths and weaknesses. He subtly forces us to see the materialistic ideals that supposedly make us "happy" and dares us to see how it has tainted our minds and

When I was younger, I would go to church with my Grandma and attend Catholic religion classes to prepare for my first communion. At the time, I was happy to go; I looked forward to those days. Around the summer before fourth grade, I stopped attending religion classes since they were at a time which conflicted with my schedule. From then on, much to my grandparents dismay, I slowly stopped going to church. After a few years of not attending religion classes and church, I started to notice my own beliefs didn’t match those of the church. Being away from the church gave me time to explore ideas other than those of which I had been taught all of my life. In sixth grade, I remember being curious and wondering if my beliefs matched those of another religion. My interest was sparked by my love of history and culture. I discovered that Celtic Pagans have similar beliefs. Celtic Paganism, specifically, is a polytheistic religion from the Iron Age practiced by the ancient Celts. I learned about specifics of the

I agree with Freud that the need of the “oceanic feeling,” derived from religious beliefs, comes from “the infant’s helplessness and the longing for the father (Freud 47).” Reflecting on my high school senior year, I remember the connection I tried to make with God for different purposes, from tensions that I had with friends to appeasing myself on the college application matters. Such reflections influenced me to question my faith in Catholicism. Are my religious beliefs deriving from a naive outcry for help, or are they representing my faithfulness to God?

Someone’s religious affiliations and backgrounds can be fairly diverse and complicated. My own religious background in Christianity, however, is fairly simple. My parents only played a minor role in my religious practices, but the biggest influence on that would actually be the friends that I have made while here at Iowa State University.

Usually religion is a terrible topic for a paper, especially if those beliefs are unpopular, because it’s a touchy topic I will handle this carefully. My family comes from a variety of places so there is not a particular religion that we follow. Add me, a curious eight year old and you have a person that questions everything. While there was no uniform religion my parents are Christian and we went to church. I remember the first time we went vividly because my parents had never been so serious with us. We were required to dress well, and they were very strict. When we arrived at St. Pius I was perplexed by this solemness I had never seen before, because the other attendees were equally serious. During the meeting itself, I didn’t pay attention to, but afterwards my father gave me a children’s bible.

According to Montaigne, when one

Overall, I agree with Montaigne’s idea of being skeptical, mainly, because I believe everyone learns from asking questions. Indeed, Ideologies differ from each individual according to their culture or beliefs, however like Montaigne, I place high value in knowledge and wisdom gained from others. Even though, Montaigne grew up during an advancing period of history, where knowledge, art, and philosophy were highly sought out. Until this point, the Church maintained control on the knowledge to the masses, and the study of science and astrology was viewed as evil. Together with, the split created by Martin Luther and his opposition to the Catholic Church, people became more critical of new discoveries. Although, many enjoyed this more liberal

For you, you grew up with an extremely Catholic mother and a non-religious father. Personally, I grew up with a semi-religious Catholic mother and a semi-religious Lutheran father. Both of them thought it was important I have some exposure to religion but neither practiced

Religion plays an important role in my life. I identify as catholic, but there are some thing that me and my family don’t follow. We don't go to church often and when we do it's only for important events. This is because we’ve had bad experiences with

I grew up in a Catholic home. From my earliest memories, I believed in God and knew He existed. Every week we faithfully attended our local parish. There was no Sunday School so we sat with our parents during mass. I remember my youngest sister, Jennifer, playing with my Dad’s keys