This Course Has Expanded My Mind In Ways I Never Believed

Is there a god? This is a question that all types of people regardless of their religion have been asking for hundreds of years. If there is, why did the holocaust happen? Why is North Korea in the totalitarian state they are in now? These hypothetical questions can not be answered 100% correctly, however people from different religions have different explanations as to why god/god’s let bad things happen. This begs the question, is religion a worthwhile and beneficial practice for humans? The answer to that question is yes, religion is a worthwhile and beneficial practce for humans.

Religion forms as a method for dealing with life and the world it makes up. It answers the questions that are beyond science and logic. It eliminates the question of "Why?", and brings the fellow believers together to cope with the community and personal problems. People come to religion to find stability, a sense of understanding, and help from other believers. These are the needs that religion fulfills.

The belief in some higher presence, other than our own, has existed since man can recollect. Religion was established from this belief, and it can survive and flourish because of this belief. Christianity, one of several forms of religion that exist today, began sometime during the middle of the first century. Christians believe in a higher presence that they call "God." This belief in God is based on faith, not fact; faith is "unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence." (Webster's New World College Dictionary, 1996, p. 487). The belief in God exists primarily for two reasons: It answers the question of why we exist, and it is used to exert moral control over society

Previous to starting this course I had given philosophy little thought. Yes I did often ponder the questions that I have now explored in the text “Problems from Philosophy”, by James, and Stuart Rachels. However it was not until reading the text became mandatory, and I was prompted to think more deeply about these questions, that my mind began to open. I had not had any previous experience with philosophy is my past academic career. Although I did faintly know that philosophy was about asking the “big questions” of life. That alone made me very uncomfortable, and overall reluctant. Still Philosophy is a mandatory core class, so I signed up and prepared myself for stepping out of my comfort zone.

As I started doing this course , I began to enjoy little bit. I am a very practical, who likes to see things and learn by doing. By writing different topics it helped me to develop my creative abilities. In a way, the course has made me a deeper thinker than I used to be. I also look into grammar when I read.

There is a lot of things that I have learned about myself in the past few weeks of this course. I have learned many things about myself that I would have never known if it was not for this course. I have learned about my; self concept, attitudes and feelings. I have also learned about social influence, group dynamics and relationships. I learned about myself and how to describe the way that I am and the way that I think.

It is often said that one ‘believes’ in a God or a higher power, but the term ‘belief’ is often vague and confused. Simply put, beliefs are supposed to be true. This so-called belief may be considered ‘true’ to you, but to another it is meaningless. When you regard something to be true, you need not be actively reflecting on it. (Schwitzgebel, 2015) Hence, it is not obvious that religion is a matter of truth and could be simply an immersion in a set

This was what influened me a lot the philosophy, from any other electives course and general education courses because, I understood the real philosophy of life. All other courses, I learned alot, but somehow, this connected me and my life. These courses are really helpful in my daily life’s and I have used my skills and tact knowledge that I got from this program.

The mind and body problem can be divided into many different questions. We can consider or ask by ourselves that what is the mind? What is the body? And do both of them are co-existing, or does the mind only exist in the body? Or does the body only exist

Taking human development as one of my first courses in the program has really impacted me and how I will mold myself to be the best educational counselor for my students. All the information I receive, I take it like a sponge and apply it to my current job setting. This course has definitely been an eye-opener and I have started to transition from being sympathetic to having empathy.

The majority of my life I grew up believing that anyone who was deeply religious was that way because they were incapable of finding their own path in life, but instead needed to believe in some supernatural being to do it for them. I believed that their mind was so chained down, and that one must be so ignorant to believe in something that has no evidence in truly existing. Throughout my life I had been introduced to religious ideas, but the concepts never seemed to resonate with me. Ideas that could not be proven through empirical evidence and rational thought, to me seemed absurd. How could one be so naive to life by such concepts? It was very evident my mom's side of the family held much value in religion

Before taking this course, I had no idea that I had a worldview. I know my worldview didn’t change, but my understanding of myself, others and what that means changed enormously. I learned something very useful and important about the way I perceive things and gain knowledge; I learned about things I didn’t know previously.

I have learned many things throughout this course. I knew about most of the topics discussed throughout the class, but I only knew about them to a certain extent. Privilege and oppression were words I knew of but everyone who talked about it had different definitions of the terms. Now, I do know that majority of those peoples definitions were wrong.

Humans have the impulse to believe in something that transcends their limited understanding. Some choose to believe in God to satisfy

I feel like I learned a lot from this course. I think, overall, this course was very eye-opening and made me understand, and want to better understand, issues involving gender and how they effect society. I would say the one of the most important pieces of information I learned was just how much the idea of gender and gender roles influences everyday life. I had never really thought too much about the determents of gender or traditional masculine and feminine ideals before this class, and how we as a society promote and encourage the belief that a person’s gender or sex creates different innate, natural attitudes and attributes. Learning about how important society’s views of gender is, and how it affects the way we learn and think, makes me look at our culture in a different way. For example, before this class I never realized how much women are objectified and put under intense Photoshop in advertisements. This better understanding of the way society is helps me take a step back and look at our culture in a different way, and allows me to become more aware of the issues surrounding gender, sex, and the ideals of masculinity and femininity.