Religion Reflection Paper

Having the privilege to serve in the military has allowed this writer the opportunity to be exposed to the pluralistic society in a way which has exposed him to the beauty of the diversity enjoyed in American culture. One aspect of said diversity is the interaction which has taken place amongst the Christian and various world religions who also wear the same uniform in defense of America. It was the pleasure of the writer to attend a local synagogue in which his Jewish brothers and sisters welcomed him with open arms. The local congregation of Jewish believers went out of their way in order to ensure their newest visitor understood the flow of service and the significance of the ritual which took place on the first Shabbat or Sabbath of the month. The following essay will serve to detail the worship experience as well as how it and other beliefs of Judaism compare/contrast with the Christian faith.

Religion 120 has taught me something more than just the meaning of religion. I would argue that I will be taking away more knowledge from this class than any other class I have taken so far in my college career. The learning path Professor Robert takes has benefited me throughout the semester. The learning path I took persuaded me to open my mind and absorb and understand the ideas of other individuals. After I opened my mind up and read all of the content we were assigned in class, along with listened to my classmates and professor Robert’s take on religion, I was able to picture religion as something other than just the physical place of worship and discussions taken place there. When most individuals think of religion they think about going to church and not much else. Religion is so much more than just the physical place and the individuals leading the practice. Religion has the potential to help guide you in life, along with giving you a sense of meaning in this big world. Religion has the power to help you connect with individuals like yourself,

I have always believed in God and had known for a long time that I wanted to be confirmed. Going through the middle school classes was a fun way to learn about God and talk to people my age who go to my church, but high school classes were a lot different. Middle school was filled with fun games and movies, but high school classes were slow and filled with flipping through Bible's and answering questions.

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.

Me:What is the holy book of your faith and how does it compare to others?

1. In a minimum of 100 words, describe the basic teachings of Zoroastrianism. What a fascinating religion, Zoroastrianism is! I never knew this religion existed. The first time I heard the word “Zoroastrianisam” it was a few months back when someone on Facebook was talking about Gal Gadot, the actress that plays wonder woman and saying that she is Zoroastrian, like it was a bad thing. Then, I found a chapter in my text book pertaining to Zoroastrianisam and I was excited to read the chapter, just to see what they are talking about. I asked myself, why would this be a bad thing if someone is Zoroastrian? I learned that this is probably the oldest monotheistic religion on the world and most importantly, the base for 3 major religions. Judaism,

Present and discuss the stages of development of the great religions as suggested by the text book: apostloic, consolidation, devotional, reform, modern. Discuss some different ways religion have responded to modernity around the world.

There are several reasons why I have the religious affiliation that I do. My membership, unlike that of so many, has very little to do with the choices my friends and family have made. My decision was based on reason and personal experiences. While some may say that these things are both easily influenced by parents and peers, in my case I have parents of different faith and therefore have less direct influence from them.

Even though religiosity and spirituality are recognized as highly complex and multifaceted concept, majority of studies on religion and family from the past several decades measure religiosity with only one or two items (Mahoney, 2010). Religion is measured as mere frequency of attendances or self-reports importance of religion in life. It is imperative to include deeper measurement of religion such as religious and spiritual fulfillment, connectedness to higher being, difficulties or conflicts with higher entity or faith community, and deeper integration of religious and spiritual beliefs in one’s everyday life.

Those who choose to continue on with the catholic school attend Bishop Kenny High School. I, however, made the chose to attend a public school for the first time. The change was dramatic, I went from a class of thirty people who I have known majority of my life, to knowing absolutely no one in a school with more than two thousand students. I did not stray far from my faith my freshman year, every Sunday I would attend the morning service and senior youth group at Blessed Trinity’s parish hall. This was an organized group made to give teens more of an understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ. As my freshman year in high school continued I found myself going to church less and every so often I would attend the meetings.

Studies of Jesus primarily focus on the duality of Jesus and how he is able to be both human and divine at once. This subject was disputed at the Council of Chalcedon in the year 451 between the

When asked the question on my definition of religion, I decided to look at it in a way that goes beyond just my religion. Religion goes much deeper than being something that we just believe in, it is a relationship or a part of a person’s culture. My purpose of religion is something for me to try and understand what my goal in life is, as well as building a relationship with a higher being. Religion gives people that higher being that they can look to for guidance and comfort. I feel that you can also express your culture through religion as well as explain some of the reasons for some of the things that you have done in your life.

To understand where I am now in relation to Catholic theology I feel that it is appropriate to look back on the thoughts and ideas that I had when I first started this THEO 1001 class. Honestly coming into college I have thought about my faith very little and studied the bible and what it means even less. In my mind I have always thought that theology was primarily a group of people just sitting around reading the bible repeatedly and then coming up with ways on how to interpret certain beliefs and messages in it and what they mean to us as Christians. Now I understand that theology has many more aspects to it than just the one example I gave earlier. The fact that this class was just about Catholic theology doesn’t really have a meaning to me because I haven’t studied other religions or denominations theology. Diving deeper into what I thought about how Catholic theology impacted my life will be a very shallow dive, given that I am neither Catholic or a theologian I honestly thought that this class was going to be a history of how Catholics are the greatest Christians and their way of looking at the bible. Thankfully I was very wrong about both those things and have learned about some very interesting topics throughout the class, one being the fascinating section we did about anthropology and what role it plays into theology.

Christian Tradition course exposed me to the Christian Tradition based on Biblical and church history. The course taught me the differences and similarities of Christian Tradition from other major world religions. I learned about the significance of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and the Trinity based on the teachings of the Bible. The course also briefly covered 2,000 years of church history but with emphasis on the impact of the Council of Nicea, Council of Chalcedon, and John and Charles Wesley on Christianity. The professor emphasized the importance of the reformation that sparked a revolution in the church.

During the course of this class, I have learned a lot about different religions. I still have an unprejudiced view of religion. However, I did not suspend my belief to have an understanding of religion. I have been able to learn of other religious beliefs without feeling threatened of my own. I found there are many different practices in other religions, some I agree with and some I do not agree with. I have come to except others, ways of worship without getting upset. I have become humble in my conclusion now that I have a better understanding of others beliefs. The world seems to jump to conclusions and be judgmental about other religions. Postponing ones judgement on a religion is a difficult thing to do. Being raised and taught a certain religion and set of beliefs is distilled in to one’s mind. I, on the other hand, reserved my personal judgement until I have learned more about it.