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.