Alethea Carr

Justin Pearl

Faith Religion and Society

October 23, 2018

Journal #2

At the beginning of the semester, I expected to learn the history and teachings of

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and to be learning rather dry facts about religion. However, I

have come to learn that these religions have similar traditions to my own religious affiliations

and that in a way, most religions stem from a similar belief. I had originally thought of religions

as strictly being their own separate identity with their own beliefs, traditions and practices. In

this class I have started to see their similarities yet importantly acknowledge and respect their

differences like Prothero suggests in God Is Not One. Like Prothero, I enjoy studying the

similarities and differences between religions but understand that each characteristic of a certain

religion is important and dangerous to unify. Also, I have learned more about the actual

scriptures and books of various religions. I used to attend mass every Sunday with my family and

I would never pick up a book and follow along during the readings. Even though I always

listened to the passage as it was read, I never truly saw the value in reading the parts of the bible

like Genesus or Corinthians. I could sing along to every song by the organ in Church but prior to

this class when we were asked to name the books of the Bible, I hesitated more than I should

have.
 My opinion on religion has definitely changed because of this class. During Christmas

every year, my Mom would always invite over her friends, who were Jewish, for dinner at my

house. I never wanted to ask them about their religion because I just assumed it was much

different from mine and that I would disagree with their practices anyhow. Through this class

however, I have learned that they even have a gathering and meal of their own that is similar to

our Christmas that is called Passover. I decided to call my mom and talk to her a little bit more

about our family friend and how they practice Judaism even a little different than the strict

definitions we learned in class. She said that although the rules of the Sabbath state that you

cannot participate in anything creative, they still drive cars and do other things at the beginning

of the weekend unlike the rules state. Confused by this, I looked into the different types of Jews

there can be and how they all practice Judaism differently and do not all follow the traditional

ways of their religion. Some rules fall off depending on how seriously they take their religion,

just as some Catholics even participate in some traditions while others do not. For instance, most

American Jews have become “lazy” because they do not study the Torah or learn Hebrew as the

religion says you should. This is similar to the disregard to rules of my own Catholic church like

fasting an hour before mass, which people rarely ever participate in. Overall, because of this

class, I immersed myself into the religions of others and changed the way I thought about them.

Instead of always wondering but being too scared to ask about other people’s beliefs, I enjoy

asking and learning about their similarities and differences.