This course is one of the best I have ever taken. As someone who has always questioned religion, society, and why people do the things they do, I found that I found some of the answers to my questions as I read course materials, worked on assignments, and read Dr. Mike’s informative and interesting commentaries. I really enjoyed critiquing New Ageism, and I learned a lot about how emergent religions are just a different avenue of the inherent search for meaning in life and answers to the big questions that people have.
I also enjoyed learning about how science can be referred to as a religion/belief system, as some people use it to answer the big questions. However, I’m still not sure how science can provide meaning in life, but I suppose that meaning can be derived from whatever or wherever we, as humans, decide to get it from. I guess that the materialism and consumerism that is so prevalent in society nowadays are good examples of meaningless meaning. Sometimes I wonder, how are we still so unevolved as a species? Yes, I like nice things too, but I find that the value we place on material things is ridiculous. Our superficialness and shallowness about material things is a good example of the concept Karl Marx had about (I forget the exact term) what he saw as the worship of objects.
As I’ve mentioned before in my written assignments, I grew up on a Hutterite colony. It might sound strange, but I have observed that many things about the colony are actually quite similar in many ways to the society in the city where I live. I used to often think about what we called the “outside world” when I was growing up on the colony, and about how great and wonderful and free it must be. When I realized that most people can’t, or don’t, want to think for themselves, I realized that things aren’t as different as I had imagined. I could never understand why some people who lived on the colony were racist, hateful towards others, and homophobic, and I found the same thing is also common in the “outside world.” I mean, religion says that it’s not okay to do that, yet I saw, and see, religion often used as the justification for doing so. I think my disillusionment with religion began when I started noticing inappropriate religious justifications for hate, racism, judgment, and discrimination occurring. For a long time I was one of those people who kind of viewed religious people in a negative light. I mean, I think we are all hypocrites in some ways, myself no exception, but I really disliked that my idealistic view of religion (something not used as an excuse to hate, judge, or discriminate against people) was not how I saw it utilized on a day-to-day basis.
Dr. Mike’s awesome insights about religion have helped me gain a new, valuable and appreciative understanding of religion. While I’m still hesitant to align myself with a specific belief system or religion, I’m still able to see the value of what religion has to offer. As an aspiring sociologist who loves observing and thinking about people and what they do, why they do it, and the forces that contribute to those things, I can honestly say that this course has contributed significicantly to my knowledge and understanding of people and society. I would go so far as to say that this course should be mandatory. Religion is really kind of where it all began- knowledge, science, education, morals, values, and the list goes on. Maybe we would be better off as a society, globally and nationally, if we could see things from a perspective other than our own. It’s unfortunate that religion does cause some of the largest divisions between people, but that’s another example of people appropriating and using it in the wrong ways. To conclude, thank you very much, Dr. Mike! I have learned a lot from you.
The most fascinating revelation came through David Noble’s “The Religion of Technology,” which exposed something completely absent from my CS 492 experience - the deep spiritual and religious underpinnings of Western technological development. This course went beyond “utopianism and dystopianism” in computing, examining the millennial Christian expectations that Noble demonstrates have driven technological development for centuries.
When I enrolled in SOCI 460, I thought I would be learning about algorithms, digital infrastructure, and maybe some history about computers or the internet, I didn’t expect this course to it so close to home. I had no idea I would end up thinking about the Catholic Church, the masculine foundations of science, spiritual longing, Facebook content moderators, or the invisible ands that curate and control my daily life. More than that, I didn’t expect to be sitting with guilt, grief, awe, and a renewed sense of responsibility.
My most significant realization is that personal transformation and political awareness are deeply interconnected. Caring is not enough—we must critically analyze the systems we operate within, the narratives we perpetuate, and the assumptions we unconsciously hold. I now feel more committed than ever in questioning dominant narratives in my work and creating space for truth-telling, relational accountability, and systemic change.
What I expected of this course would be examples of the most successful social movements of all time and I was not wrong on this count. What I did not expect was that the most successful social movements in our living history were social movements created by massive multi-corporate alliances.
By the time we explored the public relations industry and propaganda, I was beginning to see that nearly every institution I had once trusted—church, school, media, government—spoke a language of compliance. The assigned chapters from A Century of Spin were almost comically dark in how they pulled back the curtain on PR’s role in manufacturing reality. I began noticing it in everything - how political campaigns reframe policy as “freedom,” how consumer brands adopt woke messaging to sell soda, how even well-meaning institutions use symbols to signal virtue instead of engaging in real reform. The Matrix analogy felt less like a metaphor and more like a documentary.
I would like to say that the course exceeded my expectations. The material offered a learning experience that goes beyond the classroom and the examples provided; it is practical learning that the student can apply the concepts to everyday life. This practical applicability is what truly captivates me and makes me feel happy and fulfilled. Realizing that the concepts of social movements are not just relevant to large-scale protests, but also to the small things in daily life, made me feel more connected as a human being and a citizen. It gave me a stronger sense of how I can help and contribute to the society I live in. For me, SOCI288 brilliantly combined theory with practical application, allowing students to link each unit to the readings and their own individual experiences.
Initially, when I reviewed the course materials and the website, I felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of resources, readings, and course deliverables. It seemed like an insurmountable task to read through everything and internalize and retain the information. However, as I began to dive into the material, I found it deeply engaging, informative, and thought-provoking, which made the learning process much more enjoyable than I had anticipated
If I can be entirely personal in this part of my answer, I would say that this course has given me a great chance to examine the belief systems I was raised in. I was raised Roman Catholic, a faith I rejected long ago, but I've never really sat down and thought about the fear that religion caused in me. This course made me do that. I had to answer questions that caused me to remember the horrific bloody portraits on my grandmother's wall, and the whispered threats of the priests and nuns who taught in my Catholic elementary and high school. I was always afraid. Afraid of the God I had disrespected by not eating fish on a Friday, afraid that I hadn't fasted long enough before taking communion on a Sunday, and afraid, most of all, that I had unwittingly committed a mortal sin that guaranteed my place in hell. What a terrible thing to do to a child. I'm really glad I've had a reason to rethink it all.