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Religion and politics
By Alan Hood | August 2, 2007
Religion has been a driving political factor for many centuries, has influenced the lives and deaths of countless people across the globe. Religion is a fascinating subject because of the dynamic relationships that different people have with it. I have always used religion in conversations to get a feel for people that I don’t know very well, I feel that if you get someone talking about something they feel very strongly about you can find out more about their character than just a standard tell me a little about yourself. Of course I don’t know enough about any single religion to be an authority, but I always take the devils advocate role and tell them why they are wrong just to get a reaction. This class helped be gain more knowledge about certain religions even though it was a generalized class with just bits of information about many religions.
If there is one thing a person could do to learn more about the world and people who surround them it would be to learn about other people religions. Religion drives the lives of a great number of people on a daily basis. While work and family play an important roll in peoples lives it is their religion that dictates how they handle all situations that come up in their daily lives including problems at work and with their family. If the people of the world want to coexist in peace, harmony, and profitability then we must all take the time to find out what motivates and inspires the people around us. Not that I was surprised in the least little bit, but the discussion questions during this class showed that even when a person is learning about another religion it is very hard for them to look past their own beliefs and see that it is okay for other people to believe what they want to believe. I am just not sure that most humans have the ability to put difference aside and make decisions that are best for the whole not the individual. When you learn about a person’s religion you truly learn about the person.
I would love to try to convince you that I will go forth with this new found knowledge and bring the people of the world together in one harmonious group, but that wont happen and definitely not because of me. I will probably just use the information from this class as another way to teach my children how to be tolerant of the people around them. My children really make me feel that there is hope for our future generations; I can only hope that other parents around the world will teach their children the same lessons.
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